One of the benefits of studying apocryphal and pseudepigraphal literature is that such study alerts us to the intensely strange character of the religious matrix out of which our own tradition has arisen.
I simply don’t feel the tension or contradiction you do as I meditate on and read the scriptures. It feels like a unified whole to me. God as a consuming fire, the terror of the Lord, Abba, Father, come unto me and I will give you rest, lead to living waters, a sword to strike down the nations, wipe away every tear. Maybe because I experienced strong , loving parents with authority to punish, the queen and king of the household high standards and responsible caring and provision and a love not based on your performance who were not hypocrites and at the same time merely human, humble and approachable.
I share your revulsion for this imagery, especially as someone who is largely quite new to the Faith. It has been difficult to take it on, having grown up with the modern and quite justified aversion to such notions of authority and power.
Yet within the practicalities of imaginative prayer, I have found that there is no better vision to communicate the virtue of humility. To bow my heart, mind and will totally and trust fully to the One and Only.
Due to this I am not sure if we can necessarily disband it. It is discomforting for the modern sensibility yet we have no other adequate imagery within the modern sensibility to replace it in my opinion. We cannot sociomorphically project God and the Heavens as Prime Minister or President and His Divine Parliament or Congress. It doesn't work quite the same as a means to communicate what I have spoken of.
We live in a world where such royal and courtly imagery doesn't have as much salience for us, that causes in us an alienation and a scrupulous sense of unworthiness if anything. But because of this, such imagery can be now used for its proper purpose, instead of justifying human power politics, it can be used to deepen in us a deeper knowledge of what humility involves (via a sort of analogical imagination).
And this can be also found in what I think you are pointing to, of finding God as Patrick Kavanagh says, "in the bits and pieces of the day". We can find in His work as carpenter, carefully and lovingly carving and hammering our world and our souls. And in the same way we would thank and praise the skill, wisdom and authority, a carpenter had in crafting us a beautiful table, we should thank Christ.
(None of this is a critique by the way, tell me if I am missing something or if I'm drivelling buckets)
So in a very long winded and loaded fashion this leads me to ask: what and where do you find God's simultaneous majesty and tenderness? Or what better human roles than king and court may we sociomorphically project to God and the Heavens to induce in us a more healthy and fulfilling relationship with God and the Heavens, leading to a more increasing love within the soul?
Maybe bridal mysticism has this covered for us, who knows.
I simply don’t feel the tension or contradiction you do as I meditate on and read the scriptures. It feels like a unified whole to me. God as a consuming fire, the terror of the Lord, Abba, Father, come unto me and I will give you rest, lead to living waters, a sword to strike down the nations, wipe away every tear. Maybe because I experienced strong , loving parents with authority to punish, the queen and king of the household high standards and responsible caring and provision and a love not based on your performance who were not hypocrites and at the same time merely human, humble and approachable.
I share your revulsion for this imagery, especially as someone who is largely quite new to the Faith. It has been difficult to take it on, having grown up with the modern and quite justified aversion to such notions of authority and power.
Yet within the practicalities of imaginative prayer, I have found that there is no better vision to communicate the virtue of humility. To bow my heart, mind and will totally and trust fully to the One and Only.
Due to this I am not sure if we can necessarily disband it. It is discomforting for the modern sensibility yet we have no other adequate imagery within the modern sensibility to replace it in my opinion. We cannot sociomorphically project God and the Heavens as Prime Minister or President and His Divine Parliament or Congress. It doesn't work quite the same as a means to communicate what I have spoken of.
We live in a world where such royal and courtly imagery doesn't have as much salience for us, that causes in us an alienation and a scrupulous sense of unworthiness if anything. But because of this, such imagery can be now used for its proper purpose, instead of justifying human power politics, it can be used to deepen in us a deeper knowledge of what humility involves (via a sort of analogical imagination).
And this can be also found in what I think you are pointing to, of finding God as Patrick Kavanagh says, "in the bits and pieces of the day". We can find in His work as carpenter, carefully and lovingly carving and hammering our world and our souls. And in the same way we would thank and praise the skill, wisdom and authority, a carpenter had in crafting us a beautiful table, we should thank Christ.
(None of this is a critique by the way, tell me if I am missing something or if I'm drivelling buckets)
So in a very long winded and loaded fashion this leads me to ask: what and where do you find God's simultaneous majesty and tenderness? Or what better human roles than king and court may we sociomorphically project to God and the Heavens to induce in us a more healthy and fulfilling relationship with God and the Heavens, leading to a more increasing love within the soul?
Maybe bridal mysticism has this covered for us, who knows.
Wow. The passage about the sound of the leaves really hit me. I can’t wait to read the rest of this series.