Things and power

In this premodern, enchanted universe, it was also assumed that power resided in things, which is precisely why things like relics or the Host could be invested with spiritual power. As a result, “in the enchanted world, the line between personal agency and impersonal force was not at all clearly drawn” (p. 32). There is a kind of blurring of boundaries so that it is not only personal agents that have causal power (p. 35). Things can do stuff.—James K. A. Smith, How (Not) to Be Secular, 29 (emphasis original)

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And what makes you think that they don't? It's a widespread belief, rearing its head in the Bible and throughout the ancient world. There's a marvelous book on it, sadly now out of print, that I've excerpted from in the past: Barbara Nevling Porter, ed., What Is a God?

The world is an enchanted place, if only we would take off our materialistic glasses (I mean philosophically materialistic—that the physically visible world is all there is). The mystics know that, and the two-thirds world knows it. But we've lost touch with it. And that's what this book is all about…

Just an
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It's the story

Taylor seems to recognize that we are “narrative animals”: we define who we are, and what we ought to do, on the basis of what story we see ourselves in.—James K. A. SmithHow (Not) to Be Secular, 25

<idle musing>
Today we begin a new book. For years I've been meaning to read Charles Taylor's A Secular Age, but the shear size of it was offputting to me. So, I decided I would do a no-no: I'm reading a distillation of it.

The goal is to learn enough about the book to motivate me to finally pick it up and read it. But at almost 900 pages—well that's a major time commitment!
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Complete collapse

Broadly speaking, the collapse of the Assyrian Empire was one of the most sudden and absolute in history: some provinces were already in a state of profound crisis while others retained a measure of vitality, but Assyria itself suffered a vertical crash. The most densely urbanized and populated region, the great cities, and the infrastructure of irrigation were all transformed into a desert. The process common to other empires, which after their collapse survive as “commonwealths”— that is, as cultural, linguistic and religious communities—does not apply to Assyria.—Mario Liverani, Assyria: The Imperial Mission, 258

<idle musing>
That's it for this book. It really is a great book, but it didn't lend itself well to extractions. I highly recommend it for understanding how empires, not just the Assyrian one, work.

Not sure what I'll be excerpting from next. I've been reading Smith's How (Not) to Be Secular as well as Walton and Walton, The Lost World of the Torah. Oh, and at the local bookstore, I picked up a used copy of Malcolm Gladwell, What the Dog Saw, but that doesn't lend itself well to excerpting, so it probably won't show up here.

As if that weren't enough, I checked out of the library the third book of the Wingfeather Saga. I read the first two way back in 2020 during Covid on the recommendation of a friend. Delightful books, but I got sidetracked and am only now coming back to finish the series. And, I'm editing a few books. Most of the summer was spent editing the forthcoming Eerdmans NICOT volume on Daniel 1–6. It's a monster at around 400K words! Between that and the garden, it's been a pretty busy summer. But, with the garden winding down, I'm looking forward to more reading time. We'll see how that works out : )
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The word games we play to look good…

In the imagination of the western world, there is now a tidy distinction between the “Asiatic” empires—still definable as such, because they remain territorial, compact, bellicose, aggressive, despotic, and fundamentalist—and the western ones, which are not considered true empires because they are flexible, delocalized, peaceful, secular, progressive, enlightened, commercial, and now financial. The term “empire” is reserved for those we do not like, our adversaries, and nobody would apply it to themselves or take pride in such a label. While empires in the first category can be described as “empires of evil,” there is no corresponding expression denoting “good empires” to describe those in the second category. The “holy war,” the jihad, is a threat to humanity, but a Crusade is merely a figure of speech. Perhaps nothing expresses this duality better than the original “Star Wars” trilogy (produced between 1977 and 1983, during the Cold War), in which the empire is evil, aggressive, and impenetrable, and its soldiers are faceless and armored like ancient warriors—while “we” are a confederation, a flexible and vibrant international alliance that fights for good and for the salvation of humanity. Moreover, post-imperialistic historiography stresses intercultural phenomena such as assimilation and emulation, rather than those associated with conquest pure and simple.—Mario Liverani, Assyria: The Imperial Mission, 253

Tozer for Tuesday

People do not like the word “mystery,” but it is a good Bible word, and it is a word we ought to learn to live with. For the world—everything round about us—is shrouded in mystery.—A.W. Tozer, Reclaiming Christianity, 180

Be Thou My Vision

256 Be Thou My Vision

1. Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
   Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art;
   Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
   Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

2. Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
   I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
   Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
   Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

3. Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
   Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
   Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
   High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

4. High King of Heaven, my victory won,
   May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heav’n’s Sun!
   Heart of my own heart, whate’er befall,
   Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.
                         Ancient Irish
                         Trans. by Mary E. Byrne
                         Versed by Eleanor H. Hull
                         The Methodist Hymnal 1964 edition

<idle musing>
This is one of my favorite hymns, so I was very surprised to see that it only occurs in a little more than 150 hymnals. The Methodist hymnal also excised the third verse:

3. Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
   Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
   Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tow’r:
   Raise Thou me heav’nward, O Pow’r of my pow’r.

We know nothing about the versifier, sadly, and precious little about the translator. Apparently, this is the only thing she translated.
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