Mysterium tremendum et fascinans
Alright, as Paul Kelly sang, now it's time for deeper water. Or in the Hebrew Bible the ancient psalmist wrote of "deep calling unto deep". The sense of Mystery is palpable now. I've darkened the light in this room much closer to what it actually is. Let the darkness speak! **
One of the difficulties Christianity has in the modern world is that it is essentially a religion of Light. Nothing wrong with that. Where would photographers be without the light? But humanity's recent past has been littered with abject Darkness. How do we hear from God or Spirit or the Transcendent after Auschwitz? Elie Weisel in his testimony, "Night", addresses this question magnificently.
Can we as human beings (yes we still are despite the fact we seem to be morphing at a rapid rate into cyborgs, more technology than person) hear a still small voice of Reason in the Darkness? This is the fundamental question facing modernity if we are to survive into another century.
The Latin phrase in my title is an old theological term meaning, "a mystery before which humanity both trembles and is fascinated, is both repelled and attracted." Thus, God can appear both as wrathful or awe-inspiring, on the one hand, and as gracious and lovable, on the other.
The ancient Gnostics understood this duality of the universe so well. For the serious readers among you, I recommend Australian author Petra Mundik's fabulous book on the work of one of my favourite novelists, Cormac McCarthy. In "A Bloody and Barbarous God: The Metaphysics of Cormac McCarthy" (University of New Mexico Press, 2016), she makes a direct link between the intertwining of violence and beauty and the underlying Gnostic mysticism of McCathy's work. Nowhere is this more clearly felt than in "The Road". We, like The Boy in this apocalyptic novel, must under conditions of darkness, "Carry the fire."
** Interestingly, in Leonard Cohen's last album before he died, he asked a similar question in his first song, "You want it darker?...We killed the flame."
Mysterium tremendum et fascinans
Alright, as Paul Kelly sang, now it's time for deeper water. Or in the Hebrew Bible the ancient psalmist wrote of "deep calling unto deep". The sense of Mystery is palpable now. I've darkened the light in this room much closer to what it actually is. Let the darkness speak! **
One of the difficulties Christianity has in the modern world is that it is essentially a religion of Light. Nothing wrong with that. Where would photographers be without the light? But humanity's recent past has been littered with abject Darkness. How do we hear from God or Spirit or the Transcendent after Auschwitz? Elie Weisel in his testimony, "Night", addresses this question magnificently.
Can we as human beings (yes we still are despite the fact we seem to be morphing at a rapid rate into cyborgs, more technology than person) hear a still small voice of Reason in the Darkness? This is the fundamental question facing modernity if we are to survive into another century.
The Latin phrase in my title is an old theological term meaning, "a mystery before which humanity both trembles and is fascinated, is both repelled and attracted." Thus, God can appear both as wrathful or awe-inspiring, on the one hand, and as gracious and lovable, on the other.
The ancient Gnostics understood this duality of the universe so well. For the serious readers among you, I recommend Australian author Petra Mundik's fabulous book on the work of one of my favourite novelists, Cormac McCarthy. In "A Bloody and Barbarous God: The Metaphysics of Cormac McCarthy" (University of New Mexico Press, 2016), she makes a direct link between the intertwining of violence and beauty and the underlying Gnostic mysticism of McCathy's work. Nowhere is this more clearly felt than in "The Road". We, like The Boy in this apocalyptic novel, must under conditions of darkness, "Carry the fire."
** Interestingly, in Leonard Cohen's last album before he died, he asked a similar question in his first song, "You want it darker?...We killed the flame."