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The Downward Ascent
Edna Hong believes that we live in an age without a sense of sin, an age in which people are not even sorry for not being sorry for their sins. "Current Christianity is so eager to forgive that it denies the need for forgiveness," she says. "Our age is busy reconciling people to their sins and not to their God."
Hong's aim is to arouse the lost sense of sin and guilt that will in turn arouse the contrition that makes forgiveness possible. Her "downward ascent" into the soul ends at the foot of the cross.
Hong weaves into the rich texture of this book the reflections of such beloved Christians as G. K. Chesterton, Flannery O'Connor, Herman Melville, and Walker Percy.
Hong's aim is to arouse the lost sense of sin and guilt that will in turn arouse the contrition that makes forgiveness possible. Her "downward ascent" into the soul ends at the foot of the cross.
Hong weaves into the rich texture of this book the reflections of such beloved Christians as G. K. Chesterton, Flannery O'Connor, Herman Melville, and Walker Percy.
93 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1979
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September 23, 2017This is an honest look at not only the dignity in us, but also the depravity. In a poetic way, Hong invites us to journey down with her so that we might rise. This would be a great companion to your Lenten season.
Hong's writing prompted this reflection from me...
Pastors are paradoxes.
In the exercise of pastoral duties on Sundays at services, worship leaders and preachers muster up what sometimes passes as appropriate passion and verbiage in order to get a passing grade from parishioners. In the process, we not only deceive our people but we also trick ourselves into thinking that what we offer is pure.
At best the motivations and machinations of ministers are mixed. Because the best of men are men at best. Fallen ones at that!
What must God think?
The disingenuous part of us that produces a mere people-pleasing performance gives God groans. This is the worship He rejects.
But if He is to be praised at all, He must embrace the duplicitous doxologies of His people. He knows, even if we don't, that it's our heads that are filled with the rocks that praise Him.
God's glory is made more manifest in that, though we are dust, when His Spirit blows across our lives there lies within that dust nuggets of divinely-implanted gold. This is the worship He accepts.
Every worship service is led by those who are at once filled with depravity and dignity. In our fallen humanity, we must admit, embrace, and leverage them both.
Minimizing our depravity and maximizing our dignity makes us tyrannical. Minimizing our dignity and maximizing our depravity makes us timid. Humbly acknowledging both makes us trustworthy.
Depravity and dignity wrapped up in every leader every Sunday? Yes. No wonder we leaders need even more grace than those we lead!
We are filled with paradox. We are the hellish heaven-bound. We are the fleshly Spirit-led. We are the old man living new. At the same time! Admit this we must.
***
Oh man, how great, how little thou!
Oh man, slave of each moment, Lord of eternity!
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when we this rightly know
Through the world we safely go.
Joy and woe are woven fine
A clothing for the Soul divine;
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.
William Blake
Hong's writing prompted this reflection from me...
Pastors are paradoxes.
In the exercise of pastoral duties on Sundays at services, worship leaders and preachers muster up what sometimes passes as appropriate passion and verbiage in order to get a passing grade from parishioners. In the process, we not only deceive our people but we also trick ourselves into thinking that what we offer is pure.
At best the motivations and machinations of ministers are mixed. Because the best of men are men at best. Fallen ones at that!
What must God think?
The disingenuous part of us that produces a mere people-pleasing performance gives God groans. This is the worship He rejects.
But if He is to be praised at all, He must embrace the duplicitous doxologies of His people. He knows, even if we don't, that it's our heads that are filled with the rocks that praise Him.
God's glory is made more manifest in that, though we are dust, when His Spirit blows across our lives there lies within that dust nuggets of divinely-implanted gold. This is the worship He accepts.
Every worship service is led by those who are at once filled with depravity and dignity. In our fallen humanity, we must admit, embrace, and leverage them both.
Minimizing our depravity and maximizing our dignity makes us tyrannical. Minimizing our dignity and maximizing our depravity makes us timid. Humbly acknowledging both makes us trustworthy.
Depravity and dignity wrapped up in every leader every Sunday? Yes. No wonder we leaders need even more grace than those we lead!
We are filled with paradox. We are the hellish heaven-bound. We are the fleshly Spirit-led. We are the old man living new. At the same time! Admit this we must.
***
Oh man, how great, how little thou!
Oh man, slave of each moment, Lord of eternity!
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when we this rightly know
Through the world we safely go.
Joy and woe are woven fine
A clothing for the Soul divine;
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.
William Blake
March 5, 2020
This little book is among the best Lenten reading that I have found. Edna Hong wrote this in response to overhearing a clergyman's opinion that the season of Lent is far too long for modern times. Whether you are tempted to agree or not, this book will put things in a perspective which is the crucial importance of our awareness of both our fallen human nature and our divine nature of bearing God's image. There is a tendency in Christian circles to emphasize one to the near exclusion of the other. Either we are ridden with an overwhelming or unhealthy sense of guilt, or we neglect that sense of guilt in favor of completely affirming picture of God's love and acceptance. Both of these extremes leave us spiritually stunted, relying on our own ineffectual efforts in self acceptance. Edna Hong's perspective is that the downward journey of honest self-examination is crucial to a genuine ascent in the understanding and experience of God's love.
"There is no motivation for works of love without a sense of gratitude, no sense of gratitude without forgiveness, no forgiveness without contrition, no contrition without a sense of guilt, no sense of guilt without a sense of sin." (p 24)
Hong explores the ways that we evade self-seeing in our relation to others and the world (horizontal) and in our relation to God (vertical) as well as the "dead end" efforts we can experience along the "descent" of self examination. A healthy understanding of our true position in relation to God provided by the Cross of Jesus Christ does not come easily or naturally to us, but is more that worth the effort (without earning it) to practice and live out. Edna Hong is a trustworthy guide.
I'm sorry that this book is currently out of print and hard to find in good condition for a reasonable price. My copy is pretty worn from other's use. I hope it lasts me a lifetime.
"There is no motivation for works of love without a sense of gratitude, no sense of gratitude without forgiveness, no forgiveness without contrition, no contrition without a sense of guilt, no sense of guilt without a sense of sin." (p 24)
Hong explores the ways that we evade self-seeing in our relation to others and the world (horizontal) and in our relation to God (vertical) as well as the "dead end" efforts we can experience along the "descent" of self examination. A healthy understanding of our true position in relation to God provided by the Cross of Jesus Christ does not come easily or naturally to us, but is more that worth the effort (without earning it) to practice and live out. Edna Hong is a trustworthy guide.
I'm sorry that this book is currently out of print and hard to find in good condition for a reasonable price. My copy is pretty worn from other's use. I hope it lasts me a lifetime.
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