From Lael, Commentary on Literature, week 1

If he wasn’t a Puritan, John Milton could have been a successful Hollywood screenwriter. Like a blockbuster movie that begins with James Bond skiing off a cliff or Indiana Jones losing ground to the massive boulder at his back, he begins Paradise Lost in the middle of the action—Satan rising from the dark, molten flames of hell to survey the wreckage of his fall and regroup. His courageous and defiant speech to rally his battered troops, “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heav’n,” has inspired generations of romantic writers and aging rockers.

William Blake was the first, I believe, to famously depict Milton’s Satan not as the villain but rather a romantic hero when he wrote that Milton, “was a true Poet and of the Devil’s party without knowing it.” Prefiguring today’s chorus of new atheists, Blake wrote that “Milton’s devil as a moral being is…far superior to God” because he “perseveres in some purpose which he has conceived to be excellent in spite of adversity and torture.” This “heroic” view of Satan has inspired generations of literary controversy and far too many term papers which can be downloaded at www.echeat.com. Somehow that is entirely fitting.

But what is a hero? Blake and other romantics recast the classical role of a hero, the general Maximus-style protagonist who overcomes adversity by courage and self-sacrifice for some greater good, in the mold of Rousseau’s radical individualism still popular today. This view of a hero applauds the pursuit of freedom and the triumph of the individual over the God of church tradition and all theological, moral and social restraints.

But while this self-styled hero chooses courage and liberty, it is not so that he might be free to love and sacrificially give himself for others. Milton, clearly in disagreement with the Romantics, exposes Satan’s motive. The Devil himself confesses that his rebellion grows from the grudge of “injur’d merit.” God appointed the Messiah as chief of his angelic legions rather than Satan. The rack and ruin of the universe, according to Milton, can be traced back to the guy who got passed over for the promotion. Satan was dissed. Not the sort of grievance that inspires people of goodwill to sympathy or support.

In his Preface to Paradise Lost, C.S. Lewis chronicles the degradation of the former Prince of Heaven turned Peeping Tom who roils in envy of Adam and Eve locked in loving embrace. “From hero to general, from general to politician, from politician to Secret Service agent, and thence to this thing that peers in at bedroom or bathroom windows, and thence to a toad, and finally to a snake—such is the progress of Satan…it was the poet’s intention to be fair to evil…to show it first at the height…and then to trace what actually becomes of such self-intoxication when it encounters reality.” Those who want to interpret Satan as hero must play fast and loose with the text. Both Milton’s and God’s.

But a hero is not merely a literary term. A true hero grabs your heart. I couldn’t read about the literary argument over the “heroism” of Satan without recalling a TV character we often watch: Greg House. Dr. House shares much in common with Milton’s Satan: intellectual brilliance, cunning, sophistication, magnetic attraction (I wonder if Satan had “dreamy blue eyes”), seductive and cynical, mysterious and moody, a renegade prized for his great gifts and the excitement he generates, but not for his heart. (No track record of loving sacrifice here…just a white-hot trajectory of success.) It makes for great entertainment. A lot of drama. We love to watch. Fun place to visit, but would we really want to live there?

From Kelly:

Painter and author Makoto Fujimura (mentioned in Chuck Colson’s Faith & Culture Devotional entry on 911 in Week 15) recently spoke at the IAM (International Arts Movement) in New York City. To me the talk felt prophetically important.

In the midst of fear. In the midst of material and emotional scarcity. In the midst of the world’s collapsing idols, Mako encouraged the Church to draw on the Giver / Artist, and to let His creative Spirit spill over into a hurting world. Creating living art, out of love, in the form of kindnesses (whether friendship, food, hospitality, music, dance, painting, flower-arranging, whatever our gifts…).

Spiritual, emotional and material generosity is surprising in an age of perceived scarcity; therefore, we, the Church, can rise to the occasion. We create art not as commodity, but as a gift. Just as the Gospel is not commodity, but Gift.

Here’s the link in the hopes that it will soon to available. (The recording improves toward the 2nd half which you’ll not want to miss). http://internationalartsmovement.org/encounter2009

In such a times as this, the Church has a great opportunity to shine. To remain hopeful, cheerful and creative.

Every blessing as your faith paints, with light and warmth, our hurting culture,

Kelly Monroe Kullberg

From Kelly, Commentary on Science, week 1

Given new discoveries at both the macro and micro levels, scientists at schools like Harvard, MIT, Cal Poly, Texas A&M, Cambridge and Oxford, Cal Berkeley and Stanford are now exploring the Judaeo-Christian Scriptures and faith. Many scientists at these schools are passionate and compassionate Christians.

According to M.I.T. Professor in Affective Computing, Rosalind Picard, “The great founders of science were men of faith who recognized God’s hand in creation. Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Blaise Pascal, Louis Pasteur, Michael Faraday, Samuel Morse, Gregor Mendel, George Washington Carver, and many others attributed their successes to divine guidance. It should be surprising, in fact, when men and women of science do not acknowledge their dependence on providence.”

A Faith and Culture Devotional contains insights of 21st century scientists Hugh Ross, Walter Bradley, Michael Strauss, Jennifer Wiseman, Ray Bohlin, Michael Behe, Guillermo Gonzalez, Frederick Larson, and Francis Collins.

Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, 2007:

You’d have thought it was a football game. It took twenty minutes to find a parking spot. Once in the Stanford building, I finally found a seat in the aisle of one of several video overflow rooms. 2,300 students, scholars and neighbors came out to hear Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the U.S. Human Genome Project at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Collins is a genetic engineer and an M.D. dedicated to expanding our knowledge of nature and deciphering the remarkable code language of human biology.

Describing Collins’ life while still Director of the U.S. Genome Project, USA Today observed:
“During his 90-hour work week,” says the reporter, “Collins juggles time among family, church work, four teams of researchers … faculty duties and patients in his genetic diseases clinic. On Sundays, … [in] their small Baptist church …. He plays guitar and keyboards; his wife writes original music.” And then the writer adds, “It is Collins’ religious beliefs that make him keenly aware of the ramifications of his work and of the fact that what he and other gene hunters do in their laboratories directly affects millions of people.” (USA Today, July 24, 1990, 1D).

Dr. Collins began his Stanford lecture by juxtaposing two images: a DNA strand and an exquisite stained-glass Rose window from a Gothic cathedral. Of the two, he saw no contradiction. Only beauty. Artistry. Intentionality. Complexity. Order. Symmetry. Harmony … God.

He spent much of his time discussing the genome and his own journey of wonder and faith as he has in this devotional. Many of the 2,300 were there for the science; however, most questions were about faith – Where is God in the midst of suffering? What of prayer? Evolution? Other faiths? Evil? Justice? Hope? Eternity?

Collins admitted that he doesn’t have thorough answers, and is glad to be learning from friends in other fields, but he does know that God is good, that prayer changes us, that God speaks life into being, that Jesus is the hope of the world.

He said that his mother had died just the previous week. Though grieving, he crossed the country because she wanted him to share his faith with students. He told us that he fully expects to see her again, forever. That God loves us. That heaven is real and the hope of those who love and follow Jesus Christ.

From Ptolemy in the 2nd century A.D. to Collins in the 21st, scientists are finding that God, through the agency of His Son, Jesus Christ, is the author of all life. The apostle John tells us, “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:3–4). The complex sequencing of DNA molecules tells us that life has an Author who has given detailed instructions that science is only beginning to understand.