The similar phrase 'Worldly Christianity' is one used by Bonhoeffer. It's J Gresham Machen that I want to line up most closely with. See his Christianity and culture here. Having done commentaries on Proverbs (Heavenly Wisdom) and Song of Songs (Heavenly Love), a matching title for Ecclesiastes would be Heavenly Worldliness. For my stance on worldliness, see 3 posts here.

Gently weeps

Like many modern and post modern people the Beatles were fascinated by the random. I was recently reading that George Harrison wrote his "While my guitar gently weeps" by selecting two words (gently weeps) from a book at random. I thought I might repeat the experiment. I'm using a Penguin edition of Samuel Smiles Self-help book. That gives me something like

While my guitar plumbs the strata OR
My guitar springing into a boat OR
Play my guitar - work to be got.

If we forget about Harrison for a moment and just focus on a random phrase from Smiles - what difficulty - I can come up with

With what difficulty these words I write,
Constrained by my method, I lose the fight.
With what difficulty these lines I compose,
As for what they mean there's no-one knows.
With what difficulty deep thoughts I seek,
While all of the lines are contrived and weak.
With what difficulty I reach the end,
Let's all hope I haven't started a trend.
Just need a solo from Clapton and fame beckons.

3 comments:

Jonathan Hunt said...

boo!

john edmonds said...

I Guess you show your age and modernity by trying to impose some sense of meaning on your little poem; which incidentally I enjoyed. Why not join post modernity proper and create a poem of complete meaninglessness that still stirs the soul?

Gary Brady said...

Rightly spotted John. Despite my liking for random I couldn't quite shake off my modernism. As for the suggestion, nothing will compare with Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky. Glad to hear good reports fo you at Carey. Trust all's well.