Your aside about the church trying to be things it was never designed to be is worth the price of admission! There is much in that observation that strikes home to me. As a long tenured pastor (‘senior’ pastor since 1981, prior to that I served several churches as an ‘associate’ - have pastored the church where I am since 1991) I have experienced first hand these identity crises of the ‘church.’ I plan on retiring in 2026 and I hope to leave my current role by helping this church recover its NT roots. Just as our identity as believers is rooted in Christ, so is our identity as a fellowship of followers of Jesus.
That means a lot, Steve. As soon as it occurred to me, I felt its truth and importance (in this ongoing context we are in, especially), so it means a lot that you saw it, too.
I guess two of my favorite thinkers/writers are in sync this morning! Here is @leonardsweet from today's Facebook status:
"A church is not automatically a Christbody community. A church becomes the Body of Christ when it continues Christ’s mission in the world and embraces being the greatest force for goodness, truth and beauty in one’s zip code."
I feel like I have dipped in the pool of culture that David Brooks talked about in his most recent column that you linked. Although he didn’t say this specifically, as we partake of culture (literature, art, music) we help to right ourselves and overcome the betrayals we’ve all experienced. Everyday we are confronted with betrayal of some kind so it’s important to gird ourselves and I am in agreement with you and Brooks that attention to goodness, truth and beauty is what will do that best as that is how God made us.
I love that insight: there is something about beauty and art that helps us overcome betrayal. I suspect there is a whole field of study out there on this. One of my favorite works of philosophy is Elaine Scarry's On Beauty and Being Just, which connect the role beauty has in achieving justice in the world. Your point affirms to obverse. And, of course, it's all part of who God is and his character, beautiful, faithful, and just.
I think of the sonnet as a poetic essay. Years ago, I wrote a Shakespearean sonnet for a university credit course on writing that I was taking. At first I was terrified when I saw the assignment. Poetry does not come at all naturally to me. It has took me years to even properly appreciate reading it. But you are right, iambic pentameter fits the rhythm of the English language naturally, and it was much easier than I thought it would be.
The same unit of the course also asked for a long first person narrative poem, and I ended up writing that in blank verse, because iambic pentameter felt so natural. I got full marks for both poems, but more importantly, I learned to better appreciate the subtle beauty of poetic forms. I prefer the Shakespearean to the Petrarchan sonnet. The two line turn at the end of the Shakespearean suits how English writing tends to briefly sum up closing thoughts.
Yes! A poetic essay. That is a perfect description of a sonnet. Poetry does not come naturally to me either (I can't even clap my hands in time.) I think that is why I have come to appreciate it so.
Rhythm was the weakest part of my musical ability growing up. Two things helped strengthen it, playing and singing in ensemble with others, and playing for congregational singing in church. I grew up in churches that mainly used hymnals. Hymns generally have very regular metres, but usually use the opposite of an iambic foot, the trochee, with the emphasis on the first each pair of syllables. This past Advent season, I was reading over the words of Charles Wesley's 'Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, and so impressed by his poetic structure of the hymn, not only of metre and rhyme, but also the rhyming and meter of thoughts and imagery. That is far subtler, and is what distinguishes great from good poetry.
[N.B. The rhythmic features of hymns are why the basic popular drumline didn't really sound good with hymns when drumsets were first introduced to modern churches. The rhythm of the average 'rock' drumline didn't match the rhythm of the poetry. I was classically trained and I find the traditional hymn structure familiar, since it is very similar to classical genre structures. It is interesting playing hymns with musicians practiced in contemporary styles. I sometimes find myself explaining the rhythmic and harmonic - for guitar players - emphasis necessary to properly enhance the words. I've noticed the best church drummers are starting to take account of those rhythmic subtlties, and alter their drumming to match the wording better. The best example I have ever heard was a West African sabar player. West African drums are called 'talking drums' because they imitate the rhythm and inflexion of a language to 'speak'. This sabar player imitated the English hymns so well, you could practically hear the words from the drum.]
Loved so much about this and in particular about how a sonnet works, especially re the final couplet - that's a real eye-opener for reading/reflecting. Apart from delighting in the sheer beauty of what Shakespeare wrote, the whole post got me thinking about how, for example, Paul in Romans quotes so heavily from OT poetic passages (esp Psalms, Isaiah and parts of Deut) - ought that to impact how we understand what he's doing or how he's doing it, that this isn't linear theological fact but has another layer to it at least? I think it definitely ought to do so.
A quick tech tip (if it's needed) - if you hit Ctrl + Enter at the end of a line (instead of just Enter) the next line starts as though it was the same paragraph continuing, not a new one - works great for quoting poems, songs etc. Also: there's a great free app called Shakespeare Pro, that has all his works on it, including the Sonnets - very nicely put together with some Pro features you can pay for if you wish to.
Poetry is so important in the Bible -- and in life, more that we moderns acknowledge.
Richard, the tech advice is much needed and much appreciated. I still cannot figure out how to format a lot of things in substack and I have tried and tried. I usually draft in Word, then copy and paste. Block quotes of poetry copy as block quotes. Block quotes from prose...do not. And I can’t figure out how to reformat once in Substack. I am grateful for technology but hate it! 😅
Just in case it's of any interest, this month's Logos freebie (until the 15th) is Adele Berlin's work, The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism - some of it is somewhat specialist (re the Hebrew) but you might still find it useful/interesting. You can get it here: https://www.logos.com/free-book
Your aside about the church trying to be things it was never designed to be is worth the price of admission! There is much in that observation that strikes home to me. As a long tenured pastor (‘senior’ pastor since 1981, prior to that I served several churches as an ‘associate’ - have pastored the church where I am since 1991) I have experienced first hand these identity crises of the ‘church.’ I plan on retiring in 2026 and I hope to leave my current role by helping this church recover its NT roots. Just as our identity as believers is rooted in Christ, so is our identity as a fellowship of followers of Jesus.
That means a lot, Steve. As soon as it occurred to me, I felt its truth and importance (in this ongoing context we are in, especially), so it means a lot that you saw it, too.
I guess two of my favorite thinkers/writers are in sync this morning! Here is @leonardsweet from today's Facebook status:
"A church is not automatically a Christbody community. A church becomes the Body of Christ when it continues Christ’s mission in the world and embraces being the greatest force for goodness, truth and beauty in one’s zip code."
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻😍
I feel like I have dipped in the pool of culture that David Brooks talked about in his most recent column that you linked. Although he didn’t say this specifically, as we partake of culture (literature, art, music) we help to right ourselves and overcome the betrayals we’ve all experienced. Everyday we are confronted with betrayal of some kind so it’s important to gird ourselves and I am in agreement with you and Brooks that attention to goodness, truth and beauty is what will do that best as that is how God made us.
I love that insight: there is something about beauty and art that helps us overcome betrayal. I suspect there is a whole field of study out there on this. One of my favorite works of philosophy is Elaine Scarry's On Beauty and Being Just, which connect the role beauty has in achieving justice in the world. Your point affirms to obverse. And, of course, it's all part of who God is and his character, beautiful, faithful, and just.
Please pardon all the typos in that reply. Ugh!
Just bought this book on your recommendation! Thank you. Very invested in that topic. :)
Oh my goodness have any of you heard David Tennant on YouTube read this sonnet ? I can’t recommend it highly enough as a treat with morning coffee
Thank you for sharing this! What a talent he is.
And with such a beautiful voice and so very handsome
I think of the sonnet as a poetic essay. Years ago, I wrote a Shakespearean sonnet for a university credit course on writing that I was taking. At first I was terrified when I saw the assignment. Poetry does not come at all naturally to me. It has took me years to even properly appreciate reading it. But you are right, iambic pentameter fits the rhythm of the English language naturally, and it was much easier than I thought it would be.
The same unit of the course also asked for a long first person narrative poem, and I ended up writing that in blank verse, because iambic pentameter felt so natural. I got full marks for both poems, but more importantly, I learned to better appreciate the subtle beauty of poetic forms. I prefer the Shakespearean to the Petrarchan sonnet. The two line turn at the end of the Shakespearean suits how English writing tends to briefly sum up closing thoughts.
Yes! A poetic essay. That is a perfect description of a sonnet. Poetry does not come naturally to me either (I can't even clap my hands in time.) I think that is why I have come to appreciate it so.
Rhythm was the weakest part of my musical ability growing up. Two things helped strengthen it, playing and singing in ensemble with others, and playing for congregational singing in church. I grew up in churches that mainly used hymnals. Hymns generally have very regular metres, but usually use the opposite of an iambic foot, the trochee, with the emphasis on the first each pair of syllables. This past Advent season, I was reading over the words of Charles Wesley's 'Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, and so impressed by his poetic structure of the hymn, not only of metre and rhyme, but also the rhyming and meter of thoughts and imagery. That is far subtler, and is what distinguishes great from good poetry.
[N.B. The rhythmic features of hymns are why the basic popular drumline didn't really sound good with hymns when drumsets were first introduced to modern churches. The rhythm of the average 'rock' drumline didn't match the rhythm of the poetry. I was classically trained and I find the traditional hymn structure familiar, since it is very similar to classical genre structures. It is interesting playing hymns with musicians practiced in contemporary styles. I sometimes find myself explaining the rhythmic and harmonic - for guitar players - emphasis necessary to properly enhance the words. I've noticed the best church drummers are starting to take account of those rhythmic subtlties, and alter their drumming to match the wording better. The best example I have ever heard was a West African sabar player. West African drums are called 'talking drums' because they imitate the rhythm and inflexion of a language to 'speak'. This sabar player imitated the English hymns so well, you could practically hear the words from the drum.]
I took piano lessons for years. They didn’t take. :)
One of my favorite poems of my favorite form. :)
I read a sonnet you wrote that you posted somewhere here and now I can’t find it. Following these threads using my phone is less than user friendly!
Oh, I think I put it on my Substack! Here's the direct link: https://agenuinearticle.substack.com/p/shall-i-intrepid-stand-alone
Beautiful! Thank you for sharing this.
Loved so much about this and in particular about how a sonnet works, especially re the final couplet - that's a real eye-opener for reading/reflecting. Apart from delighting in the sheer beauty of what Shakespeare wrote, the whole post got me thinking about how, for example, Paul in Romans quotes so heavily from OT poetic passages (esp Psalms, Isaiah and parts of Deut) - ought that to impact how we understand what he's doing or how he's doing it, that this isn't linear theological fact but has another layer to it at least? I think it definitely ought to do so.
A quick tech tip (if it's needed) - if you hit Ctrl + Enter at the end of a line (instead of just Enter) the next line starts as though it was the same paragraph continuing, not a new one - works great for quoting poems, songs etc. Also: there's a great free app called Shakespeare Pro, that has all his works on it, including the Sonnets - very nicely put together with some Pro features you can pay for if you wish to.
Poetry is so important in the Bible -- and in life, more that we moderns acknowledge.
Richard, the tech advice is much needed and much appreciated. I still cannot figure out how to format a lot of things in substack and I have tried and tried. I usually draft in Word, then copy and paste. Block quotes of poetry copy as block quotes. Block quotes from prose...do not. And I can’t figure out how to reformat once in Substack. I am grateful for technology but hate it! 😅
Just in case it's of any interest, this month's Logos freebie (until the 15th) is Adele Berlin's work, The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism - some of it is somewhat specialist (re the Hebrew) but you might still find it useful/interesting. You can get it here: https://www.logos.com/free-book
Ah! Thank you!