Well, I finally finished the Soldier Boy series (Forest Mage etc) by Robin Hobb. As I indicated on earlier blogs, the devil was in the detail - and despite my speed/skim reading, it still seemed to take forever to get through (and I was determined to get through to see what happened to the hero!). Some books frustrate because they stop prematurely and you are left wondering! Others go on to....."Bill Smith died of cancer 20 years later......" This one had a couple of endings and potential stopping points. But it kept going...... and by then end, it took it is far as it could and satisfied those readers who stuck through to the end! Not post-modern.
So having finished, I was at a bit of a loose end - no longer ensared in living trees that sought to abosorb the bodies to catch nutrients and old lovers. And so I was able to turn to the books I flagged last blog - Love Wins etc by Rob Bell and then Whats the Least I can believe and still be a Christian by Martin Thielen. I'm not saying I studied them in detail, but here is what I got out of them:
Martin Thielen: hold to the Biblical Basics (essentially the Anglican Creed) - but its OK to believe in theistic evolution, equality of women and to hug trees - and you don't have to condemn homosexuals or stone those caught in adultry. So stay in the Church and allow yourself to embrace some of advances in sceince and morality. Oh - and leave God to be the judge about the things in grey such as people in other religions.
Rob Bell: When Jesus said "go to hell" he was really using a metaphor of the dump outside the city and making the point that ugly works belong in the dump. When talking about heaven to come, Jesus was first talking about making heaven on earth - working with God and each other to bring about the type of society that follows the principle of love. He didn't give definitive answers about how he saw any afterlife, but changed the focus to what we know.
In some ways, both took us along some way to what they saw as the end point - but I am not sure where they left us. Both leave many questions and futures unanswered. I wouldn't make the cut for Martin Thielen - but then again, he wouldn't stone me. Rob would encourage me to forge ahead and not get bogged down. It does leave me, however, with the same question that my sister once asked me: "If the Bible isn't true as we understand it (or understood it), then why not pick any old bloke with a good message and follow him (or her) - what is left to make Jesus special"? Why is it so hard for the Rob Bells, Brian Mclarens and.... me.... to just walk away and consign Jesus to one of the many?
Friday, April 22, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Free Will and Heaven or Hell
Well, I am still struggling through my Renegade's Magic by Robin Hobb - and its still a bit slow and torturous - even though I am trying to savour the moment! Still, I cannot second guess the end, so I will soldier on.
One aspect that the book does bring out is the struggle we have in our minds in terms of the choices we make and who we are. In Renegade's Magic, the hero is trapped in his rather bloated magic fuelled body with his "other half" running things. The other half is part of him - but who is aligned to the "enemy" rather than his own country. The struggle between the two sides of self is a very interesting and thought provoking artefact in the book. It reflects our own struggle with our "shadow self" - our body seeming to make choices that are different from our mind. Think of addiction. Think of just poor daily choices in food, activity, responses, actions etc. In the Bible, Paul (I think) talks of ""the good that I would I can not" - or something to that effect. His solution is that Christ can help us to be true to ourselves and Him.
In the latest New Scientist (16th April 2011), there is another article on free will - an ongoing theme within the pages of the magazine - the science of free will. A key issue is how much our genes and past directly guide our choices beyond what is called free will - and how much our choices as individuals and society are fully predictable. The article (The Free Will Delusion) concludes that belief in free will doesn't depend on having a soul, but on feeling in control of "your actions" . All interesting grist for the mill!
Which leads me on to 2 books I have just downloaded onto my kindle: Love Wins: A book about Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, by Rob Bell and Whats the Least I can Believe and Still be a Christian by Martin Thielen. I haven't got into them yet - but the fact that there is a lot of vitreol about Rob Bell amongst conservatives, is probably a good sign for his book. He says in his introduction: I've written this book for all those everwhere, who have heard some version of the Jesus story that caused their pulse rate to rise, their stomach to churn, and their heart to utter those resolute words, "I would never be a part of that". So I will read on and see if I make it in at least one of the books!
One aspect that the book does bring out is the struggle we have in our minds in terms of the choices we make and who we are. In Renegade's Magic, the hero is trapped in his rather bloated magic fuelled body with his "other half" running things. The other half is part of him - but who is aligned to the "enemy" rather than his own country. The struggle between the two sides of self is a very interesting and thought provoking artefact in the book. It reflects our own struggle with our "shadow self" - our body seeming to make choices that are different from our mind. Think of addiction. Think of just poor daily choices in food, activity, responses, actions etc. In the Bible, Paul (I think) talks of ""the good that I would I can not" - or something to that effect. His solution is that Christ can help us to be true to ourselves and Him.
In the latest New Scientist (16th April 2011), there is another article on free will - an ongoing theme within the pages of the magazine - the science of free will. A key issue is how much our genes and past directly guide our choices beyond what is called free will - and how much our choices as individuals and society are fully predictable. The article (The Free Will Delusion) concludes that belief in free will doesn't depend on having a soul, but on feeling in control of "your actions" . All interesting grist for the mill!
Which leads me on to 2 books I have just downloaded onto my kindle: Love Wins: A book about Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, by Rob Bell and Whats the Least I can Believe and Still be a Christian by Martin Thielen. I haven't got into them yet - but the fact that there is a lot of vitreol about Rob Bell amongst conservatives, is probably a good sign for his book. He says in his introduction: I've written this book for all those everwhere, who have heard some version of the Jesus story that caused their pulse rate to rise, their stomach to churn, and their heart to utter those resolute words, "I would never be a part of that". So I will read on and see if I make it in at least one of the books!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Capturing the moment
Sorry, no recent deep theological or philosophical reading or reflection - just another fiction trilogy. And again one of Robin Hobb's! Well, I haven't fully mined the lode of her writing yet!
I was told that this series (Shaman's Crossing, Forest Mage, Renegade's Magic) was either loved or disliked by her regular readers. Currently I am getting towards the end of Book 2 - Forest Mage, and I can see why. In many ways it is so unlike previous books/series. This one takes forever to "get anywhere"! Well, in the adventure sense, or in the timeline. Whe I started reading and the hero went to the military academy, I thought it would be a chapter or 2 and then bang - he would be on to the big stuff! Wrong! It took all of book one to get through the academy - and even then, didn't.
I found myself skimming a lot of pages trying to get past what I saw as the preliminary stuff.
The key to the book, however, lies in the minutia. In earlier blogs I have talked about the decisions that authors make in terms of painting the picture - how much detail, how many pages for a certain scene etc...... In this book, Robun Hobb focuses down to the detail. There are places where she describes the hero being short of food - hungry/starving - but then gaining some small mouthfulls. She then describes in detail how he savoured each taste, each morsel, each substance - taking hours to eat the small offering. This seems to be a message to the reader - savour the pages - don't see the words as a means to get to the story's end - rather savour each word, each phrase, each sentence.......
So I an trying........
For about 3 years, we had the pleasure of having our daughter, son-in-law and grandsons living close bye - and then with us before they dissapeared to Canada (well, they are still there on skype, on blogs, and we have the tickets already to visit them later in the year!!). We knew they were going. In the last weeks and days I did particlarly try to savour the moments...drink in the experience of sharing our lives with them. Children seem to live in the present - the butterfly in front of them, the story book you are reading to them, the chocolate frog poking out of the shopping basket.
Back to the book.......
I was told that this series (Shaman's Crossing, Forest Mage, Renegade's Magic) was either loved or disliked by her regular readers. Currently I am getting towards the end of Book 2 - Forest Mage, and I can see why. In many ways it is so unlike previous books/series. This one takes forever to "get anywhere"! Well, in the adventure sense, or in the timeline. Whe I started reading and the hero went to the military academy, I thought it would be a chapter or 2 and then bang - he would be on to the big stuff! Wrong! It took all of book one to get through the academy - and even then, didn't.
I found myself skimming a lot of pages trying to get past what I saw as the preliminary stuff.
The key to the book, however, lies in the minutia. In earlier blogs I have talked about the decisions that authors make in terms of painting the picture - how much detail, how many pages for a certain scene etc...... In this book, Robun Hobb focuses down to the detail. There are places where she describes the hero being short of food - hungry/starving - but then gaining some small mouthfulls. She then describes in detail how he savoured each taste, each morsel, each substance - taking hours to eat the small offering. This seems to be a message to the reader - savour the pages - don't see the words as a means to get to the story's end - rather savour each word, each phrase, each sentence.......
So I an trying........
For about 3 years, we had the pleasure of having our daughter, son-in-law and grandsons living close bye - and then with us before they dissapeared to Canada (well, they are still there on skype, on blogs, and we have the tickets already to visit them later in the year!!). We knew they were going. In the last weeks and days I did particlarly try to savour the moments...drink in the experience of sharing our lives with them. Children seem to live in the present - the butterfly in front of them, the story book you are reading to them, the chocolate frog poking out of the shopping basket.
Back to the book.......
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