Thoughts from Uncle Walty...

Ok -- so I read the following last night:

"[This] consciousness with its program of acheivable satiation has redefined our notions of humanness, and it has done that to all of us. It has created a subjective consciousness concerned only with self-satisfaction. It has denied the legitimacy of tradition that requires us to remember, of authority that expects us to answer, and of community that calls us to care. [This] program of acheivable satiation: a) is fed by a management mentality that believes there are no mysteries to honor, only problems to be solved. [...] b) Is legitimated by an 'official religion of optimism,' which believes God has no business other than to maintain our standard of living, ensuring [the leader's] own place in his palace. c) Requires the annulment of the neighbor as a life-giver in our history; it imagines that we can live outside history as self-made men and women." -- Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination

Brueggeman is writing this to define and summarize the prevailing worldview opposed to his "prophetic imagination". Does this sound familiar to anyone else? Self-made men and women? Official religion of optimism? No mysteries to honor, only problems to be solved?

I grieve for the ways I have been that kind of Christian -- that kind of person. For me, it ties back into Judy's call for a theology of beauty, since beauty and mystery are intertwined in my soul in ways impossible for me to articulate. Brueggeman also asserts that the prophetic voice rises from our capacity to grieve, and I've always thought I was impossibly morbid for finding grief almost inexpressably beautiful. But maybe I'm not so far off after all...