Commentary SUMMER 2014
David Lee reflects on the relationship between science and faith in his life as a physicist Page 20
David Baldwin squares up to the challenge facing today’s church, to think globally and act locally Page 4
Kirsty Birkett explores modern definitions of happiness and finds them falling short Page 17 Imagine this
Mike Ovey introduces this edition of Commentary with a reflection on the life and responsibilities of the godly imagination
In this issue of Commentary Chris Ansberry reviews Imagination can be there positively in science as radical Anthony Esolen’s book, Ten Ways to Destroy the new theories are hypothesised, or negatively as someone Imagination of Your Child. As a parent, this is one of those asserts that no scientist could ever believe in miracles, but book titles that gets you by the throat. As a Christian being a faithful scientist is the burden of David Lee’s article. parent, it prompts an agonised follow-up question: ‘How And imagination lurks at the centre of Dan Strange’s new much of an imagination do I want my child to have?’ book on world religions, described here. After all, idolatry Or better still, ‘How can I encourage my child to have a relies critically on devising gods according to human art and Christian imagination?’ imagination (see Acts 17:29). Imagination is one of the themes that loosely links this To that extent, I suppose the question is not just, ‘Should issue of Commentary together. It’s the direct subject of I have an imagination?’ but also, ‘Should I not have a godly Chris Ansberry’s book review, but it is also reflected in Matt imagination?’ Searles’ musical work on the psalms and Richard Thomas’ What makes for a godly imagination? I wonder if Hilary of illustrated Bible work. In those cases, imagination is Poitiers (died c. 368) doesn’t give us a clue here. He makes the harnessed to proclaiming and celebrating the Word of God. comment that the Arian heretics of his time who asserted But imagination also impinges on the pleasure and that the eternal Son was only a creature reduced God to happiness discussion in Kirsty Birkett’s article – imagination their own finite understanding. They felt it ‘just couldn’t be’ can be harnessed selfishly to seeking ever-new forms of that God was triune. God-defying pleasure. It’s just that relentless quest for pleasure that is satirised in one of Meatloaf’s songs: The question is not just, I’ve been looking for an original sin, ‘Should I have an imagination?’ One with a twist and a bit of a spin And since I’ve done all the old ones but also, ‘Should I not have a Until they’ve all been done in... godly imagination?’
2 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary Commentary
4 It’s time to get glocal It’s an intriguing point. On the one hand, the Arians are Dave Baldwin guilty of a huge leap of imagination. ‘Guilty’ is the right 8 A marriage of word because they imagine that God is only as big as they convenience or are and is only conceivable on terms they find rational within their own finite understanding. Like the Athenian conviction? idolaters to whom Paul spoke, they insist that God is there Fiona Gibson on their terms, and that, of course, is just fantasy. 11 Standing on the rock On the other hand, the Arians are guilty of a huge lack of Dan Strange imagination. ‘Guilty’ is the right word because they refuse to imagine that God is or could be bigger than they are and 14 Comic strip theology that things are conceivable for him that transcend their Richard Thomas finite understanding. If we cannot think it, then he could not do it, is the Arian method. 17 A question of happiness In fact, then, the ungodliness of the Arians leads them Kirsty Birkett both to a leap of imagination and a lack of imagination. And the ungodliness lies in the insistence that God not be 20 God, neutrinos and the allowed to be God, to be who he infinitely and perfectly is. As why of science far as possible, the Arians ended up blurring the distinction David Lee between God the infinite creator and humans the finite creatures. And there is a savage irony there because part of 24 Shaped by the psalms the Arian claim was exactly that they were maintaining the Matt Searles distinction between creature and creator by denying the 26 Christians and dating deity of the Lord Jesus. Barnaby Monteiro In fact, they were not working that distinction through with sufficient rigour, that the finite human creature can 28 Books only understand God the infinite as God makes himself Chris Ansberry known. And so the only reason why Jesus can say that if we have seen him, we have seen the Father (John 14:9) is precisely that he is fully divine. God transcends my finite understanding and so I must listen to him. Is that so hard to imagine?
Mike Ovey is Principal of Oak Hill
oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 3 4 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary It’s time to Dave Baldwin ponders the get glocal challenges of glocalisation for today’s church – thinking globally but acting locally – with the help of an Instamatic camera and a Scalextric handset
I don’t know if you use Wikipedia much. Here’s a definition worldwide church’s task in the great commission of Jesus. from an entry on a word that’s been kicking around for a I did find a book on Amazon called, Glocalization: How couple of decades. ‘Glocalisation’ is a portmanteau word of the Followers of Jesus Engage a Flat World, by an American globalization and localization. By definition, the term ‘glocal’ author called Somebody Jr. Despite my prejudice against his refers to the individual, group, division, unit, organization name I did order a copy, shipped from Arizona, to prove to and community which is willing and able to ‘think globally myself that I am capable of thinking globally. I paid in GB and act locally.’ Sterling, which I hope qualifies as acting locally. The article goes on to tell us that the term originates But seriously, aren’t the Japanese and Roland Robertson from Japanese business practices (dochakuka) and was and Wikipedia all just re-thinking God’s thoughts after him? popularised in the English speaking world by the British Haven’t they had these ‘new’ insights a couple of thousand sociologist Roland Robertson in the 1990s. Well, I hadn’t years after they were originally implanted into the DNA of heard any of that previously, but this idea of ‘thinking the embryonic Christian church? globally and acting locally’ sounds a bit familiar. Where have Right from the very beginning, the church of Christ was I heard that before? wired to think globally and act locally. Ninety percent of Reading on, it seems that all the examples of glocal the New Testament mentions of ekklesia refer to local thinking are to be found in the spheres of business, churches, with local people, local leaders, local concerns and academia, the media and even, bizarrely, social welfare. local expressions. But these local churches wouldn’t have But there is nothing on Wiki about glocalisation and the made any sense in glorious isolation; they were also part of church. It’s easy enough to find something on Beijing’s take something bigger. The universal ekklesia comprises people on McDonalds, the sub-continentally sensitive Chicken of every tribe, tongue, people and nation, and from every Maharaja Mac and even the KFC Curry Crunch (which era. Now that’s way beyond the hopes and expectations of sounds like an exercise to avoid) but not much on the the McDonalds chief executives.
oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 5 Photo: alf sigaro
If Roland Roberson was to walk into our local churches today and ask about our global thinking I guess most of us would point to our missionary boards and tell him that we have workers spreading the gospel in this country and that continent. And rightly so. Some of us may tell him about the countries we pray for. And some of us may be fortunate enough to be able to point to a few overseas people in the congregation who have been brave enough to join us, because they love the Lord more than they hate our music. But glocalisation isn’t the only thing that has been kicking around for the last couple of decades – so too has an altogether new phenomenon. The mission field has Rather than zooming out washed up on our own church doorsteps, even though we didn’t invite it! These days local churches have a new global and zooming in again and context and a new global challenge; it isn’t that we stop knowing ourselves as part of sending missionaries, but that we stop expecting them to a bigger global phenomenon, do all the cross-cultural stuff. We in the local churches need to roll up our own sleeves and do global mission within our our dominant snapshots of own postcodes. ekklesia are of the church I remember my very first camera. Back in the mid-70s my we are familiar with in its parents bought me a Kodak Instamatic. I was so excited at the time, but with hindsight, it was absolutely rubbish. present local context Without any way of changing the focal depth, every picture I took was shot in the same plane. Nobody wanted to look at my photos, except for a bit of a laugh. As compositions go, ‘Pheasant in a field’ was my low point; just a tiny dark blur zooming out and zooming in again and knowing ourselves streaking across a featureless background. My sister laughed as part of a bigger global phenomenon, our dominant for a week and wet her pants. snapshots of ekklesia are of the church we are familiar with That spotty teenager didn’t know it then, but what he in its present local context. It’s a bit like doing a photoshoot needed was a camera with a zoom control. If zoom controls with a modern supermodel using a Kodak Instamatic! were around in the 70s then I was certainly unaware of it. Maybe we put up with in our pews what we would never Modern photographers can zoom in for a close up and then tolerate in our cameras? zoom back out again for a longer shot at the touch of a One writer has said that glocal individuals simultaneously button. It’s seamless and brilliant and so commonplace these enjoy ‘global and local perspectives at the same time. days that a decent zoom control is simply taken for granted. Glocalised folks zoom in and out. They have tremendous Sometimes I wonder if we Christians content ourselves global awareness and insightful local knowledge.’ with a dodgy zoom control. We often contemplate the All that zooming in and out might give you a headache, I church with our world views stuck in one plane. Rather than admit, but I’d like to think that most UK Christians would be
6 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary proud to be described in these terms. If you put that on my being earnestly clutched, there were only four cars on the gravestone I know I’d be dead chuffed (excuse the pun). track. There’s one more important aspect of ‘thinking globally ‘Which car are you driving, Baldwin?’ he inquired. and acting locally’ that we mustn’t avoid. Our worship is ‘The green one!’ I replied, not taking my eyes from it. often dominated by local expression. We sometimes regard it ‘I don’t think so,’ he persisted, holding up the other end of as a mark of faithfulness to proclaim the old, old story in our the cable from my handset, which wasn’t plugged in. time-honoured traditions. But many of our urban churches Now, we can bring the nations into our churches without are becoming magnets for global migrants and this presents upsetting anybody. Believers from other cultures and new us with both challenges and opportunities. converts from other religious backgrounds, they all delight Have people from other parts of the world got anything to us! Just so long as we’re still holding the controls. I do teach us about doing church? wonder how willing we are genuinely to plug internationals We could answer that question with one of Peter’s in. Our default setting is assimilation, where our hearty catchphrases, ‘Surely not, Lord!’ (Matthew 16:22, Acts 10:14 welcome contains multiple caveat signals that to fit in here and Acts 11:8). ‘We’ve been at this business for centuries means to do things our way. and we think we know what we’re doing!’ The notion According to Keith Walker of Serving in Mission, the that we need to be close with believers from significantly fact that ‘fully integrated churches are rare’ in our diverse different cultures makes us feel quite uncomfortable and communities ‘may be seen as one of the modern scandals of the suggestion that we might have something to learn from evangelicalism.’ them often disquiets us. Why so? Glocal Christians, at the very least, will learn to share their Another scarring trauma from my childhood was the toys. day I first played Scalextric at Scouts. I was controlling the handset with surprising ease and handling the green Dave Baldwin lectures in missiology at Oak Hill and is the rally car beautifully through the corners. An older boy, Director of the Two:Nineteen project with Serving in Mission better at maths, who was watching on as five of us raced for supremacy, noticed that although there were five handsets
Now we can bring the nations into our churches without upsetting anybody. Believers from other cultures and new converts from other religious backgrounds, they all delight us! Just so long as we’re still holding the controls Photo: delphwynd
oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 7 A marriage of convenience or conviction? Some evangelical Anglicans, frustrated by changes in the Church of England, question whether they should stay in the church or leave it. Fiona Gibson explains why she is for staying
commit me to behaving in certain ways. They oblige me to refrain from behaving in other ways. In my marriage I have promised to forsake all others and be faithful to my husband. In my vocation I have undertaken to faithfully minister the doctrine and Vows, I’ve made a few (to paraphrase More recently, I stood in front of sacraments of Christ as the Church of Frank Sinatra). Unbelievably, it’s 20 another man, a Bishop this time, and England has received them. years since I stood at the front of a pledged myself to serve God and his For some, all vows become irksome. church and pledged myself to take people first as a deacon and then, a Once the vows have been made and the the man standing next to me to be my year later, as a priest/presbyter in the ink is dry on the marriage certificate, husband, to love him, comfort him, Church of England, with the help of no further attention is paid to them; honour and protect him and, forsaking God and in his strength and power. the marriage was one of convenience. all others, to be faithful to him as long Those vows, wedding and ordination, In Victorian times, that convenience as we both should live. have something in common. They might have been a veneer of
8 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary respectability that enabled one to carry firmly believing that the doctrine and churches across the country. There’s a on other romantic relationships, or practice of the Church of England saying in church life: the law of praying to cover up an illegitimate pregnancy. are biblical and beneficial? For me, is the law of believing, or, you believe In our times, that convenience might remaining a member and leader in the what you pray. The words you hear and be a visa to remain in a particular Church of England is a matter of deep, say in prayer regularly, year in, year country. In both cases, no love is thought-through, conviction. out, soak into your heart and mind involved, no real commitment of one First, let me say that I do not make and help to form your view of God, person to another is given, no intimate the mistake of thinking that the self, and the world. So it’s enormously relationship is expected to follow. Anglican Church is the same as the valuable, and enormously important, For others, vows bring freedom and universal Church of Jesus Christ. I that those prayers should be biblical security. Wedding vows, voluntarily have close friends who are members and doctrinally correct. undertaken, give the bride and groom and ministers of congregations in It’s also helpful if they’re memorable. the immense security of knowing that other denominations. One of the Time and again I have heard people their spouse is committed to them greatest gifts Oak Hill gave me was bear testimony that in their darkest totally, exclusively and permanently. the opportunity to train alongside For one group, commitment is to be men and women being prepared for tolerated at best and resented at worst Christian ministry in a diverse range of – a means to an end. For the other, settings: Anglican, free church, youth Is the decision to commitment brings delight and is born and children’s ministry, and cross- remain an Anglican out of an already-existing relationship. cultural ministry. We learnt to love and purely an emotional For some evangelical Anglicans in honour one another highly in the Lord, one, based on a recent years the question has arisen: to celebrate one another’s gifts and is my commitment to the Church of callings, and to contend together for long association England a marriage of convenience the sake of the gospel even when we with one particular or a marriage of conviction? Is the differed on some issues. Nonetheless, church? Do I stay an decision to remain an Anglican I am called and committed to being a purely an emotional one, based on a minister in the Church of England. Anglican because long association with one particular The first reason for this commitment to become a Baptist church? Do I stay an Anglican because is liturgical. The Church of England seems complicated, to become a Baptist seems complicated, has a wonderfully rich heritage of much like changing energy suppliers? solidly scriptural liturgy for corporate much like changing Or am I an Anglican out of conviction, worship, which is used every week in energy suppliers?
oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 9 I know, when I come to worship, that the words of the service will teach me truth and feed my soul because they have been well- resurrection. When I am bidden during hard to understand their language a communion service to offer a sign of and explain it to a culture more used crafted, taken from Christ’s peace to my fellow believers, to tweets and emoticons, but their scripture, designed before I come to the Lord’s table to inherent truth remains as agreeable to help me worship receive the bread and the wine, I am to God’s word as when they were first forcibly reminded of Jesus’ injunction written. God with my mind as to be reconciled with my brothers and The third reason for my continuing well as my heart sisters before I worship. commitment to the Anglican church Liturgy gives boundaries and is that it is episcopal and global. protection in public worship. I know, Of course the structures are not times, when they didn’t know what or when I come to worship, that the perfect. But the fact that each local how to pray, it was the words of the words of the service will teach me congregation is part of a wider Anglican Evening Collect that came to truth and feed my soul because they grouping in deanery, archdeaconry them, familiar from years of praying, have been well-crafted, taken from and diocese gives strength, and makes to help them express their anguish to scripture, designed to help me worship us accountable to one another. We are God: ‘Lighten our darkness, Lord, we God with my mind as well as my heart. committed to wrestling with matters of pray.’ And because I pray them regularly, the doctrine, ethics, worship, church order In care homes when I’m taking words become part of how I think. and ministry precisely because we are communion services, faithful believers The second reason I am committed an episcopal and global church. with dementia who seem lost to their to the Church of England is doctrinal. Some may wish us to move faster, families and even to themselves, but This is linked with liturgy because others slower, but the fact remains never to God, join in with the words in many ways Anglicans express our that we have to move together or of the confession, and the prayer of doctrine in our liturgy. Liturgy guards cease to be Anglican. Listening to the humble access, because they’ve known doctrine. Doctrine guides liturgy. Our encouragement or rebuke of others in them since childhood and still retain doctrine is enshrined in the Thirty- the wider Anglican Communion should them even when other memories have Nine Articles of Religion, and it is prompt humility and reflection. gone. embedded in our hearts and minds in So, despite all temptations to join Liturgy is, in some ways, enacted our liturgy. Without rehearsing each other denominations I remain, by truth. The Church of England of the Articles here, they elegantly conviction, an Anglican. funeral service deliberately moves express scriptural truth and godly in its focus from earth to heaven, wisdom for ordering church and Fiona Gibson is Curate of Christ from grief to hope, from death to secular life. Yes, we need to work Church, Bedford
10 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary Standing on When Dan Strange visits the rock Athens, he’s drawn to an ancient outcrop of rock. It’s where Paul gave a speech to the Athenians which continues to set the agenda for apologetics
For the last three years, I’ve had the privilege of taking Of course, you have to use your imagination when some of my kids to visit missionary friends in Athens. visiting today. It’s basically a big hunk of uneven shiny My friends always ask us whether there are places we’d rock to clamber up on and walk around. But I always like especially like to visit while we’re there, and without making the point, to anyone around who fail my nanosecond response is the Areopagus, scene of will listen, that I’m actually standing on Paul’s address in Acts 17. Even though my kids groan at the place where the actual Apostle Paul yet another trip there, I don’t care. It’s become my own preached his sermon to the gathered reformed evangelical Lourdes. cognoscenti all that time ago.
Photo: hchalkley
oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 11 To be honest, I have to say that it’s always difficult to be as he surveys the scene in front of him. This introduction completely immersed in my first century recreation, as must never be left out. It is this deeply negative reaction Greek health and safety is slightly different from the UK which gives us the mood for the whole encounter. However and there is no barrier or fence which protects any adult or respectful, intellectual, and contextual Paul may be in what child from the sheer drop at the back of the outcrop. follows, we must not forget this context. Therefore even at my most passionate method-acting So although it certainly serves as a way in and ‘point of moment (and yes, it might involve the odd raised hand as in contact’, Paul’s opening statement to the religious Athenians all the paintings), my eyes are still darting around to check with their ‘unknown God,’ is surely not a straightforward the whereabouts of various offspring who strangely seem to commendation, affirmation or prescription of their be distancing themselves from me at that point. undoubted religiosity, but rather a description of their Anyone who has heard me do any teaching on cultural idolatrous and ignorant speculation and searching. apologetics or Christianity’s relationship to other religions It’s not so much the contact of a warm handshake, but will know that Acts 17 invariably crops up. Although my rather more the contact of a rugby scrum. As one writer students (just like my kids) might groan at yet another puts it: ‘Paul knew very well that his altar had nothing to do theological trip there, it remains a touchstone, a divinely with the worship of the God who appeared to us in Jesus revealed encounter which is for me a microcosm of the Christ, but Paul here heard the cry of misery, and this made gospel encountering the religious Other in public. it possible for him to sketch boldly the sole way of escape.’ In many ways it’s such a famous passage with so much So here’s our first challenge: In our politically correct, written on it, that it might seem a little tired and hackneyed, ‘tolerant’ and multicultural Britain, do we have the biblical not worthy of yet another visit. And yet it continues to eyes and frankly the biblical nerve to see and feel all our fascinate theologians and missiologists and in terms of evangelistic and apologetic encounters in the context of interpretation is as infamous as it is famous. idolatry and its provoking nature? I’m not talking about an It courts controversy and division. Those of a more liberal application which issues in facile ranting and raving, but a persuasion continue to see in this passage a justification for background theological commitment which understands, a more inclusive attitude for inter-faith engagement. Those however it might look to the contrary on the surface, the more conservatively minded continue to be puzzled with real theological nature of all that which is not of Christ. the fact that even if we concede that Luke might be giving Should we be more distressed than we are? Would there be us edited highlights of the speech, there is no mention of the a renewed urgency to our mission if we were? cross and Jesus is only mentioned at the end as ‘he’. Hardly the model of evangelistic preaching and ‘we preach Christ Paul’s approach – We now pause to examine Paul’s speech crucified’. before the council. It’s not a problem or a deficiency that So all in all, whether it’s to clear up misunderstandings or Paul does not give us a full-on gospel presentation. Why? to give us fresh understandings on our mission and ministry Well, the whole build up to the speech has been talking today, I think it’s well worth yet another whistlestop tour. about the good news of Jesus, his death and resurrection. At the beginning of Acts 17 we learn that Paul ‘reasoned with Paul’s attitude – In terms of backdrop, the ‘framing’ for them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that the Paul’s address is his violent revulsion and righteous anger Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead’. In Athens at the idolatry he sees in Athens, a whole city submerged itself Paul had proclaimed ‘the good news of Jesus and his in idolatry. Just as God himself is provoked by idols in the resurrection’ before being brought before the Areopagus. time of Moses (Deuteronomy 32:16-19), so Paul is provoked Christ and Him crucified is very much present and correct.
12 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary Do we have the biblical eyes worldview basics, putting together a picture into which Jesus and his resurrection make sense? and frankly the biblical Please don’t mishear me at this point: our goal is always to nerve to see and feel all our get to the good news of Jesus. This running up and running evangelistic and apologetic through is not a substitute for gospel proclamation, but rather a support for such proclamation. And it will take encounters in the context of more time, patience and prayer than maybe we’ve needed in idolatry and its provoking the past. nature? Paul’s appeal – For our final stop, we come to Paul’s appeal at the end of his speech. There are two things to note here. First, when we think of the resurrection, we think of new But the reception of this message is one of confusion. life, new beginnings, hope, joy, etc. All wonderfully true, of Therefore when Paul stands up and starts to speak, his course. But that is not how the resurrection is used by Paul purpose is to give a defence of this good news, to put it in in Acts 17:31. Here the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the the context of life, the universe and everything, to show its proof that a just judgment is coming. implications and applications for humanity. As Don Carson Second, if there were any lingering doubts as to the gulf notes, ‘What Paul provides is the biblical metanarrative. This between the gospel of Christ and every other religion or is the big story in the Bible that explains all the little stories. philosophy, any nervousness regarding Paul’s anti-idolatry Without the big story, the accounts of Jesus will not make mood throughout, then the call to repentance in verse 30 any sense.’ nails it all down securely. What Paul is doing here is giving a run-up and then a So our last challenge: In our sentimental, so-called run-through. For the good news of Jesus to make sense sophisticated Britain, while it’s not wrong to want to be in Athens, Paul needs the longer run-up which gets some both persuasive and winsome, don’t forget to talk about basic stuff in place, stuff which the Athenians just don’t judgment and don’t ever forget the call for repentance and have. That’s why his speech is a ‘run-through’ of a Christian faith. worldview. If I go to see my friends in Athens next year, I’ll be heading Paul is saying, ‘OK, let’s get back to basics. You Athenians back to that piece of rock where Paul once stood, and may have all kinds of views about the nature of ultimate will no doubt be making an idiot of myself again. And in reality, creation, time and the end of it all, but I’m going to my teaching on apologetics and culture next year, I’ll be lay out how I see it.’ A God both absolute and personal, both frequently referencing Acts 17 again. Of course, it’s always far and near; a creation distinguished from its Creator; a been relevant (it’s God-breathed of course!), but in 2014 view of providence which has a purpose; a fall; a time of long Britain it seems now more relevant than ever. suffering, and an end to history with a judgment coming. Without these basic building blocks in place, Jesus and his Dan Strange is Academic Vice Principal at Oak Hill. His resurrection do not make sense. book, For Their Rock is Not as Our Rock: An Evangelical So here’s our second challenge: In our increasingly post- Theology of Religions, has just been published by Apollos in Christian, biblically illiterate Britain, do we need to be the UK with a Zondervan edition in the US to follow. There’s starting further back in our conversations with unbelievers? a lengthy section on Acts 17, and the cover design includes a Do we need to spend more time running through these painting of Paul preaching on the Areopagus
oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 13 Comic strip theology
Richard Thomas is a comic strip artist who has iullustrated most of the books between Genesis and Revelation. We asked for his take on the culture and theology of comic books
14 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary Richard, how did you get started in the whole business of drawing comics?
I had a Hamlyn Children’s Bible – strangely enough, before my parents even considered being Christians – and I loved to draw pictures out of it. That Bible had this exquisite, dynamic art, and there was nothing quite like it in the house. I found it quite compelling to draw from it and I especially loved drawing bearded figures! I loved how the Bible captured a sense of the epic. These of angels, and in which Christians Clint Eastwood in movies such as Dirty were not just stories about one person, were the true heroes. We believed that Harry. The hero was someone who had it was about a whole nation. being a superhero was more than just problems too. putting on a cape and rescuing kids So you had the cop who was After you became a Christian, you out of a burning house. Being a hero struggling with drinking, whose wife started your own publishing venture was about seeking the lost – not just had left him and he had very little with two friends, called End Time those who were in physical danger, but relationship with his children. And Comics. Were eschatological themes those who were in mortal danger as in comics, you saw the same thing. a natural entry point for you in the well, through drug addiction, through For example, Batman’s costume was world of comics? bad relationships and through just not grey and blue in the 1970s, but in the knowing God. 80s it was in much darker greys and We were reflecting the times, because black. Comic artists followed the comics then were becoming much It’s an interesting art form to get into, trend in cinema by asking, ‘Would our more spiritually based. There were isn’t it? A lot of the themes in fantasy superheroes really be able to do what fantasy comics which had this whole comics are quite dark. they do without getting dirty?’ idea of demons coming along and That left me thinking, how does saving the world – which obviously Yes, in the 1970s, not just in comics but this relate to my faith? We have to we thought was quite wrong and also in cinema as well, things became understand that as believers we are preposterous. quite bleak. There were the Godfather not perfect. We need to be able to So instead we drew comics which movies, The French Connection and say to the world out there: ‘I will not showed things from the perspective the anti-hero characters played by be perfect in this lifetime, but I will
oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 15 emerge as part of a redeemed creation. exile would have understood why the revelation before I got the image, There will be a point where I will get Israel had fallen. because initially no image came to me. better and be perfect, according to I took a blank sheet of paper and just God’s promise and not just on my own What work are you most enjoying at started drawing. I drew the Levites in strength.’ the moment? the water with the ark, and the waters I think people need to see heroes parting. And in the background were who are not perfect, who make bad I got the opportunity to work on the Adam and Eve, with the serpent and decisions, but yet somehow their Book by Book project back in 2005. It’s the tree. And it was like: this is the outlook on life is to preserve other a series of DVDs and study guides, each story of salvation. people’s lives, and not just their own. one focusing on one book of the Bible. You start to see the whole flow of The series is hosted by Richard Bewes revelation, not just from Genesis Is that a philosophy which still guides and written by Paul Blackham, and I through to Joshua, but right through your comic work? illustrate all the study guides. to Hebrews chapter 4, where God’s It has been really good fun, as well promises are fulfilled. And I said to Yes. With the superhero Bible I’m as being challenging. There have myself, ‘Drawing this stuff is actually working on, I want to flesh out been times when I’ve looked at the helping me to understand the Bible!’ characters who have flaws. It’s not blank sheet of paper and had no that I’m introducing character flaws, ideas whatsoever. And there have You’re engaging in interpretation, because they are already there in been other times when the minute aren’t you, like a regular preacher or the Bible. In the story of David, for we start talking about a project, ideas commentator. You’re like the Matthew example, we are shown a dark part of are already starting to flow and even Henry of the comic world. David’s life: He stays at home during pictures have already come into my a war, sleeps with Bathsheba and he head and the others have said, ‘Wow, I I think it is everyone’s duty, because all ends up having a man killed. was literally thinking the same thing!’ Christians tell the gospel. The person And yet he is still held up as a role One of the tougher books that I came who gives out the tea and biscuits after model. God says, ‘There’s nobody like to enjoy was Joshua. I loved the idea of services is preaching the gospel. my servant David.’ That’s because the uniting Joshua with the life of Christ, As an artist I can just draw. Now I story is all about falling and repenting. since Joshua and Jesus share the same could believe that it comes from my When David is confronted with his sin, name. Paul Blackham pointed me to own ability and skill, or I could use he doesn’t try to cover it up, as Saul did. a text at one point and said, ‘What do it to preach the gospel. What I do In Psalm 51 he confesses: ‘Against you, you make of this?’ The text said that seems somewhat more direct than the you only, have I sinned and done what as the people crossed the Jordan, the person handing out tea and biscuits, is evil in your sight.’ He understands waters parted and they stopped at a but every role we do – whether it’s as that he has broken good faith not only place called Adam. The story doesn’t an accountant or bus driver – we need with Uriah, the man he had killed, but give any detail beyond that name. to understand the theology that lies with God. My mind started firing up about the behind our ability to do these things. Oak Hill has helped me understand idea of the River Jordan being a picture that when you read those stories of death, with the people crossing over Richard Thomas is a comic book in light of the original readers, you into a new life. And I sat and I kind illustrator, a south London pastor and suddenly realise that the readers in of got the vision. I would say I got a student at Oak Hill
16 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary A question of happiness
Happiness is a big subject right now in many areas of study, including economics, philosophy and sociology. But what is happiness? Kirsty Birkett goes in search of an answer Photo: Maxisport/Shutterstock.com
oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 17 We are currently going through a happiness craze. You may Happiness is very hard not have noticed, but in the publishing world, happiness is, dare I say, the new postmodernism. The new self-esteem. to define. That might be That is, the new hot topic. surprising. Surely I know It has been growing in academic terms since the 1980s when I am happy? and 90s, although then it tended to be disguised in more respectable language: eudaimonism, positive affect, the psychology of well-being. Now, however, people are more open that what they want to talk about, what they want to John Stuart Mill, in his book Utilitarianism, is clearer: ‘By analyse, study and discuss, is happiness. happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by A recent literature search in refereed journals led me to unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure. literally thousands of studies. There are journals just about Now, unlike Bentham, Mill did not consider all pleasures happiness. It turns up in economics, psychology, philosophy, equal. He thought there were ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ pleasures, sociology and religious studies. Popular works are even the higher being the more refined or intellectual (reading more common. It seems that, these days, everyone wants to poetry, going to the opera) and the lower being the purely know what it is to be happy. physical. This certainly makes the theory rather more Part of the problem, however, and perhaps what partly sophisticated, but still defines happiness on a fairly drives this outpouring of literature, is that happiness is straightforward scale – the presence of pleasure, and the very hard to define. That might be surprising. Surely I know absence of pain. when I am happy? Surely it’s one of the most basic human At the risk of sounding glib – after all, discussion of classic emotions? That may be true, but we seem to have a difficult utilitarianism has been going on for well over a century time pinning down what happiness is. – I think we can say that this definition must be wrong. There is a lot that could be said here – but let us just look After all, I can be happy while experiencing pain; indeed, at one of the contenders: that is, pleasure. More specifically, sometimes pain is part of the reason for my happiness (for feeling more pleasure than pain. This is basically what the instance, as I feel pride that I have triumphed over my pain 19th century utilitarians said happiness is, as they tried to complete a marathon). to maximise it in society. If, at some moment, I feel more We might try to be more specific, saying it is surplus of pleasure than I feel pain, then I am happy. pleasure over pain, not just absence of pain. This is more Jeremy Bentham seems to endorse this in his Introduction plausible, but as critics point out, you can have a positive to the Principles of Moral and Legislation, in his rather surplus of pleasure but still be very disappointed because longwinded way: you were expecting a much bigger surplus, and perhaps had paid for it. Or you can take a drug which significantly By utility is meant that property in any object, whereby reduces the amount of pain you are feeling, and you are very it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happy about that even though you are still in some pain. happiness, (all this in the present case comes to the same Perhaps the theory can be saved by the idea of a threshold: thing) or (what comes again to the same thing) to prevent the that it is not just surplus of pleasure, but also being above a happening of mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness to the party certain threshold, that means you are happy. However this whose interest is considered: if that party be the community in does not seem to solve the problems. I can be in a high level general, then the happiness of the community: if a particular of pleasure because I am warm and well-fed and having my individual, then the happiness of that individual. feet rubbed, or even because I am reading philosophy and
18 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary listening to Mozart, but still unhappy because my dog died small trivial facts; it could be about things happening to or my child has not come home yet. other people, or no one. You can be pleased about several So you can be happy despite pain, and unhappy despite things at once, or pleased and displeased by different things pleasure. So far, then, this definition of happiness doesn’t at the same time, and that pleasure involves thinking about seem to work. And yet more recently, hedonism (pleasure/ the thing at some level. It has to be cognitive. If you can’t pain) as a theory of happiness has been resurrected. grasp it, you can’t be pleased about it. The philosopher Fred Feldman, for instance, describes a This means that, necessarily, belief is involved. You must form of hedonism that includes not just sensory pleasure, believe the thing is true or at least possible. But, he says, it but what he calls attitudinal pleasure. For example, he says, doesn’t have to involve knowledge. You can be pleased by you can be pleased to be living in Massachusetts, which is something that later turns out to be false. attitudinal, not sensory. I have never been to Massachusetts, Given all this, there is always an answer to the question, but I take his point: I am pleased to be living in London, ‘Are you happy right now, and how much?’ It is the sum of all something which is partly based on sensory pleasure the positive and negative numbers measuring the amounts (the delight of English spring in my garden, being close to of attitudinal pleasure and displeasure. Feldman calls it museums that I enjoy) but also based on how I think about momentary happiness. If you plot these over an interval of London – the way it represents a certain stage in my life and time, you get a happiness curve. You can calculate a total net what I am able to do here. happiness for that interval. You could average it. In any of It is also an attitude that persists even when sensory these ways, you can talk about an objectively defined thing pleasure is not present (on the dreary, rainy, grey days, or called happiness. when the central heating fails to work properly). Attitudinal So what are we to make of this? Is pleasure, even pleasure, then, is a much broader definition of pleasure, attitudinal pleasure, enough to be a definition of happiness? which goes far beyond mere sensory pleasure. I don’t think so. I want to include something deeper as Feldman believes that – in principle at least – you could put part of the definition of happiness, or at least of a happiness a number on your attitudinal pleasure at any moment. You worth having. In any case, regardless of whether he is can have a positive number, meaning you are pleased; a large right, it’s very disappointing that this is evidently the kind positive number means you are very pleased. A negative of happiness that people want. We want, it seems, to feel number means you are displeased; and on any particular pleasure: attitudinal, sensory or otherwise. We want to feel thing, you can be zero, neither pleased nor displeased. good. Feldman also believes there are no necessary barriers The problem is, some rather nasty things can potentially to what a person might be pleased about; it could be past, make us feel good (Feldman discusses this as a problem, present or future; it could be about large global facts, or although I do not find his conclusion satisfactory). Moreover, this is such a selfish way of being happy. And if we have an understanding of human sinfulness, we will be highly suspicious of what kind of things will make people It’s very disappointing that this feel good. is the kind of happiness people Is happiness essentially pleasure? I don’t think so, but want. We want, it seems, to feel more profoundly, I certainly hope not. pleasure: attitudinal, sensory or otherwise Kirsty Birkett teaches pastoral counselling at Oak Hill
oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 19 God, neutrinos and the why
Dr David Lee was a particle of science physicist, smashing atoms at a laboratory in Oxford, but he has just completed his training at Oak Hill as an Anglican ordinand. We asked for his take on science and faith
David, what branch of physics were in Japan to hunt for them. It is a giant of physics. Everything is made from you involved in before you came to tank of water, 40 metres high and atoms, or the particles that make up Oak Hill? 40 metres in diameter, holding the atoms, so I guess the attraction of it is equivalent of 20 Olympic swimming understanding the world at its most My branch was particle physics and pools of water. Every day, a billion nuts and bolts level. my PhD was in accelerator physics. In billion neutrinos pass through it But even in pure physics, you can use particle physics, atoms are smashed (roughly the number of grains of sand the technology for related things. My together to study what happens, on Earth), but only 15 are spotted. supervisor had one foot in my project, and the ‘what happens’ bit was the but he was also involved in using the area I was interested in. I ended up Are you a pure or applied physicist? same technology as an alternative researching a little particle called the Is there a world of inventions to cancer therapy, because it offers fewer neutrino, which was postulated in the be gained from understanding the side effects than radiotherapy. 1930s and discovered in the 50s. neutrino better, or are you more It is one of the most abundant interested in it for its own sake? Do you see pure physics as a noble particles in the universe. So many quest? neutrinos are spewed out by the sun My interest is primarily in pure that every second, 70 billion of them physics, and I think understanding Yes, I think so. From a Christian pass through an area the size of your the neutrino itself is unlikely perspective I think pure science has eye. But because they so rarely interact to revolutionise the world any something of fulfilling the cultural with anything, they pass through time soon. I was interested in the mandate about it. So when God says, unnoticed. neutrino because it is one of the ‘Go forth and multiply and subdue Scientists have built an experiment most fundamental building blocks the earth’, I think there is an order-
20 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary bringing aspect to it. So I believe pure science has a God-given mandate.
What about those who are not operating from that theological basis? How do you view your fellow physicists who are anti-faith or uninterested in it?
I think they do physics because it is interesting and it works. I don’t think they have anything more to build on than that. I was reading some correspondence in one of the periodicals of the Institute of Physics, and someone was essentially saying that we have no basis for doing what we are doing – it just works. Then someone else said, ‘Anything more than that we have to leave to the theologians.’ As Christians, I think we have something here where
oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 21 Right: Neutrino detection experiment in Daya Bay, China. Photo: Brookhaven National Laboratory
we can go on the offensive a bit. For me, the Christian worldview has more explanatory power for the reasons behind doing science than a purely secular one. I take it that we can do science for two reasons: first, because there is order in the world, and second, because the world doesn’t change. If I do an experiment today and then I repeat it tomorrow, I will get the same result – because that is how God made the world. So in Genesis 1, you have this picture of God bringing order out of chaos, bringing forth an orderly creation. You also have the creation reflecting its creator. And God says (in Malachi 3), ‘I the Lord do not change’, and that is why the creation doesn’t change. This means a Christian can explain why we can do science. It’s interesting that the Royal Society, the premier scientific body in the UK, was founded in the 17th century by 10 people, seven of whom were Christians, who were working from those presuppositions: that there is order in the world, and that the world is unchanging, because of the God who created it. I don’t think that institution has its Christian heritage front and centre now, but it is interesting that
22 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary For me, the Christian worldview has more explanatory power for the reasons behind doing science than a purely secular one
seven of those original people founded in their early years, but sadly, as they How do you think your physics might it because they were Christian. go on, become less interested. That come out in parish ministry? might be because Dawkins’ rhetoric is You see no conflict then between faith coming out of evolutionary science, so I want to help Christians who are and science? it more naturally fits with where they scientists think through their work as are coming from. Christians, and not just as people who I don’t see any conflict. And I don’t have stumbled into it. And who knows? think other scientists do. I went to a What is the one thing which has come Having a background in science might meeting on science and faith when closest to knocking your faith, or give me a hearing with people who I was an undergraduate at Imperial has just made you think, ‘Well, that’s would otherwise never darken the College London and the chaplain difficult’? door of the church. asked the audience, who were a mix of Christians and non-Christians, do I am not sure there is one. I think it That was your way into faith with you see any barriers to faith because of works the other way for me. My family your professor. science? People almost unanimously are non-Christian. I grew up assuming said, ‘I don’t think they are in conflict.’ that Christianity was a load of rubbish. Exactly. There are plenty of Christian By the time I was 18 I thought it academics who are respected in their had nothing to say to me. When I So you could be that person to other scientific fields and doing good work. arrived at university, I found there people. Is that a good thought? were Christians I could relate to, who Do you think people lose their faith like me were serious about studying Yes, absolutely. The prospect of God through scientific pressure or through science, and over time that fact piqued using our past experiences and where the atheist argument chipping away? my interest. he has placed us for his greater good, My tutor was also a Christian. After that is exciting, isn’t it? Yes. I am very My wife is a mathematician (we a little while, I went to him and asked, happy with that thought. met at Imperial) and she made the ‘Do you see anything which means you observation that people in the physical can’t be a Christian and a scientist?’ He sciences turn up at university thinking was a professor I respected, so hearing they know everything and leave what he said carried a lot of weight. realising they don’t. Whereas people in He told me he didn’t think there was Dr David Lee has just completed his the biological sciences are a bit more any barrier to being a Christian and a training at Oak Hill and is now Curate open to talking about Christian things scientist. of St Peter’s Fulham, in West London
oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 23 Shaped by The psalms opened up to Matt Searles when he experienced hard times in the psalms his personal life. In this interview he explains how he came to record songs based on the psalms and how they have shaped his ministry
What first got you into writing songs So it was this that led you to the head, but my heart, and this led me based on the psalms? psalms then? to keep writing songs, and to want to record a simple album, in case others To be honest, the psalms were always That’s right. My intention was never would be blessed by these psalms as a bit of a closed book to me until I did to write songs, but through these well. That was my first album: Now my theological training at Oak Hill, months of hospital visits I found and Not Yet. when I took the psalms course. What myself repeatedly reading certain first struck me when studying them psalms over and over again. In the You mention getting the psalms into was that so many are laments, with psalms I discovered the emotions I was your head and your heart. Can you say the psalmist crying out to God for feeling were shared by the psalmist, a little more about that? help in all sorts of situations. I began and that the psalms resonated with to wonder why the spirituality of the my experiences and how I was feeling. Sure. Our faith is never less than psalms seemed to be different to much Of particular comfort were the words intellectual. The story of the Bible of my own experience. in Psalm 30: ‘Weeping may remain is of a God who acts in history, who This all got very personal the for a night, but rejoicing comes in the speaks to us. There are truths that we following year, as my Mum was morning.’ need to know about who God is, and suddenly rushed to hospital with a This was going round my head about what he has done. When it felt heart problem and spent the next so much that eventually I started like ocean waves were threatening to month in intensive care. I remember humming it to a tune. I’d never really drown me, I needed something solid being called to the hospital at various written a song before, but the song I to hold on to. The unchanging truths points in the night by doctors fearing had written (almost by accident) was of God’s goodness and grace were that the worst, and as I drove in the car I sung at my Mum’s funeral when she solid rock for me. wanted to sing Christian songs, but died several months later. I realised But it was never merely intellectual. nothing I had really fit. Everything was how helpful the song (and the My experience was not one of having too triumphant and – if I can use this songwriting process) had been to me intellectual questions: doubting God’s word – easy. in getting the psalm not just into my sovereignty, omnipotence or other
24 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary words beginning with ‘omni’. Like Job, ‘Weeping may remain for a night’ – it Matt Searles albums I didn’t need answers, I needed God strikes me that church culture can himself. sometimes give the impression that we Matt Searles has produced two When I found it hard to pray, when need to be all sorted. There isn’t much albums: From the River to the Ends God felt distant and unfriendly place for sadness. Implicitly it is seen of the Earth (2014) and Now and towards me, and I didn’t know what I as a problem to be fixed, preferably in Not Yet (2011). Order or download felt, let alone how to articulate that to private. But the lament psalms counter them here: http://mattsearles. God, I discovered words in the psalms both these suggestions. We need to bandcamp.com that addressed a God who seemed far understand there is a time for weeping. off. I discovered a psalmist who was It may remain for a night. This could permitted to question and doubt, and a be just a season of life until morning God who gave him (and me) the words comes, but it may in fact remain until to do this. They were strong, strange the great morning, the resurrection and dangerous words at times, but morning. If we don’t understand this, they are words I am hugely grateful we can give ourselves and others such for, as they enabled me to engage with wrong expectations of the Christian God in times of difficulty, rather than life, and encourage a kind of double run from him. life, where we wear a mask of ‘holy happiness’ to church, but then never Have the psalms played a part in your really bring the mess of our lives to ministry to others then as well as our wise and kind creator, and to yourself? others whom he has given us to walk alongside us. Absolutely. I was ministering in a I’ve used other psalms as well church of relatively young people, yet I when meeting those in different was amazed at the hardships they went circumstances, but always gravitating through. With one family which had to the psalms I’ve known best, that experienced multiple bereavements in have spoken to me. There is an quick succession, that verse from Psalm authenticity to the psalms that really 30 was hugely helpful. I wanted to say speaks to us in our weaknesses. something, but it felt that more than this would have been inappropriate for Matt Searles is a postgraduate student where they were. at Oak Hill
oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 25 Christians No verse in the Bible and dating mentions boyfriends, girlfriends or dating. But that doesn’t mean the Bible has nothing to say about it all, argues Barnaby Monteiro
Jesus’ call to follow him and deny self is a call to be both counter-cultural and counter-self. We don’t follow the world around us and we don’t follow our hearts, because we know that ‘the heart is deceitful above all things’ (Jeremiah 17:9). tThat’s why when we come to think about the subject of dating, we expect our approach to be different – and at times we expect it to be inwardly agonising.
Dating isn’t everything – If you read through the whole Bible you’ll find no mention of boyfriends or going out. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t date, or that the Bible has nothing to say ultimately made for – friendship with will ever really get what God says on on it. But it does suggest that dating is God. dating. We will realise that dating is not nearly as big a deal as our society The Bible says God gave his life that not everything and we can relax. It makes it. The Bible actually goes we might know him and that our means we can be pleased for others. It further and says that even marriage deep longings for intimacy and love means we can break up with someone is not such a big deal. It’s temporary might be fully met by him – our only without falling to pieces. It will save us (Mark 12:25) and it’s only a picture true soulmate. It is only the person from the terribly vulnerable position (Ephesians 5:32) of what we were who truly knows God’s love who of desperately seeking.
26 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary Dating is not an end in itself – couples like to form their own semi- a relationship with someone who According to Facebook, there are commitments which just don’t involve wouldn’t marry you unless you became numerous different relational options: any legal or public bind. a Christian? Or if they did marry you, single, in a relationship, in an open they’d invite you to evangelistic events relationship, engaged, married and ‘It’s Dating is not to be sexual – This isn’t all your life? How would you feel about complicated’. an over-dogmatic evangelical line. All them always wanting to read the Bible But the Bible says that basically you’re Christians through history have said before making decisions? How would either single or married – and hopefully the same. That’s because the Bible is you feel if – as is statistically more likely you know which you are. In God’s eyes, unambiguous. Inside marriage, sex is a – they became lukewarm and gave up those are the two states (they’re both great gift to bind the couple, to express on their faith? Could you bear that? good) but there’s not a spectrum: I was commitment and openness and a How about if you were to profess single and then I was married. While sharing of everything. But outside some sort of faith: do you think you dating is quite a good invention, it’s marriage, there’s not to be ‘even a hint’ could ever have any assurance that not a separate state in God’s eyes, so it’s (Ephesians 5:3). Because it’s a wretched you made a genuine decision? And how not an end in itself. It leads either to thing to bind yourself physically with effective do you think their witness marriage or to staying single. someone when you haven’t bound would be if they say that Jesus is It’s obvious that dating leads yourself in every other way. You share the most important person in their somewhere because anyone who’s something very open and intimate whole life and yet you find them going going out (and it’s going well) has an that the other person can just walk off against him on this? inner pull to draw closer. So either such with. And there’s insecurity. And there As a Christian, I’ve seen many people couples borrow things from marriage are scars. of my generation fall away from the or they actually get married. What If love is about commitment and Christian faith. And I can’t think of you don’t find is couples who’ve been sacrifice, then a dating couple might a single one for whom it wasn’t over going out for 10 years and have not better express passionately their dating a non-believer. progressed. love for one another by not sleeping Think about it positively, though. Jesus described marriage as leaving together. Wouldn’t it be better to date someone all you know and being united together whose heartbeat is the same as yours? for all of life (Mark 10:7-9). It’s a Dating is not to be between a believer Who wants to help you be counter- combination of scary commitment and and an unbeliever – Paul says: ‘Don’t be cultural and counter-self? Who loves secure intimacy. And he knew that you yoked with unbelievers’ (2 Corinthians the Lord Jesus deeply? Who isn’t couldn’t truly have the one without the 6:14). A yoke is what you’d use to desperate because they know dating other. connect cattle when ploughing. And isn’t everything; who isn’t always Love means commitment. That’s just as you don’t want two cows pulling pushing the boundaries because they why you don’t find a guy saying to in opposite directions, so you don’t know dating isn’t to be sexual; who his girlfriend: ‘I have absolutely no want a husband and a wife, or two isn’t purposeless because they know intention in sticking with you through people dating, pulling in opposite ways. dating isn’t an end in itself? life. But I do love you.’ It’s why dating It won’t be good for you, it won’t be good for them. Barnaby Monteiro is an ordinand at If you’re not a Christian, how do Oak Hill. This article was first given as Main photo: Entrer dans le rêve you feel about the idea of being in a talk to Cambridge students
oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 27 Books Do today’s parents and educators understand childhood and work to nurture its capacity for wonder and imagination? Chris Ansberry has been reading a book which challenges the way we bring up our children
The alchemists of the Middle Ages and determined to destroy this stone, much early Renaissance searched for prima in the same way that it was destroyed materia, the base of all matter and following Voldemort’s failed attempt the fundamental ingredient for the to snatch it from Harry Potter. It’s too creation of the philosopher’s stone. dangerous to keep around. For many, such as JK Rowling’s So to assist in this process, Esolen Voldemort, the stone could be used to identifies ten ways to destroy a child’s provide its possessor with immortality. imagination, ten ways whereby parents For the alchemists of old, it was the and educators can form a child’s golden substance that would transform base gift into base materials. In so doing, he metals into gold. For Anthony Esolen, challenges popular practices in child it is the imagination, the instrument rearing and reflects on the different through which one is able to work the ways in which one might cultivate a miracle of King Midas and change the child’s mind. Ten Ways to Destroy ordinary into the extraordinary. How does one inspire a child’s the Imagination of Children, it would seem, naturally imagination? Or better, how do we possess this legendary stone; they have deaden the imagination of our youth? your Child an innate ability to create new worlds, A few of Esolen’s arguments deserve a Anthony Esolen the capacity to inhabit them, and brief summary. Intercollegiate Studies the power to delight in their wonder, Following an introductory chapter Institute, 2014 goodness, and beauty. Esolen admits that bemoans an approach to as much. But he fears that society in education anchored strictly in the general and parents in particular are Gradgrind method of ‘the facts’ – a
28 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary method that flattens the imagination, will preclude them from dwelling in a Instead, allow them to play dismisses the value of memory, abhors place where they may stretch and flap videogames rather than with maps or all structure and rules, and thrives their imaginations. So, says Esolen, blueprints; and preclude them from on drudgery – Esolen unveils the first turn on the TV, open the internet hunting or raising animals. Do it in the way to destroy the philosopher’s stone: browser, and by all means, keep the name of safety, safety that may kill keep your children indoors as much as kids inside. rather than protect. possible. This argument is intimately related The fourth way to destroy your Why? This will ensure your child to Esolen’s second point: never leave child’s imagination is straightforward: dwells in an artificial world, where children to themselves. Rather confine replace the fairy tale with political virtual space replaces air, where a them to Tormentaria, a world in which clichés and fads. This way, you can controlled structure neutralizes their schedule resembles the day’s render vast realms of human art the danger, mystery, and wonder lineup for the CEO of a Fortune 500 and life incomprehensible, starve of the outdoors, and where one is company. This will allow the tot to the child of the fundamental truths prevented from encountering the build their resumé, gain admission communicated through these stories, most threatening creature to their to Higher Blunting, and secure and nurse them on popular platitudes. complacency: themselves. Prestigious Work before they retire These go down easier. They are good This will secure your child’s entry and die. for a superficial and temporary into the World Federation of Fakery. It It will also ensure that they are never response. will prepare children for isolation and left alone to invent things, fashion Attention to the fundamental a life of constant supervision; and it games, create secret codes, organize truths communicated through fairy their little kingdoms, or venture to tales would require a real response: where the wild things are. So oversee silence, patience, and thought. That Never leave children them, overmanage them, and keep would stimulate the imagination. And, to themselves... them inside. This will thwart their according to Esolen, we don’t want imagination. that. It will also ensure The same is true, says Esolen, of the The fifth way is familiar enough: that they are never third way: keep children away from cast aspersions upon the heroic and left alone to invent machines and machinists. This will patriotic. How? Refuse to honour the things, fashion discourage them from cultivating the past of your family, people, country undesirable virtue of self-reliance, and church. Then the past cannot form games, create secret free them from figuring out how to your character or thinking; it cannot codes, organize their do things for themselves, squash their make claims on your allegiance; and it little kingdoms, or fascination with the elements of the cannot shape your identity. world, and guard them from hanging But the past cannot be ignored. venture to where around with someone who knows Esolen recognizes this. So to deal the wild things are things. with its lingering yet unwelcome
oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 29 The message harmful to British health). And from this summary, we discover Esolen’s is clear: the title is deceiving. As Phaedrus would imagination is say, things are not always what they fundamental to life, seem. This book is not strictly for parents. It is for educators. It is for human flourishing, those in Christian ministry. and, dare I say, The message is clear: the imagination gospel ministry is fundamental to life, human flourishing, and, dare I say, gospel ministry. To adopt Esolen’s rhetorical memory, he contends that we develop strategy, without the imagination, a particular disposition through we are stuck with the educational which to view it: cynicism. We learn to philosophy of Charles Dickens’ Mr criticize our country, vilify our religion Gradgrind: ‘the facts.’ and despise our family, its customs, its We cannot move beyond them to successes and its shame. see the way in which they provide If we cannot ignore the past, we can a window into, well, the wonder magnify the tarnish on our history as and beauty of the truth. We cannot well as those who came before us. This unleash the powers of envisagement or will help to cramp the imagination; capture what Karl Barth and Nicholas and it will provide us with a sense of Wolterstorff would call the strange superiority. new world projected by the Bible. And so the list goes on: cut all heroes We cannot harness, in Kevin down to size; reduce all talk of love to Vanhoozer’s terms, the drama of narcissism and sex; level distinctions redemptive history or place ourselves between man and woman; distract the as well as those entrusted to our care child with the shallow and unreal; and within it. We cannot translate biblical That would involve much more than (in my estimation) the most important, truth into our lives or the lives of those the facts; it would also necessitate deny the transcendent. You get the point. to whom we minister effectively. faith and produce, to use Ellen Davis’ From this brief summary, Esolen’s We cannot deal with those grey expression, ‘truthful imagination.’ rhetorical strategy is clear. He offers areas, those difficult pastoral issues That’s hard. Are we up for the task? a stinging critique of modern culture that are not explicitly addressed in If not, let’s follow Esolen’s disastrous through biting rhetoric and sharp scripture (after all, they would require advice: destroy the imagination, our turns of phrase (Warning: Esolen’s ‘the facts’). And we cannot heed Jesus’ children, and, while we’re at it, the next aversion to understatement may be call to accept the kingdom as a child. generation of Christian disciples.
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oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 31 “I often think prison is the easiest place to do gospel ministry. The men realise that all the things they’ve built their lives on have come crashing down. They are surprisingly open.” Phil Chadder, Chaplain of HM Prison Brixton
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