Daniel Taylor's Blog, page 3

BILLY GRAHAM: GRATITUDE AND WARNING

The death of Billy Graham provides an opportunity for reflection. A near-saint to some, another religious huckster to others, I personally take him as both a model and a warning. A model in his commitment to transcendent truths, his integrity, and, not least, his humility. He genuinely believed, as do I, that the Incarnation is true and that it is quite literally the “good news.” He preached that gospel with simplicity and tried to live it in his own life.
My wife, Jayne, went to a residential Christian high school in ...

ASHES TO ASHES–REFLECTIONS ON RITUAL

I’m sitting in a coffee shop with a smudged cross on my forehead. It is, as most Christians know, Ash Wednesday. My wife and I went to a service a couple of hours ago, at 7:30 in the morning. Why did I do this (delaying my coffee and newspaper)? Why did I participate in this ritual?
For an answer, I quote myself (with whatever apology that requires). Following is an excerpt from a book of mine—The Skeptical Believer: Telling Stories to Your Inner Atheist. It is specifically addressing the relationship between ...

A JOURNEY TO THE EDGE OF ETERNITY

Today I am here watching my mother die. She is not cooperating. I was about to say I am glad she is dying, but that’s not right. Not even close really. It would be closer to say my emotions are sad but my intellect approves. We often speak of mixed feelings. Few are as mixed as our feelings when someone very aged who you love is leaving us behind.
Nita, now ninety-four, fell and broke her hip almost three weeks ago. It was the starter gun for her final race—perhaps a ...

THE PURPOSE OF MARRIAGE: REPAIRING AND EXTENDING SHALOM

I spoke recently at the wedding of a friend’s son. I opened by comparing the couple’s decision to have me speak to Hitler’s decision to invade Russia. Not the opening for your traditional wedding talk. Then last week I spoke at the wedding of our youngest daughter and avoided mentioning Hitler at all. Good move.
The talks were quite different, but in both of them I suggested that the purpose of a Christian marriage was to repair and extend shalom in the world. In my daughter’s talk, I explored that contention ...

TELLING SMALL STORIES—ABOUT A BANANA IN THIS CASE

It is quite possible that this post adds up to nothing. But, on this cold-clear day after Christmas, it has two good stories in it, so it is not, I think, a total loss.
I have just finished, two minutes ago, a fine essay by Paul Willis (in his forthcoming book To Build a Trail) about his interviewing the poet Mary Oliver. It is filled with a car-load of revelatory details, including her need to smoke a cigarette just before the event. And it ends with an excellent punch line: “And ...

WHEN THINKING OF CHRISTMAS, DON’T FORGET SIMEON’S SWORD

For the discussion material for our small group meeting at our house, I chose five Christmas poems by poets ranging from Shakespeare contemporary Ben Jonson to C.S. Lewis, along with the passages from Matthew and Luke that give the poems their context.
What struck us all was the range of responses to the Christmas story even among poets who wished to honor it. Which led us to see that the Bible itself has more than one understanding—not contradictory, but drastically different in tone and implication.
How do Christians today think of this ...

COMPLEXITY VERSUS PROFUNDITY AND THE HUNGER FOR TRANSCENDENCE

Following is a passage from a novel in progress—the third novel in the Jon Mote series that began with Death Comes for the Deconstructionist. Jon is a troubled soul, in many different but related ways. He tends to be obsessive in his thought life, which is the only life any of us really knows. He’s abandoned the religious faith of his youth, but is still haunted by it.
He wants to be a good, reasonable, modern person, with a lot of faith in science as the ultimate arbiter of what is ...

RIGHTEOUS ANGER AND THE PLEASURE CENTERS OF THE BRAIN

More thoughts (see the last two posts) about moral rage—all highly speculative and easily dismissable (feel free). We have long known that many addictive behaviors are linked to the release of pleasure-giving chemicals in the brain—from drinking to drugs to risky behavior to watching football. The behavior feels good, at the most basic neural level, which encourages us to repeat it, even if it is potentially harmful to us.
We know this is true of anger as well—anger leaves us feeling temporarily empowered and more in control—and also releases pleasure-giving chemicals ...

THE ALLURE OF RIGHTEOUS ANGER

I’m trying to figure out how pissed off to be and am having a difficult time. By nature I am phlegmatic, mildly torpid, and slow to anger. I avoid conflict when possible the way a deer (even one with horns) avoids a wolf (the product, my wife claims, of my growing up with parents who fought daily). I tend to chew on things reflectively rather than feel things intensely.
So what does a person like me do in a culture in which displaying anger is taken as a necessary sign of ...

VIRTUE PEACOCKS AND OTHER BIRDS

I return to blogging, after a long hiatus, with a reflection on our current state of public conversation (‘discourse’ if you need to sound elevated). One way I think about it is in terms of four birds. (As a poetry lover, I believe metaphors embody some truths much better than straight assertions, logical arguments, or experiments.) Everyone else seems to have something to say about the current state of things, why not me?
My four birds are the chicken, the peacock, the ostrich, and the owl.
The chicken is a particular chicken—Chicken ...