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Joyce’s writing is a wrestle between authority and freedom, reality and imagination, conformity and sensual play. In Ulysses, he toys with the seriousness of history by reconstructing it within the apparent silliness and unimportance of one man’s day about Dublin. No big epic, just little domestic duties, he seems to say. But the impulse behind this comedy is in fact a deeply serious one. Joyce was distressed about God, death and love, and his writing is a response to that distress. “How I hate God and death! How I like Nora!” Joyce wrote as a young man who was angry with religion and with mortality, and longed for deep, intimate connection with another—his future wife, Nora. Some of Joyce’s tensions would be addressed by a more biblical, less ‘churchy’ and institutional, understanding of the Christian faith that is primarily about relationship with God; that celebrates the goodness that can be found in this life; that is a fan of good sex, good food, good friends, good fun. Authentic Christianity is about God befriending sinners, best demonstrated through the life of Jesus. It’s about God’s love for us, even as we hate him—a teaching that even the most ‘sensual and silly’ of characters needs to take seriously. For a stick-figure animated summary of the story, click here (We ask that you please keep all comments to 200 words or less)
Last week Australia lost one of its leading head and neck surgeons, Chris Obrien, who finally succumbed to the ravages of a brain tumour, first diagnosed in 2006. Obrien was a popular figure whose work was brought into living rooms across the country by way of the hospital reality TV show RPA. The cruel irony of him falling to the very disease he treated with such skilled determination, poise and humanity, was widely and deeply felt. There was a line in a news story reporting his final interview given the day before he died that struck me as an astonishing piece of editorial interpretation of these events. At the end of the account of O’Brien’s reflections on his life and work and the peace he felt in the face of imminent death, the reporter wrote, “A person’s dignity lies in one’s ability to face reality, in all its meaninglessness.” O’Brien undoubtedly faced his demise with enormous dignity and all reports were that his final days were in keeping with his admirable and distinguished life. Yet the starkly materialist interpretation given by the reporter leapt off the page at me. It was a very honest appraisal and a logical extension a thoroughly naturalistic worldview. Chris O’Brien worked in the realm of empirical data, hard science and testable hypotheses. There is a long list of patients who will be glad he did. But the front-page picture of him at home the day before he died revealed a different side of life—a loyal dog at his feet, a piano in the centre of a room, framed art on the walls, a pile of books. Naturally he spoke of his profound love for his family. All of these things point towards a vital aspect of life that isn’t easily measurable; a reality of a transcendence that takes us beyond the merely material. It is up to each of us to judge whether it has any voracity, but the Christian Worldview— a thoroughly hopeful a vision of life—demands our attention. It tells us that rather than meaninglessness, every aspect of life (and death) finds ultimate meaning in a larger story. It suggests that all the many facets of our life and work are not ultimately without purpose. It purports to be a reality within which we can face the entire human experience with not only resigned, stoic dignity, but great hope, optimism and joy. (We ask that you please keep all comments to 200 words or less)
Rosner chose German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer—well known for his participation in plots to assassinate Hitler during World War II—to illustrate his point. The failed attempts to end the madness of Nazi rule saw Bonhoeffer imprisoned and eventually executed in the final weeks of the war. Bonhoeffer was 39 years old when he died and he had become engaged to Maria von Wedemeyer only a few months before his arrest. He is celebrated for his incredible grace, composure and the positive way he dealt with incarceration and even the grim walk to the gallows. Bonhoeffer’s story of dealing with major disappointment is grounded in his profound faith in God. He didn’t believe in eliminating desire, (the Buddhist path) but sought full engagement with the world. Beauty, wonder, and love were very real to him, as was crushing sadness. He recommended that we focus on what we have, always compare ourselves with others less fortunate, and use humour as an antidote to despair. Most importantly he spoke of the need to ‘commit his cause to stronger hands’—trusting in the goodness of the God he knew as a father and who knew him as a child. He also had a deep confidence in the promise of a future life beyond the grave. As he was led to a cruel and untimely death he remarked, “This is the end—for me, the beginning of life.” During a Happiness Conference panel discussion the Australian futurist Richard Neville spoke of the need to go beyond self-referential happiness to focus on family, community and the world. ‘We need courage nobility and engagement’, he said. Bonhoeffer would agree entirely, and his life, built on an authentic, ‘lived-out’ faith, is a fitting lesson of how we might find ‘joy’ amidst the inevitable struggle and pain of the human experience. (We ask that you please keep all comments to 200 words or less) |
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Comments
Meanwhile this epic liturgical prose-opera-novel did/does everything that Joyce intended to do---and everything communicated in all the epic stories of Humankind altogether too.
Plus this author knows/knew exactly what He was/is doing and communicating. Every phrase and word (and even every punctuation mark/device) is pregnant with multiple meanings and possibilities
http://global.adidam.org/books/mummery.html
On the destruction caused by the world wars.
http://www.beezone.com/AdiDa/reality-humanity.html