"Everything about you,
My life, is both
Make-believe and real.
We are a couple
Working the night shift
In a bomb factory. ...
One can hear the fire engine
In the distance,
But not the cries for help,

Just the silence
Growing deeper
At the sight of a small child
Leaping out of a window
With its nightclothes on fire."

-----Charles Simic, "Listen"

After spending the first 200 pages of his new book talking about objections to the gospel and reasons for the gospel, Tim Keller devotes the last few pages to the Christian life. Here are some excerpts. Let me know what you think.

"How do we respond to this [gospel]? When we look at the whole scope of this story line, we see clearly that Christianity is not only about getting one's individual sins forgiven so we can go to heaven. That is an important means of God's salvation, but not the final end or purpose of it. The purpose of Jesus' coming is to put the whole world right, to renew and restore the creation, not escape it. It is not just to bring personal forgiveness and peace, but also justice and shalom to the world. God created both body and soul, and the resurrection of Jesus shows that he is going to redeem both body and soul. The work of the Spirit of God is not only to save souls but also to care for and cultivate the face of the earth, the material world...

What does it mean, then, to become part of God's work in the world? What does it mean to live a Christian life? One way to answer that question is to look back into the life of the Trinity and the original creation. God made us to ever increasingly share in his own joy and delight in the same way he has joy and delight within himself. We share his joy first as we give him glory (worshipping and serving him rather than ourselves); second, as we honor and serve the dignity of other human beings made in the image of God's glory; and third as we cherish his derivative glory in the world of nature, which also reflects it. We glorify and enjoy him only as we worship him, serve the human community, and care for the created environment...

The story of the gospel makes sense of moral obligation and our belief in the reality of justice, so Christians do restorative and redistributive justice wherever they can. The story of the gospel makes sense of our indelible religiousness, so Christians do evangelism, pointing the way to forgiveness and reconciliation with God through Jesus. The gospel makes sense of our profoundly relational character, so Christians work sacrificially to strengthen human communities around them, as well as the Christian community, the Church. The gospel story also makes sense of our delight in beauty, so Christians become stewards of the material world, from those who cultivate the natural creation through science and gardening, to those who give themselves to artistic endeavors, all knowing why these things are necessary for human flourishing. The skies and trees sing of the glory of God, and by caring for them and celebrating them we free their voices to praise him and delight us. In short, the Christian life means not only building up the Christian community through encouraging people to faith in Christ, but building up the human community through deeds of justice and service...

Christians then are the true 'revolutionaries' who work for justice and truth, and we labor in expectation of a perfect world in which: 'He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things is passed away (Revelation 21:4)...'

-----Timothy Keller, "The Reason for God"

Simultaneous volcanic eruption and electrical storm in Chile. Holy Moses!

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Aaron Rench: "In the chapter on poetry and religion you start off by saying, 'Art is like Christianity in this way; at its greatest, it can give you access to the deepest suffering you imagine.' Would you say this is why art resists sentimentalism?"

Christian Wiman: "Well, the adjective is important there: greatest. I was trying to point out how the highest moments of art can at once enact our deepest sufferings and provide a peace that is equal to them, and how this is similar to (though lesser than) what I understand to be the deepest truth of Christianity. The peace does not eliminate the sorrow or the tragedy: great art acknowledges intractable human suffering, and Christianity's promise of resurrection is empty without a clear, cold sense of the cross. So yes, art does resist sentimentality, as does, at its best, Christianity. That said, there are all kinds of art, and all kinds of Christianity, that include sentimentality---and are not necessarily vitiated because of that. I love many novels, poems, and pieces of music that have obvious sentimental moments or characters in them, and it seems to me that the daily life of a Christian can't be lived with the kind of austerity I'm describing above. Some people, those inclined to severity and sternness, actually need more sentimentality in their lives, and others who are over-inclined to frivolity and vapid cheerfulness need to be dropped more often into the depths of their beliefs. Art is a good means for achieving both of these."

-----from an interview with the editor of Poetry, Christian Wiman, in this month's Books and Culture