05.13.07

poets, imagination, language

Posted in ekklesia, emergence, gospel, leadership at 6:40 am by len

Walter Brueggemann writes,

“To address the issue of truth greatly reduced requires us to be poets who speak against the prose world. The terms of that phrase are readily misunderstood. By prose I refer to a world that is organized in simple formulae, so that even pastoral prayers and love letters sound like memos. By poetry, I do not mean rhyme, rhythm or meter, but language that moves like Bob Gibson’s fast ball, that jumps at the right moment, that breaks open old worlds with surprise, abrasion and pace. Poetic speech is the only proclamation worth doing in a situation of reductionism. The only proclamation .. that is worthy of the name preaching is not moral instruction, or problem solving, or doctrinal clarification. It is not good advice, nor is it romantic caressing, not is it a soothing good humor… It is rather the ready, steady, surprising proposal that the real world in which God invites us to live is not the one made available by the rulers of this age. The preacher has an awesome opportunity to offer an evangelical world: an existence shaped by the news of the gospel. This offer requires special care for words, because the baptized community awaits speech in order to be a faithful people.” Finally Comes the Poet

Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes,
“During these years the Church has fought for self-preservation as though it were an end in itself, and has thereby lost its chance to speak a word of reconciliation to humanity and to the world at large. So our traditional language must perforce become powerless and remain silent, and our Christianity will be confined to praying and doing right to our human brothers and sisters. Christian thinking, speaking and organizing must be reborn out of this praying and this action.. It will be a new language.. the language of a new righteousness and truth, which proclaims the peace of God with humankind and the advent of his kingdom. “Letters and Papers from Prison”

Blaise Pascal wrote,

“A new language really introduces a new heart. In his Gospel Jesus Christ gave us a sign by which to recognize those who have faith. “They will speak with new tongues.” What happens is that a renewal of thoughts and desires brings about a renewal of language. Renewal is a constant necessity… The old man in us dies away, says St. Paul, and is renewed each day, and wil only be perfectly new in eternity… It is certain that the graces God grants in this life are a sign of the glory which he prepares for us in the next. ”

David Fitch asks,

“What if we cast aside the modernist language-world dichotomy and instead see language as that by which we participate in reality, a way of life that then enables us to experience things which cannot be captured in language alone. When we see language like this, we notice it can show/reveal realities instead of just speaking about them. And by participating in these languages, learning a way of life, we are transformed into seeing and experiencing what could not simply be talked about. These paths have already been well worn by Lindbeck, Hauerwas, McIntyre, Milbank, Stanley Fish (to an extent) and others.”

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