Thank you Johan. I've been thinking lately about "divine hiddenness" because I was reading Norman O. Brown's _Love's Body_ and he mentions it a lot...It seems to me both a completely intuitive, innate idea, at least for those of us who've always had a kind of panpsychic view of the world (intuitive, not really learned, or maybe learned early), and an idea completely unknowable, because then we get into motivations for being hidden, and if you go beyond that, one reaches that experience of not knowing that's I guess what Zen koans were for. Anyway, it's a beautiful meditation.
Thanks for the book tip and the kind words! Indeed, without going into syncretism and relativizing the claims Christian revelation, I think there's a deep and fundamental overlap between such intuitions from all traditions which you refer to.
C. S. Lewis:
"In a way I quite understand why some people are put off by Theology. I remember once when I had been giving a talk to the RA.F., an old, hard-bitten officer got up and said, 'I've no use for all that stuff. But, mind you, I'm a religious man too. I know there's a God. I've felt Him: out alone in the desert at night: the tremendous mystery. And that's just why I don't believe all your neat little dogmas and formulas about Him. To anyone who's met the real thing they all seem so petty and pedantic and unreal!'
...
But you will not get to Newfoundland by studying the Atlantic that way, and you will not get eternal life by simply feeling the presence of God in flowers or music.
Neither will you get anywhere by looking at maps without going to sea. Nor will you be very safe if you go to sea without a map."
Didn't know Esolen had a substack. We've talked a little bit over the years, I've read most of his works and I think I had some collaboration in mind but it never came to fruition. Thanks for the link!
Thank you Johan. I've been thinking lately about "divine hiddenness" because I was reading Norman O. Brown's _Love's Body_ and he mentions it a lot...It seems to me both a completely intuitive, innate idea, at least for those of us who've always had a kind of panpsychic view of the world (intuitive, not really learned, or maybe learned early), and an idea completely unknowable, because then we get into motivations for being hidden, and if you go beyond that, one reaches that experience of not knowing that's I guess what Zen koans were for. Anyway, it's a beautiful meditation.
Thanks for the book tip and the kind words! Indeed, without going into syncretism and relativizing the claims Christian revelation, I think there's a deep and fundamental overlap between such intuitions from all traditions which you refer to.
C. S. Lewis:
"In a way I quite understand why some people are put off by Theology. I remember once when I had been giving a talk to the RA.F., an old, hard-bitten officer got up and said, 'I've no use for all that stuff. But, mind you, I'm a religious man too. I know there's a God. I've felt Him: out alone in the desert at night: the tremendous mystery. And that's just why I don't believe all your neat little dogmas and formulas about Him. To anyone who's met the real thing they all seem so petty and pedantic and unreal!'
...
But you will not get to Newfoundland by studying the Atlantic that way, and you will not get eternal life by simply feeling the presence of God in flowers or music.
Neither will you get anywhere by looking at maps without going to sea. Nor will you be very safe if you go to sea without a map."
Anthony Esolen wrote on today's psalm https://anthonyesolen.substack.com/p/as-pants-the-hart-for-cooling-streams
I am sure that you will enjoy it as well.
Didn't know Esolen had a substack. We've talked a little bit over the years, I've read most of his works and I think I had some collaboration in mind but it never came to fruition. Thanks for the link!
You bet. He is a favorite of mine. My dad is following him, now too.
I was very glad to see Esolen had a substack. He bounces around a lot, and hopefully, he will stay here. It seems like a good fit for him.
Great job with today’s reading. What an excellent meditation. Thank you.
Thanks for the kind words. Much appreciated.