I'm dying to read that book, Doug, after your last puff (do you get a
percentage? ;-) ) & reading about it on the www. About all these
Biblical statements about this world & the next: I think we have to
recognize that these people (I mean, look at Paul...) just weren't
*normal*, in fact I wouldn't be too surprised to hear they ate a lot of
uncontrolled mushrooms. I say funny things too, though not on this list
(go to armageddondown.com for that). Actually, sorry folks on petc, but
you all seem incredibly *normal* to me. Even Ken (that might be because
he reads like a cross between a Bellow character & Lenny Bruce, y'know,
normal Americans to us Limeys) & Mark. Sorry again...(But Alison,
writing 4,000 lines a day is NOT normal - it's taken me a lifetime to
produce that much!)
mj
Douglas Barbour wrote:
> Having, as I think I said, just read Marilynne Robinson's fine Gideon,
> in which a dying pastor of a small USAmerican town tells of his life &
> of the lives of his father & grandfather & of the people he knows, &
> demonstrates a terrific love for the world as part of his faith in God
> (which I confess I found particularly moving in his narration), this
> is, then, fascinating, if, for me, telling in a way I can't accept:
>
> We may compare
> James 4:4-
>
> You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship (/philia/)
> with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a
> friend (/philos/) of the world becomes an enemy of God.
>
> I find Robinson's representation of a human love for others & for the
> world as the core of a human faith in something more profound & worthy.
>
> Doug
> Douglas Barbour
> Department of English
> University of Alberta
> Edmonton Alberta T6G 2E5 Canada
> (780) 436 3320
> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm
>
> The poet is ecstatic, having dreamt of this visit for weeks.
> He takes Erato�s face, dribbling and wild, between his hands
>
> and kisses her gently as if she were a runaway teenager.
>
> Diana Hartog
>
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