Emily Dickinson’s line “Tell the whole truth, but obliquely” suggests that truth is overwhelming, like the sun, and should be revealed indirectly. This also applies to faith, which essentially tells the truth “obliquely,” through stories, metaphors, and personal experiences. This is less about what to believe and more about how to live. “Truth must be gradually dazzling/Or all men are blinded.”
Jesus spoke the truth obliquely, conveying it in a nuanced way, not just through stories and parables. When Jesus declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” he did not say, “I am the answer, the solution, the way to paradise.” By calling himself “the way,” Jesus emphasized that everyone else is wrong, but living in truth. He emphasized that living in love is what God is all about, not condemning the world or rejecting other faiths.
Neither Jesus nor Christians have a monopoly on God or divinity. The cornerstone of the Christian faith is that “the Word became flesh,” that God became man, that is, bone of our bones and our life. The “flesh” includes all of us: saints and sinners, pillars of society and fallen, overcomers and victims, believers and non-believers, and the church.
Although the Church is far from perfect, it is still “the body of Christ” as Jesus himself expressed it: “And we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the power is not ours but God’s” (2 Corinthians 4:7).
Faith alone is not enough, love alone is not enough. Faith is something you learn in church, and it is much like practicing the piano: you can’t start with Rachmaninoff; only through practice and training can you play well. And yet, as the contemplative Thomas Merton reminds us, “we are always beginners.” What we seek is already here, but there is always more to receive.
Prayer is more than meets the eye. I remember the famous English churchman Leslie Weatherhead giving a humorous response to a skeptical friend who suggested that “answered prayers” were coincidences: “Maybe so, but I realized that coincidences happen when I pray, and they don’t happen when I don’t pray.” In my experience, prayer is about perceiving more clearly what is right in front of us, from finding lost keys to the profound loss of a friend, to feeling the soles of our feet as we walk along the road, to the startled reaction of a praying mantis on our porch railing, to a broken flower pot and a dying plant. What we are looking for is found not by seeking, but by receiving, by seeing the beauty or pain of each moment as prayer.
Prayer, whether silently or aloud, whether speaking of God or not, is a readiness to embrace more than what initially prompted it. Prayer is reflexive; it reinforces itself, and with each act of prayer the habit is strengthened and the inclination to pray deepens. As the old saying goes, “A tree does not immediately bear fruit.” There are as many ways to pray as there are differences between us. Like art, prayer is open to many interpretations, sometimes simultaneously. From “deep sighs that cannot be put into words” (John 4:24) to praising God, from simply saying “help me” or “thank you,” and yes, oh! Like faith, prayer is meaningful not because it is useful or pious, but because it is true.
What is true and beautiful is always a “slant” in a world of right angles and straight lines. Art is not a sermon, but it more than speaks to itself. As the Bible says, “the stones cry out.” This is a metaphor for God’s presence in all of creation, but we are often too busy to listen. Increasingly, the minds of many people are already made up. Great artists, like Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem “The Greatness of God,” help us listen again.
The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod? Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil... For all this, nature is never spent; There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; And though the last lights off the black West went Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs — Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
Annie Dillard shared the same perspective when she wrote, “Holiness is no more present at this hour as you read this than it was the day the Red Sea parted… At any given moment, holiness may wipe you with its fingers.”
Notes and reading
Religion causes division.
– So what about you and I? What would we tolerate if we were judged for our excesses? Name your scapegoat. “He who loves truth will be careful not to judge by the parts as distinguished from the whole.” – Samuel Johnson Rambler (1750-1752). Consider some other common targets today.
“Tell the whole truth, but tell it obliquely, otherwise all men will be blind.“ (#1263) It was written around 1842. Emdash divides the poem into short segments to show the way people react to unsettling truths: by interrupting or turning away, unwilling to participate.
From the Bible –
“If these [the crowds] If we are silent, the stones will cry out.” – Luke 19:40.
“…in spirit and truth” – John 4:24.
“I am the way, the truth, and the life” – John 14:6.
“The Word became flesh And he dwelt among us.” – John 1:14.
“We’re always beginners.” -Thomas Merton Meditative Prayer (1971), p. 37.
Christian Agnostic – Leslie Weatherhead (1965). Weatherhead was a prominent British Methodist pastor, author and theologian.
“The Greatness of God” – Gerard Manley Hopkins Poetry and prose (Penguin Classics, 1985). Hopkins (1844-1889) was a great poet, so radically different from his contemporaries, that it took many years for him to be fully recognized. Hopkins became a Jesuit priest. – Harold Bloom has said, “Hopkins is a great poet of nature and faith, unparalleled in his originality of meter and diction. His ‘springy rhythms’ and intense musicality of his verse have had a profound influence on modernist and contemporary poetry.” – The Western Canon: Books and Schools Throughout the Ages (1995).
“There is no greater holiness than this…” – Annie Dillard for the time being: essay – Winner of the PEN Literary Award (2000). Dillard is one of the most influential contemporary American authors. Tinker Creek Pilgrims (1974).
» On the obsession with the word “God” “You can call God Fred if you want.” Words of prayer, oh! – Anne Lamott Plan B: Further Considerations on Faith (2006), help, thanks, awesome (2015). Lamott is surprisingly laid back and humorous. She’s great. Theologian Failed.
Source: 2 + 2 = 5 – williamgreen.substack.com
