"His Strange Work": The Living Word in Isaiah, Girard, and Tolkien
Location
Eaton Hall 112
Keywords
Day of Common Learning
Description
Rene Girard and J.R.R. Tolkien lived and wrote in very different worlds, but some of their thoughts seem parallel: they both described how power structures form from desire and exclusion -- and how those structures may be subverted and resisted -- and they both had a high regard for the potential of words to create and to change in a broken world. These parallels occur because scripture informed both authors, as in Isaiah 28, in which the prophet reveals the “strange work” God is doing in the world. The living Word of God has a creative and apocalyptic role, being at work both in the mechanisms of the ordinary and in the surprises of the extraordinary, against the destructive impulses of the current age. These parallels provide a foundation for engaging the public sphere like these three authors did, with faithful, creative, challenging, and surprising grace.
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"His Strange Work": The Living Word in Isaiah, Girard, and Tolkien
Eaton Hall 112
Rene Girard and J.R.R. Tolkien lived and wrote in very different worlds, but some of their thoughts seem parallel: they both described how power structures form from desire and exclusion -- and how those structures may be subverted and resisted -- and they both had a high regard for the potential of words to create and to change in a broken world. These parallels occur because scripture informed both authors, as in Isaiah 28, in which the prophet reveals the “strange work” God is doing in the world. The living Word of God has a creative and apocalyptic role, being at work both in the mechanisms of the ordinary and in the surprises of the extraordinary, against the destructive impulses of the current age. These parallels provide a foundation for engaging the public sphere like these three authors did, with faithful, creative, challenging, and surprising grace.
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