Mahmoud Darwish - Palestinian Voice

[To a Killer] If you had contemplated the victim's face

And thought it through,
you would have remembered your mother in the Gas Chamber,
you would have been freed from the reason for the rifle

And you would have changed your mind: this is not the way

to find one's identity again ........

....

Alone, we are alone as far down as the sediment

Were it not for the visits of the rainbow ....

.....

A woman told the cloud: cover my beloved

For my clothing is drenched with his blood

Mahmoud Darwish died on Saturday 9th August aged 67

He was the Palestinian conscience. He had a very clear vision not only of who we are

but who we should be ...... Hanan Ashrawi

Jesus, the metaphorical Theologian

Already Tom Wright had triggered the importance of Parable for me, Kenneth Bailey has fleshed this out in his book - "Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes". He describes Jesus as a metaphorical Theologian, too often his parables lock Jesus into simple story teller. He goes on to write in explanation .... Jesus' primary method of creating meaning was through metaphor, simile, parable and dramatic action rather than through logic and reasoning. He created meaning like a dramatist and a poet rather than like a philosopher.

His parables were a source of Faith rather than ethics and for the first few centuries of the Christian experience this was how the faith was taught.

Bailey continues: "A parable is an extended metaphor and as such it is not a delivery system for an idea but a house in which the reader/listener is invited to take up residence."
Brueggemann also uses metaphor. The metaphor of 'exile' to assist the American Church - read most Western churches in coming to terms with the reality it faces today.
"The usefulness of a metaphor for rereading our own context is that it is not claimed to be a one- 0n - one match to 'reality' as though the metaphor of 'exile' actually describes our situation. Rather a metaphor proceeds by having only an odd, playful and ill-fitting match to reality, the purpose of which is to illuminate and evoke dimensions of reality which will otherwise go unnoticed and therefore unexperienced" : Cadences of Home p1

A Writer to Read: Jacques Ellul

This is to be a note over time. "The Presence of the Kingdom" was the first of Ellul's books I purchased and read. .. in the 60's. I am reading it again ... more carefully. There is a website -

www.ellul.org which provides some English language introduction to this great modern Christian writer. His "Technological Society" and "The Technological Bluff" are sociological critiques of modern technological societies. 

"The Meaning of the City"  "the politics of God and the politics of Man"   "The Judgement of Jonah"  "Anarchy and Christianity"  and "Hope in Time of Abandonment" are some of the volumes I have to read and act upon.

A quick note to Mariko - Thank you for pointing out that list. I did locate it myself from Google and found it very useful as reference, as summary, as a way to connect the volumes I own myself and to direct friends who would wish to investigate this remarkable Christian writer. 

There will be more at this blog site as I read and reflect on his work.