All Shall Be Well

[The following essay was first posted in November of 2011. This week I was reminded of it and found it to be a word I needed to hear again today.]

“All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.” 

                                                                                               ~ Julian of Norwich

I tend toward optimism. Sure, you can look around and see any number of causes for alarm and dismay. The world – or I should say the humans who inhabit it – display a grand mixture of good and bad, weak and strong, noble and depraved. Even so, and with such a mixed bag, humanity is on an upward track. There is a higher consciousness and a greater awareness at work in society. I can’t say that my view was always so bright. Growing up as a Southern Baptist, the Puritan heritage combined with the twentieth century Evangelical movement combined to create a climate of judgmental attitudes and a bleak worldview. Modern society was often seen as depraved and "going to hell in a hand basket."

One morning when I was a young college student at Samford University, I was at breakfast in the school cafeteria. I was in a kind of funk, wondering what this world may be coming to. My friend and upperclassman, Bruce Wilson, happened to be sitting at the same table. I made some comment about how it seemed like dark times we were living in. Bruce responded with something like, “Oh man, this is the best time I can think of to be alive!”  He then started naming all of the great things about living in the world today.

Somewhere along the way I made a shift to a much brighter world view, sloughing off the myopic dread of Puritans and Evangelicals that so many of us Baptists in the South had inherited. I can’t say that the shift came that very day, but that conversation with Bruce certainly got me thinking, and I’ve remembered that moment to this day.

The quote above from Julian of Norwich reflects an assuredness that everything will be alright. Hope and optimism were not the order of the day during Lady Julian’s time (1342 – 1416). There was an onslaught of death from the bubonic plague, economic depression and devastation from wars.  Julian somehow saw creation as emanating from and being upheld by the love of God. Her words of hope became a beacon for 20^th century poet, T.S. Eliot, who incorporated Julian’s all shall be well quote in “Little Gidding” in his Four Quartets.  Elliot himself wrestled with how hope and faith can be appropriated given the many doubts, struggles and angst of the modern age.

 Rabbi Zalman Shachter-Shalomi says “There is more good than evil in the world but not by much.” I like that way of seeing the world. It is offers hope that good will prevail while being realistic that there is also a lot of bad. To me, that statement encourages us to keep looking for the best, affirm the good that we see while lending our efforts to increase the good.  Things may not always be to our own particular liking, but there is still a lot of good out there.

And then there is that quote from E.B. White that I have used before, "I arise each morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day." There is so much to enjoy in the world. Whatever our present struggle, I believe we can take heart that all shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.

*

Faith and the Liberal Arts

[Note: A version of this essay first appeared on this blog in July of 2013 under the title, "A Faith of One's Own."]

Samford University's Reid Chapel
(Photo by Charles Kinnaird)

Today's essay is a variation on the theme from last week about the benefits of a liberal arts education.  Today I take a brief look at my exploration of faith within a liberal arts curriculum. 

It is important to be a part of a faith community, but it is also important to have a faith that you can buy in to – one that makes sense within your worldview and the life that you live.  An important step in helping me to find a faith that I could buy into came when I was a college student at Samford University. 

I chose to pursue a double major in English Literature and Religion & Philosophy.  As it turned out, these two branches in my liberal arts education helped me begin to forge a faith I could call my own.  There was one professor in the Religion Department, Dr. Karen Joines, who was particularly controversial. His specialty areas were Hebrew, Old Testament studies, and archaeology.  He was seen by many as a “liberal apostate” who should be removed from our Baptist institution. It was my English studies that helped me to have a different view, and a much greater appreciation for our liberal professor.

Sacred Story

In Karen Joines’ classes, it was okay to believe what you wanted to believe, but he wanted you to grapple with the questions of faith and to understand why you believe as you do. He wanted us to understand the deeper meaning of the Resurrection story, asking questions like, “If you could have set up a video camera in front Jesus’ tomb, what do you thing you might see when you played it back?” and “If there were no afterlife in Heaven, would you still live the Christian life?” us to understand the deeper meaning of the Resurrection story, asking questions lik

The single most important lecture I heard during my four years at Samford was his lecture in Archeology class on mythopoeic thought. That lecture opened up new vistas for me. It affirmed my love of poetry, nature and spirituality. It brought to me a heightened sense of wonder seldom found in the classroom.

There were other things he said in his classes that have stayed with me through the years. They were the closest things to rabbinical sayings that I have heard first-hand. He talked about Jacob, emphasizing that he went limping after his name-changing encounter with the angel. Referring to the book of Daniel, he told us that in our life we will be asked to bow the knee to Nebuchadnezzar, “and if you know what's good for you, you will bow to Nebuchadnezzar – but you better not." (It didn't take me long in the real world to know the truth of that comment, which I came to see as a kind of “Jewish koan”). On another occasion told us about Micah, in the book of Judges, who lost his silver idols and declared, "They have taken my gods away, and what am I to do now?"

Perhaps his most controversial chapel lecture was his “Funeral for a Friend,” in which he described, again in quite poetic language, the death of God, or more accurately, the loss of our concept of God as real life unfolds. Dr. Joines challenged the assumptions that we brought from our Sunday school days, but he was showing us what sacred story is about.

Finding the Connection in Literature

While many were livid with what they saw as apostasy, it occurred to me that if Karen Joines spoke the same words over in the English Department, he would be viewed as a defender of the faith. You see, while my colleagues in Religion classes were having difficulty dealing with doubt and things that might challenge their faith, I was seeing the world of literature deal with much harsher crises.  My studies in the English Department showed me how to honestly deal with the questions and challenges of life. Literary people were not confined by doctrine and did not have to restrict life to theological boxes.

I was reading Shakespeare, who wrote more on the human condition than anyone else in the English language. More important, he dramatized the conflicts and struggles common to us all. I was also watching Huck Finn wrestle with the notions of race and slavery, I saw Atticus Finch strive for justice in the segregated South. Moreover, I was beginning to understand the beauties of poetry, which I have come to see as our own “open canon of scripture,” to which we continue to add with each passing year.ish language, and who, more importa

The result of grappling with questions raised by literary writers was a larger appreciation of life. There was no condemnation for stepping out of the boundaries, no call for the firing of professors. There was just the exhilarating process of examining life, love, joy, sorrow, struggle, and friendship.

My double major in English and Religion helped to open my eyes to a wider world as I wrestled with finding the meaning of the life I am attempting to live. I carry from my studies a particular treasure in that gift that Karen Joines gave in my religious studies – that vibrant sense of the poetic along with an honesty to face struggle and doubt within the context of faith.  He inspired a freedom to live unbound by outdated notions.

*    *    *

Post script: I have attempted to carry on the idea of sacred story, as Karen Joines demonstrated to us in his classes. I have recast some of the Old Testament stories in a kind of personal midrash in “Tales of Isaac: Part I - The Altar and Part II - The Blessing,”  “Discovering Esau,” “A Blanket for an Old Man,” and “The Mark of Cain.” I also tried to follow up on Dr. Joines’ lead in “When Your Gods Are Taken Away.”

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The Benefits of a Liberal Arts Education

Samford University Library
(Photo by Charles Kinnaird)

Last week on NPR's The Writer’s Almanac, Garrison Keillor read a poem by Faith Shearin, “Directions to Your College Dorm.” It is a wonderful poem that transported me back to those days of breaking away form home, meeting new friends, and learning of a wider, grander world. It also reminded me of how much I value having gone to a small liberal arts college where I could safely explore the wonders, joys, anxieties, and anticipations of a life moving out into the world. (You can read Shearin’s poem here.)

Thinking back on those days prompted me to repost an essay that I wrote a couple of years ago looking back on my liberal arts education which was published at AMERICAblog in May of 2015:

The Liberal Arts Pathway

It has been over 30 years since I received my first undergraduate degree at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. I have no regrets about the liberal arts foundation of my higher education. While the question “How can I get the best job?” has encouraged much of higher education to become glorified technical schools, to limit one’s education to employability for employability’s sake is to miss out on what education is supposed to be. What’s more, even in the context of employment, it limits ones opportunities down the road.

In my professional life, I have been involved in teaching, social services and healthcare. At each stage of my career path, my liberal arts education helped not only in opening some doors, but also in dealing with life once I walked through them. In today’s environment, with the speed of both technological and social change, one can expect to have to change jobs or to get some retraining for the workforce. A liberal arts education teaches you how to learn, allowing you to adapt to new challenges, requirements and settings.

I double majored in English and Religion & Philosophy, leading to all of the predictable jokes about my supposedly nonexistent job prospects. At the time, I wasn’t worried because I expected to either teach or enter the ministry. While those fields were good for me at first, I began to see that there were other professions that would suit me better. I eventually went back to get further training for my subsequent jobs, but my background in liberal arts was with me every step of the way.

Learning liberally

A view of Samford's Reid Chapel
(Photo by Charles Kinnaird)

I grew up in a small town, which led to my being a bit naïve when I entered college. I was surprised to find that my college professors were intent upon not only teaching me “things,” but also making me struggle with what those “things” meant. Whether it was history, science, literature, music, art or philosophy, everything was grounded in larger questions concerning what it means to be alive in the world. I was introduced to Shakespeare, who wrote more on the human condition than anyone else in the English language, and who more importantly dramatized the conflicts and struggles common to us all. I saw Huck Finn wrestle with the notions of race and slavery; I saw Atticus Finch strive for justice in the segregated South. I came to understand the intricate beauties of poetry, which I began to see as our own “open canon of scripture,” to which we continue to add with each passing year.

There was no condemnation for stepping out of the boundaries. There was just the exhilarating process of examining life, love, joy, sorrow, struggle and friendship. And when what you’re studying is life itself, your education naturally extends beyond the classroom. Some of my best memories from college are the debates and conversations with friends over lunch, about what Professor So-and-so said in class or a project that one of my friends was working on.

It was a wonderful and challenging milieu that fostered an appreciation for others and, in turn, a more progressive consideration of life itself — an outlook that was at once more hopeful than the provincial views I had grown up with and more aware of our past and present social inequities.

Living my education

That being the case, it still took most of my college career to get to the point of being able to think through the concepts I was being exposed to. Many are not developmentally ready to fully profit from their education in their late teens and early twenties. Education is a life-long struggle. For example, I had a conversation with a high school classmate whom I happened to meet years after graduation and who had become a successful banker. He mentioned our high school English teacher and noted that, “We really need what we learned in English class even more when we are in our thirties and forties — much more than we could realize at the time.”

A foundation in the liberal arts forces the student to grapple with the realities and vagaries of life, both before and after they receive their degree. This is especially important in the real world, which doesn’t curve your grades. In the ups and downs I have faced since graduating, I have always had something essential to fall back on; lessons that extended beyond employment and paychecks that could be re-applied to life as it happens.

So by all means, get all the training you can, but make sure you’re learning more than just what’s on the test. Life is more than your first job; educate yourself liberally, and you’ll be prepared to live accordingly.

Samford University Campus (courtesy of Wikipedia)

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The Value of a Liberal Arts Education

Samford University's Harwell G. Davis Library
(Photo by Charles Kinnaird)

I have spent some time recently reflecting upon the value of my own liberal arts education.  Not long ago I wrote as essay in response to an invitation from the editor of my alma mater's Seasons magazine to share some thoughts about the value of liberal arts study at Samford University. Some portions of the essay were quoted in "On the Value of Liberal Arts Education ‘Understanding How Our World Is Put Together’," by William Nunnelley in the Spring 2015 edition of Seasons.

I presented a version of that same essay on AMERICAblog last week, “Looking back on the benefits of a liberal arts education.” I was pleased with the responses I got from people who echoed the values I place on the liberal arts. My college experience was in an incredibly dynamic learning environment. In the essay I talked about the fact that I came from a small town and was a bit naïve when I entered college. I held to the provincial views I had grown up with, but was challenged toward a more progressive view of the world by the give and take of the discussions that took place about what we were reading. The remarkable thing was that these discussions did not end in the classroom. The conversation continued in hallways and dorm rooms. Some of my best memories are from discussions that took place around a certain table in the school cafeteria where I sat with some of my college friends. I heard things from professors whose courses I was not even taking, because friends were raising points that this professor of that professor had been taking about. I shared my own views, but also had some views challenged by listening to my peers present their views.

Reid Chapel
Samford University (CK) 

We were at a special time in our lives in which we could examine new ideas and concepts, and we were learning from each other as well as from our professors. It was a wonderful and challenging milieu that helped to turn me toward a more progressive view of life and a different outlook upon the world. As I mentioned in the AMERICAblog post, it was “an outlook that was at once more hopeful than the provincial views I had grown up with and more aware of our past and present social inequities.”

Gleaning the Benefits of "University"

Through the years, in the academic world, liberal arts studies have been in and out of fashion. Schools will focus on technical training, then some study or survey will show that employers really want employees with a liberal arts background because of their versatility, their ability to think on their feet, and their communication skills. School recruiters will then focus on liberal arts again until another career track comes along to lure more students. 

One aspect of "university" is that it is a multidisciplinary community of scholars. A liberal arts curriculum is an excellent way to gain the benefits of that multidisciplinary aspect if education. Last year, in an opinion piece in Forbes Magazine, "Why Getting a Liberal Arts College Education Is Not a Mistake," Jessica Kleiman takes issue with what Lazlo Block, the head of hiring for Google, had to say about the kind of training one should have in preparation for the job market. She states that her liberal arts curriculum, 

"fueled my curiosity, strengthened my critical thinking and writing skills and made me knowledgeable on a variety of subjects. And my internships at a magazine, a PR firm and a record company gave me the practical experience to pursue a career in writing and communications. I didn’t feel I made a “mistake” in choosing that path. In fact, I am now an executive vice president of communications at a media company–so I guess that degree came in handy."

Ms. Kleiman ends her column with some good advice: 

"Do what you love, study what interests you, get good internships, connect with as many people as possible who might help you land a job, be willing to work hard and be resourceful – and you’ll be fine, whether or not you know how to build an app or program a computer."

Questions continue to be raised, however, about the value of the liberal arts curriculum. Just last week America the National Catholic Review (a Jesuit Catholic weekly journal) presented an editorial by Brian Daley in response to the University of Notre Dame considering curriculum revisions that would drop philosophy and theology from its core requirement. Daley makes the argument that theology requirements are foundational to Catholic education and therefore should not be dropped.   

I had already read about the proposed changes in a feature in The Washington Post, “Why Notre Dame’s curriculum review raises far-reaching Catholic identity questions.” The Post article opens with the statement, “As the University of Notre Dame conducts its 10-year review of curriculum standards, a proposal to reconsider requiring students to take theology and philosophy courses is raising concerns that such a change could endanger the institution’s Catholic identity.”

I agree with the premise of Daley's editorial and with the concerns raised in The Washington Post piece, yet to me, it is not just about Catholic identity or Christian mission, it is about the concept of "university." As a liberal arts grad myself, I think it is important for every educated person to be schooled in the intellectual disciplines across the board. If an institution is a university, but its students only specialize in limited disciplines, has the "university" aspect of education in fact become undone? I want doctors, lawyers, businessmen and scientist to at least be exposed to literature, philosophy and theology from reliable academic sources rather than from cable TV and popular media.

The Universtiy of Notre Dame
(America Magazine photo)

*    *    *

A Humorous Post-script

The thing about liberal arts students, especially English majors, perhaps, is that they can wind up working in any number of fields. I happened to gravitate to social services and healthcare. A humorous post-script: One night, not long after I began working night shift as a registered nurse on a heart surgery floor, I was able to aid a patient family member by drawing upon my knowledge as an English major. At around 2:30 in the morning when all was quiet, a young man came up to the nurses’ station with an unusual question: “What was the name of that play where the old king was trying to decide how to divide his inheritance between his daughters?” Who knows what conversations in the patient’s room prompted him to seek out a citation reference?

“That was King Lear, by William Shakespeare” I responded.

“Yes, that’s it! Thanks.” And the young man returned to the patient room where he was visiting.  My young nursing colleagues all turned to me in silence with raised eyebrows.

“What?” I said to them, “You didn’t get that in nursing school?”

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A Faith of One's Own

Reid Chapel, Samford University

I find that it is important to be a part of a faith community, but it is also important to have a faith that you can buy in to – one that makes sense within your world view and the life that you live. It is vital to have a faith of one's own.

In yesterday’s post I talked about dealing with problem passages in the Old Testament. I mentioned that when I was a student at Samford University I had a double major: English Literature and Religion & Philosophy. I also mentioned that some of us had some difficulty with scholarship which conflicted with our notions of faith. There was one professor, Dr. Karen Joines, who was particularly controversial. His specialty areas were Hebrew, Old Testament studies, and archeology.  He was seen by many as a liberal apostate who should be removed from our Baptist institution. It was my English studies that helped me to have a different view, and a much greater appreciation of our liberal professor.

Sacred Story

In Karen Joines’ classes, it was okay to believe what you wanted to believe, but he wanted you to grapple with the questions of faith and to understand why you believe as you do. He wanted us to understand the deeper meaning of the Resurrection story, asking questions like, “If you could have set up a video camera in front Jesus’ tomb, what do you thing you might see when you played it back?” and “If there were no afterlife in Heaven, would you still live the Christian life?” us to understand the deeper meaning of the Resurrection story, asking questions lik

The single most important lecture I heard during my four years at Samford was his lecture in Archeology class on  mythopoeic thought. That lecture opened up new vistas for me. It affirmed my love of poetry, nature, and spirituality. It brought to me a heightened sense of wonder seldom found in the classroom.

There were other things he said in his classes that have  stayed with me through the years. They were the closest things to rabbinical sayings that I have heard first-hand. He talked  about Jacob, emphasizing that he went limping after his name-changing encounter with the angel. Referring to the book of Daniel, he told us that in our life we will be asked to  bow the knee to Nebuchadnezzar and "if you know what's good  for you, you will bow to Nebuchadnezzar but you better not." (It didn't take me long in the real world to know the truth of that comment, which I came to see as a kind of  “Jewish koan”). On another occasion he told us about Micah, in the book of Judges, who lost his silver idols and declared, "They have taken my gods away, and what am I to do now?"

Perhaps his most controversial chapel lecture was his “Funeral for a Friend,” in which he described, again in quite poetic language, the death of God, or more accurately, the loss of our concept of God as real life unfolds. Dr. Joines challenged the assumptions that we brought from our Sunday School days, but he was showing us what sacred story is about.

Finding the Connection in Literature

While many were livid with what they saw as apostasy, it occurred to me that if Karen Joines spoke the same words over in the English Department, he would be viewed as a defender of the faith. You see, while my colleagues in Religion were having difficulty dealing with doubt and things that might challenge their faith, I was seeing the world of literature deal with much harsher crises.  My studies in the English Department showed me how to honestly deal with the questions and challenges of life. Literary people were not confined by doctrine and did not have to restrict life to theological boxes.

I was reading Shakespeare, who wrote more on the human condition than anyone else in the English language, and who, more importantly dramatized the conflicts and struggles common to us all. I was also watching Huck Finn wrestle with the notions of race and slavery, I saw Atticus Finch strive for justice in the segregated South. Moreover, I came to understand some of the beauties of poetry, which I began to see as our own “open canon of scripture,” to which we continue to add with each passing year.

The result of grappling with questions raised by literary writers was a larger appreciation of life. There was no condemnation for stepping out of the boundaries, no call for the firing of professors. There was just the exhilarating process of examining life, love, joy, sorrow, struggle, and friendship.

So now perhaps you can understand why even though I graduated with a double major in English and Religion, I always call myself an English major. What’s more, I went back to school almost twenty years later to earn degrees in Nursing as part of my vocational re-tooling. I make my living in healthcare, but I continue to call myself and English major. I do carry, however, that gift that Karen Joines gave in my religious studies – that vibrant sense of the poetic, that honesty to face struggle and doubt within the context of faith.  He inspired a freedom to live unbound by outdated notions.

*    *    *

Post script: I have attempted to carry on the idea of sacred story, as Karen Joines demonstrated to us in his classes. I have recast some of the Old Testament stories in a kind of personal midrash in “Tales of Isaac: Part I - The Altar and Part II - The Blessing,”  “Discovering Esau,” “A Blanket for an Old Man,” and “The Mark of Cain.” I also tried to follow up on Dr. Joines’ lead in “When Your Gods Are Taken Away.”

*

Rationalizing Old Testament Texts of Terror

 or How We Paint Ourselves into a Difficult Corner

(the alternative would be to unbind ourselves from past misconceptions)

From William Blake's Book of Job

When I went to college, Religion was one of my majors (English Lit was my other major – English Lit actually redeemed my education by showing me how to see the importance of the stories we tell). My professors in the Religion Department at Samford University were the hallmark of scholarship and integrity. Some of my classmates were more conservative and were often quite troubled by the scholarship of our instructors. Many of their notions of biblical infallibility and inerrancy were challenged. For my part, I quickly determined that the Christian Fundamentalists who had no problem believing that every word in the Bible was absolutely and unquestionably true had obviously not read much of it. If the texts are actually read, even the most devout will have cause to wonder about why some passages are even included in the Holy Writ.

The most obvious problem passages in the Bible are those Old Testament passages instructing the people of Israel to slaughter every inhabitant of the villages they came upon in their conquest of Canaan. They were instructed to have no mercy, to wipe out every man, woman and child.

Many Interpretations

Roger Olson is a theologian who is a professor of Theology at George W. Truett Theological Seminary of Baylor University. If you are interested in theology, I can highly recommend his blog, My Evangelical Arminian Theological Musings. Dr. Olson is a very disciplined scholar with an authentic spiritual background. His topics often cover things of interest to the evangelical community, but he also offers many helpful discussions in theology and Christian history, all very accessible but always grounded in honest scholarship.

This week Dr. Olson did a blog post titled, “Every Known Theistic Approach to Old Testament ‘Texts of Terror’.” In his usual style, he listed all the classical approaches that various Christian scholars have taken to try to explain those Old Testament passages that describe a war god promoting genocidal tactics. He provides us with a helpful and succinct list of theological approaches and points out the problems with each.

Of the various approaches that Olson enumerates, I found myself most closely in line with the progressive revelation interpretation and the liberal interpretation:

Progressive revelation interpretation: “Inspiration” does not mean dictation or that every story in the Bible is to be taken at “face value.” God accommodated revelation to the people’s ability to understand him and people came to understand God’s revelation more clearly over time. As God incarnate, Jesus is the clearest revelation of God’s character and will. At times God’s people misunderstood his command and recorded their own beliefs about God and his commands as revelation from God. God’s revelation of his own character and will becomes clearer throughout Scripture with the later (clearer) parts relativizing the earlier (less clear) parts.

*Problems: Requires a very flexible view of divine inspiration of Scripture (and rejection of inerrancy if not infallibility). Is also subject to accusations of implicit Marcionism.

Liberal interpretation: Portions of the Old Testament (and perhaps also of the New) are culturally conditioned such that they cannot be believed by modern people. The touchstone of biblical interpretation is the modern worldview and modern ethical sensibilities. (In other words, yes, the people of God did slaughter men, women, and children, but God did not command it.)

*Problem: Sets up a temporal and conditioned cultural norm (“modern”) over Scripture itself and possibly even over Jesus himself. Leads to phenomena such as the “Jefferson Bible” (whether literally, physically or not).

As it turns out, of course, there are problems with any interpretation that has been given to these texts. Each problem generally has to do with the fact that a given interpretation either conflicts with our traditional view of God or challenges the authority of scripture.

The Problem is the Text

Mine was one of the many comments in response to Dr. Olson’s post. I stated that the primary “problem” with each interpretation of these texts of terror is that the texts exist. Perhaps none of us would be in danger of challenging the immutability of God or the infallibility of scripture if there were no such texts. As it is, we are faced with the realization that either we ourselves have more compassion and a higher ethic than the God who is portrayed here, or the guys writing things down just got it wrong.

Carl Jung wrote a fascinating book called Answer to Job. His contemporaries in the academic psychological field were embarrassed that Jung wrote such a book. One of the ideas he presents is that when Yahweh appeared to Job in the whirlwind with his “where were you when I formed the earth” speech, that Yahweh himself was startled with the realization that Job in his humanity was superior to him. Yahweh, as Jung “analyzes” it is not sure whether Job saw this, but at that point he realizes that he needs to become incarnate as a human if he is to be complete.

Unbinding Ourselves

Carl Jung writes not as a theologian, but rather brings his own psychological approach to questions of religion. One of the beauties of Carl Jung’s approach to theology and philosophy in Answer to Job is that he is not bound by the staid and dusty confines of the establishment. This is a justifiable approach, especially in dealing with Job. If you have read the book of Job, you may remember that the most unhelpful advice Job received was from his friends who uttered the staid traditional theology of the day.

If we are to be honest about our lives and about our faith, sometimes we must unbind ourselves from the religious package we have inherited. Tomorrow I will talk about how my life as an English major helped me to loose myself from some of the confines and inadequacies of a faith that was neatly packaged but not quite my own.

*

Margaret O'Bryan Brodnax, Teacher Extraordinaire

I came late in learning of the passing of one of my English professors, Dr. Margaret Brodnax. She died at her home  on March 30, 2013 at the age of 80.  There was a nice obituary in Samford University’s Seasons which came in the mail this week and gave me the news.  She lived a full life with academic achievement, lay leadership in the Episcopal Church, and was an early advisory board member for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.  I knew Margaret Brodnax as one amazing teacher. She knew her topic and she kept her students engaged in the material. My first encounter with her was in a World Lit class my sophomore year and she certainly helped to make that a memorable year.

“It Was All about Sex and Jesus”

Margaret Brodnax did two things to shake up my world that semester.  The first shake up came when my first written assignment was handed back to me full of red marks. There was a “C” grade  and a note to see her after class. I went to her in shock, not accustomed to C’s, wondering what was wrong with the work I had turned in.

“For one thing,” she said, “it wasn’t written very well…” My head must have been spinning by then. “Not written very well!” I could not believe what I was hearing. The bottom line was that she wanted me to re-write the brief paper addressing all of her comments in the margins.  I think she wanted me to realize that I was just skimming the surface of the reading material, responding with some cursory answers. She wanted me to delve into the reading assignment to find the nuances of meaning and to take note of some core life issues.  After I did the re-write, she gave me a better grade, smiled and said, “That was so much better, Charles.”

The second thing she did was the astounding way she brought ancient Greek literature to life. I was a 19 year old ministerial student who had not seen much beyond my rural Baptist environment in Tallapoosa County before arriving at Samford. It seemed that with every Greek drama or myth that we studied, Dr. Brodnax brought it home to us by appealing to our adolescent hormones and our Sunday School lessons from home. I was in no small way unnerved by that. Back in the dorm I told my friends, “No matter what our reading assignment is, she relates everything to sex and Jesus!”  Years later, after I had finished grad school, traveled the world and was on my second job, I took it upon myself to read Joseph Campbell’s Masks of God series. Campbell opened up the ancient world and their grounding mythologies to explain not only their world but the heritage we have received from those ancient times. As he explained the ancient fertility rites and the spiritual concepts of our ancient forebears, it hit me: “Margaret Brodnax was right! It all comes down to sex and Jesus!”

It Was All about Being Fully Engaged in Life

Well, in my early college days, I was glad to get out of Dr. Brodnax’s class with a decent grade, but I was afraid she was a little too much for me to handle. Then came my senior year when I needed one more elective to complete my English Major. Dr. Brodnax was teaching a graduate level course on Edmund Spenser, with the bulk of the course addressing The Faerie Queene.  She granted me permission to take that graduate curriculum to be counted as a 400 level course  in order to fulfill my academic requirements. I was a little bit intimidated at first. There were only five in the class and I was I there with those graduate students! In addition, we had to actually present our term papers in class.

Throughout that course, Margaret Brodnax was nothing but supportive.  One of the texts that she wanted us to use was a specific edition of The Faerie Queene. She told me, “You don’t need to buy that one; I’ve got an old copy you can have.” The course unfolded into a wonderful experience.  My paper dealt with Sir Gawain and the Red Night, and my research actually became for me a process of spiritual enrichment.  Her final note to me written on the last page of my paper was, “I hope you enjoyed writing this as much as I enjoyed reading it.”  That was a long way from the first comment she had made back during my sophomore year. It also indicated progress that I would not have made without dedicated and engaged teaching.

That is the way she was.  Nothing was routine or matter-of-fact for her. In her classes, she did not simply impart information. She made connections with the students to bring the subject matter to life.  Literature was intensely important and she took her role as teacher very seriously. She intended to see that every student was awakened to the essence of life that was reflected in the stories we read. She wanted us all to be fully engaged in life.  Margaret O’Bryan Brodnax, teacher extraordinaire! May she rest in peace.

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An Evening with Garrison Keillor

So I went to hear Garrison Keillor last night. He was at Samford University which hosts the Tom and Marla Corts Distinguished Authors Series. Garrison Keillor has a way of drawing you in. He is a writer who tells stories laced with humor and insight that reflect Americana. He appears to be talking about himself, but then you realize that you have been there, too. You laugh out loud at times, you are gently moved at times, and you know he is telling our story as well as his.

“Garrison Keillor: A Brand New Retrospective” That’s how the event was billed. Keillor, the host of A Prairie Home Companion, is a writer who also loves music and he likes to sing. He had described the program earlier in a press release:  "A man at 70 relives the good times - and the music that brings it all back: hymns, jingles, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, pop tunes, limericks, rock 'n roll, Beethoven, love sonnets, rags, blues, rousers, with Richard Dworsky, Rob Fisher, and Christine DiGiallonardo."

The evening began with some jaunty piano music from Richard Dworsky and Rob Fisher. Then Keillor walked onto the stage singing a jingle that he made up talking about how things were “back in the day” when there were no gadgets such as iPods and cell phones and a man could leave the house and actually be alone. He continued with a long list of “how things used to be,” and even worked into the number a bit about how he first came to Birmingham in 1993 when the big snow storm hit “and made us feel right at home.” After the light incidental music, he was joined onstage by Christine DiGiallonardo who accompanied him in some duets. When he introduced the young lady he said that when picking a duet partner, it is always helpful to pick someone who is younger, more talented and knows music better than you do. “Always pick a superior partner,” he added, “as I look out at the audience I see that that is what most of you have done.”

Here’s What You Need to Know about Life

After a couple of more songs, Garrison began to rattle off a list of ten things. They were ten things that he felt like we should all know, most of them were laugh-out-loud bits of insight. For example, he said, “Make sure you marry someone with a good sense of humor,” he paused briefly as he examined the thumb and fingers of his left hand, “because they are going to need it! After all, this is the person who will have the most access to the details of your life.” He went on with his list, until he got to the notion that we should lighten up and be cheerful. Keillor turned 70 this year. He told us that when you reach the biblically allotted number, you learn that it’s best to accept life and be cheerful. You learn to be grateful.

With that Keillor told a story of his trip to the Mayo Clinic for an MRI to try to figure out why he was having headaches. He described in great detail a near accident on the snowy drive up to the Mayo Clinic. After the medical tests, “they were able to see that there was no tumor – which was great news, I was elated. But I would have missed out on that wonderful news if I had died in an accident on the highway, which could have happened – you learn to be grateful.”

The storyteller then went on to describe meeting an elderly couple when he was in the cafeteria of the Mayo Clinic. The wife was in a wheelchair and the husband had obviously suffered a stroke as some point, his right arm hanging downward like a dead weight and his face drooping so that he looked constantly displeased. His wife was saying things like “you just have to take one day at a time; you gotta have faith; doctors don’t know everything, you know, my uncle lived longer than his doctors said he would.” Keillor then said the audience, “That’s the problem with surviving catastrophic things like a stroke – you have to endure words of encouragement from other people. They mean well, but you want to just shoot them…except you don’t have the coordination in your right arm to handle a gun.”

Reminiscence in Story and Song

As the evening continued, we heard the host of A Prairie Home Companion tell about events throughout his life. We heard about his witnessing a baptism in the creek near their house when he was five years old and his father had just come back from the war. He told of not being allowed to play football in the seventh grade because his doctor noted his mitral valve prolapse and how that led to his first job as a writer when he began to report on the games for the local paper. We learned of the first girl he fell in love with in high school, and how she so casually left him the night of the school prom, thus giving him understanding of what those blues songs were about that he had been singing, but didn’t really understand until that moment.

Christine DiGiallonardo
and Garrison Keillor

We heard many songs from Keillor and his small troupe of musicians: gospel, blues, American standard, rock and roll. At 70 years of age, I was impressed that Mr. Keillor still has a vocal range from tenor all the way down to bass. After one of the hymns that he and Ms DiGiallonardo sang, he told the audience about how his mother had died not long before at the age of 97. He and his siblings had sung that hymn along with others to their mother while she was on her death-bed.  Keillor said that his mother believed the message of those songs, and his sister who sang them along with him believed them. He said he had tried to believe them, but he wasn’t at that same place that some people in his family were. “I tried to believe them. I also tried not to believe them, and that’s even harder than trying to believe them.” He added that he was more inclined on certain days toward belief than he was on other days. I think everyone knew exactly what he meant – even those who claim belief would know deep down what he meant. Thus Garrison Keillor was once again telling his story which was really our story as well.

 All in all, it was a delightful evening. We were given some insight into life, but not so much as to get either bummed out or overly elated. Mr. Keillor kept any insight balanced by humor and the simple fun of sharing music together. As we were walking out of the performance hall, I heard a lady humming the tune of the last gospel hymn that had closed the evening. What is that they say in show business? If they leave humming the tunes, the show has been a success.

[Photos are from the AL.com news release]

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Hoping for a Good Death: End of Life Care

"Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph" oil painting by Rembrandt

I attended a symposium last week titled, “Palliative Care: In Search of the Good Death” at Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law. The presenters included medical doctors and legal scholars who talked about end of life care within the context of modern healthcare systems and societal attitudes toward death. I attended the symposium as a healthcare provider thinking of physical needs of those facing death, but another reason I attended was a realization of the need for spiritual care in the final stages of life.

As a Catholic convert, one of the things I heard that was new to me was the request to pray for a holy death for one parishioner or another.  My first impression upon hearing that prayer request was to imagine how this petition might have been viewed in years past, knowing that this is a prayer dating back through the centuries. I thought of how many terrible ways one could die before the advent of modern medicine. What kind of pain would a cancer victim have endured 200 years ago? What about those with diabetes before the days of insulin who gradually became sicker and sicker until their bodies just shut down?  There were so many other unpleasant ways to die from injury, infection, pestilence and famine, with very few effective drugs to mediate the suffering.

As I thought further, within the context of the Roman Catholic Church, there was also a fear of judgment and punishment which only began to abate somewhat after the fresh air of Vatican II.  The hope was to be able to have a priest present at the time of death so that sins could be confessed, absolution given and the holy Eucharist received. It was only then that one could be assured of a happy repose free from the torment of judgment.  Consider the traditional petitions:

“From sudden and unexpected death, deliver us, O Lord.”

“May we be free from sin when we leave this world and rejoice in peace with You forever.”

                                  “ Remove far from me every kind of sin; obtain for me that my
                                   death may not come upon me unawares, but that I may have
                                   time to confess my sins sacramentally and to bewail them
                                   with a most perfect understanding and a most sincere and
                                   perfect contrition, in order that I may breathe forth my soul
                                   into the hands of Jesus and Mary. Amen”

Death could be a frightening thing in days gone by, as it still is today, though most of us try to push thoughts of death into some undetermined point in the future.  At the symposium on palliative care, we heard medical and legal experts discuss ethical issues surrounding end of life care, societal attitudes, and ramifications in healthcare/insurance coverage.

The "Good" Death?

Dr. Ryan Nash, Director of UAB's Palliative Care Leadership Center, began the symposium by presenting an overview of the hospice movement and the palliative care movement.  Referencing Rembrandt’s painting, “Jacob blessing the Sons of Joseph,” Dr. Nash said that the Old Testament narrative of Jacob’s death informed the hospice movement. In that narrative, one finds an acceptance of death, blessing, grief, good burial arrangements, and no mention of suffering. Modern medicine has sought to triumph over disease and death. The hospice and palliative care movements came as an answer to medicine’s triumphalistic denial of death. The goal of hospice at the outset was to return dying and death to the community, taking it away from the sterile medical environment. Palliative care has sought to bring some of the care measures of hospice back into the hospital.

With hospice and palliative care, we have acquiesced to the finitude of human life, but we are lacking in a unified ethic to offer blessing and hope.  The ancient prayer of the church had been to prevent sudden and unexpected death (having time to prepare), whereas the common wish today is to die quietly in one’s sleep.

Dr. Nash suggested that the way to move forward is by way of informed respect along with the acceptance of life’s finitude and medicine’s limitations. Informed respect takes into account the patient’s belief system as well as that of that of the healthcare provider.  Such attitudes would lead to a pluralistic palliative medicine.

Dr. H. Tristam Engelhardt, whose background is in medical ethics and philosophy, then proceeded to give a sweeping picture of the history of thought and philosophy in western civilization. Our problem today, he summarized, is that there is no one canonical secular morality that is agreed upon. Many issues have been de-moralized and deflated.  For instance, one may ask which society seems better when comparing cultures.  Values may be security, liberty, prosperity and health. These ideas could be agreed upon, but different cultures will rank these differently in importance.  Englehart made a good case that “The moral system constructed in the 13^th century went belly-up in the 19th century.”  Our society today has deep and incompatible differences, most evident is the fact that people with theistic and atheistic world views live and work side by side.

Rationing, Death Panels, and Healthcare Reform

Jack Nelson, on faculty at the Cumberland School of Law, gave a presentation on healthcare in the U.S. and in the United Kingdom. He succinctly summed up our healthcare dilemma by stating that “Medicare is unsustainable,” and “rationing healthcare for the elderly is political hemlock.”

Kathy Cermina, a professor who teaches health-law-related courses at Nova Southeastern University, gave a presentation on end of life care.  She pointed out how hospice care provides an essential health benefit that is high-value and low cost.  Many do not enter into hospice care until they have only days to live. She effectively made a case for a system that would allow for concurrent care thus granting patients and families opportunity to receive the benefits of hospice earlier.

Enhancing Autonomy: Protecting Patients from Conflicted and Coercive Healthcare

Elizabeth Kvale is a board certified physician in Family Practice and Hospice and Palliative Medicine, currently doing research in palliative medicine at UAB.  She spoke of the importance of autonomy to physicians, the need for health literacy, and problems when there is a conflict of interests in decision-making and healthcare delivery. She stated that palliative care enables autonomy by prioritizing according to the patient’s values, clarifying options, increasing health literacy, and being oriented around the patient and family.

During discussion time one interesting concept that was mentioned was the millet system, whereby under the Ottoman Empire, the ethnic groups within the empire (Muslim, Jewish, and Christian) could each operate under their own legal system. In discussing how different groups within our current pluralistic society coalesce around the common values of their particular group, some comparison was made to the millet system under the old Ottoman rule.

Another vital point that was made in discussion was that one thing we can all do to help facilitate end of life care in a way that we would consider humane and in accordance with our beliefs and values is to have advanced directives. Most of us have an idea of what our wishes are concerning end of life care, but so few of us have actually taken the time to put those in a legal document.

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The symposium certainly provided important information on aspects of healthcare and end of life care. It also raised some important questions of how we can bring meaning to our living and dying in the modern world.  Here are some other sources online that you may find interesting:

Death and Budgets by David Brooks 

Thank God for Death, by Michael Dowd 

Death,Budgets, and Generational Justice, by Connie Barlow 



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