Sunday, January 11, 2009

Engaging God's World - Plantinga (Longing and Hope)

This chapter was okay. 
It fits very well with the C.S. Lewis readings we have been reading recently. I really like quote that author uses to describes yearning; "break out crying from stabs of hopeless joy" I really feel like this fits very well into a lot of what a lot of people do, and the author really points out how pointless nostalgia can be. 

This hit it a little bit personal for me. This summer I worked in Yellowstone National Park. I made great friends from all over the world. We had plenty of really good times together. I find myself 'yearning' to go back. I day dream about it constantly. It wasn't until I read this chapter that I realized how pointless my day dreams are. What good will get me? I can never go back. I am only hit with a desperate desire that I can never fulfill. 

I have always loved the quote by Augustine: "O Lord you have made us for yourself, and heart is restless until it rests in you".  It really speaks for itself. 

"Ultimate beauty comes not from a lover, or a landscape or a home, but only through them" I like this a lot too because it once again reminds me of Yellowstone. I saw so many beautiful things out there. And I was constantly reminded that this is only a mere glimpse of what heaven/God is like. 

Plantinga writes that one of the ingredients of hope is imagination. If I were to write out the ingredients of hope, it would not include imagination, but after thinking about it for a while, I came to the conclusion that it HAS to include imagination. How can we hope for something if we already know it? If we already know it, then we already have it.  We can't and shouldn't hope for something we already have. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech fits very well into this. 

I have never heard of Shalom before this article, but I really like the sound and idea of it. There is something about "a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts fruitful employed, all under the arch of God's love" that sounds so wonderful, and virtuous. There is something that rings truth in Shalom. And I like it.

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