This really happened.
Maybe not on exactly this day or with these particular animals present.
It is unlikely that the garments worn were this pristine. Nor do we know who arrived exactly when or in what numbers.
What we do know is that this really happened. A Jewish baby was born sometime during the reign of the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus. He grew up and was crucified sometime during the reign of Tiberius Caesar.
He claimed to be the son of God; more, he claimed to be God. He said a person's response to this claim would determine that person's future for all eternity.
As C.S. Lewis put it, "I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing
that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great
moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one
thing we must not say. A man who said the sort of things Jesus said
would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on a
level with the man who says he is a poached egg--or else he would be the
Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is,
the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up
for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can
fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any
patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not
left that open to us. He did not intend to." (Mere Christianity, 1952)
Some people argue Lewis's logic.
Their arguments tend to hinge on the question of whether anything outside this natural world can be proved to exist -- proved using the scientific method, that is. One group has even offered a "million dollar challenge" to anyone who thinks he or she can prove any kind of supernatural occurrence. The parameters and protocols are set by the group.
The logic here escapes me. Isn't this a bit like using a microscope to study a galaxy -- only magnified exponentially. The galaxy, after all, exists within the same realm as the objects studied by the microscope. Still, the analogy seems valid. To study another existence, surely we would need tools from that existence.
All I can say is, I know what I was before I said "Thy will, not mine," and I know what I am now. I know where my thoughts and plans and motivations were leading me. . . and I know where His thoughts and plans and motivations have brought me. Someone today looking at me from the outside may see only the imperfections yet to be sanded away and not notice anything of what has already been done because they have no frame of reference of what I was before. I was dead. Now I am alive. That is a supernatural act, one which cannot be proved by the protocols of the scientific method.
All I can say is, this really happened. It happened for me. It happened for you. It happened for each and every one of us -- whether we believe it or not.
God rest ye merry, gentlemen -- and gentlewomen and boys and girls in all places, in all times.
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Friday, October 25, 2013
More on George MacDonald & Dan Hamilton
Oy -- my last post was almost a year ago! One of these days I will catch up with myself....
In any case, someone just asked about the original titles of the George MacDonald books edited by Dan Hamilton (see previous post). Here they are; the Hamilton editions are on the left, and the original titles are on the right. Keep in mind, however, that even during MacDonald's lifetime, different editions sometimes had slightly different titles. I have found The History of Gutta-Percha Willie, Working Genius listed as just Gutta-Percha Willie.
The Parish Papers:
A Quiet Neighborhood / The Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood
The Seaboard Parish / The Seaboard Parish
The Vicar's Daughter / The Vicar's Daughter
The Last Castle / Saint George and Saint Michael (Follow this link to Peter Kazmaier's discussion of the conflict between the two "just warriors" in this book set in the time of Charles I and Oliver Cromwell.)
The Prodigal Apprentice / Guild Court (I believe)
On Tangled Paths / Weighed and Wanting (This link leads to a discussion of whether Hamilton's edition should be considered a translation or not: http://www.librarything.com/topic/54418 .)
The Elect Lady / The Elect Lady
Home Again / Home Again
The Boyhood of Ranald Bannerman / Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood
The Genius of Willie MacMichael / The History of Gutta-Percha Willie, Working Genius
The Wanderings of Clare Skymer / A Rough Shaking
These books are available through Project Gutenberg. And here is a site devoted to scholarly writing about George MacDonald's work: North Wind Journal
In any case, someone just asked about the original titles of the George MacDonald books edited by Dan Hamilton (see previous post). Here they are; the Hamilton editions are on the left, and the original titles are on the right. Keep in mind, however, that even during MacDonald's lifetime, different editions sometimes had slightly different titles. I have found The History of Gutta-Percha Willie, Working Genius listed as just Gutta-Percha Willie.
The Parish Papers:
A Quiet Neighborhood / The Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood
The Seaboard Parish / The Seaboard Parish
The Vicar's Daughter / The Vicar's Daughter
The Last Castle / Saint George and Saint Michael (Follow this link to Peter Kazmaier's discussion of the conflict between the two "just warriors" in this book set in the time of Charles I and Oliver Cromwell.)
The Prodigal Apprentice / Guild Court (I believe)
On Tangled Paths / Weighed and Wanting (This link leads to a discussion of whether Hamilton's edition should be considered a translation or not: http://www.librarything.com/topic/54418 .)
The Elect Lady / The Elect Lady
Home Again / Home Again
The Boyhood of Ranald Bannerman / Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood
The Genius of Willie MacMichael / The History of Gutta-Percha Willie, Working Genius
The Wanderings of Clare Skymer / A Rough Shaking
These books are available through Project Gutenberg. And here is a site devoted to scholarly writing about George MacDonald's work: North Wind Journal
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Have an inkling who the Inklings were? Then come hear Dan Hamilton!
SEVEN SAGES
A talk by
Dan Hamilton
Sunday, November 25, 2012, at 5 p.m.
Congregation Ohr Chadash
3190 Gulf-to-Bay Blvd., Clearwater
Congregation Ohr Chadash, a Messianic Jewish synagogue, is located at 3190 Gulf-to-Bay Blvd., just east of the Bayside Bridge (connecting 49th St. and McMullen Booth Rd.) and on the corner of Gulf-to-Bay Blvd. and Bayshore Blvd. (Gulf-to-Bay is the extension of the Courtney Campbell Causeway and is State Rt. 60.) Mr. Hamilton will bring along a number of books he has written to sign and sell. Coffee and dessert will follow the talk. There will be no charge for the lecture, but participants will be invited to make a donation instead.
C.S. Lewis * George
MacDonald * G.K. Chesterton
Dorothy Sayers
J.R.R. Tolkien * Charles
Williams * Owen Barfield
These seven writers, whose "baptized
imaginations," as C.S. Lewis termed his own experience, produced some remarkable writings and influenced countless
other writers, artists, and thinkers. They often are treated as a cohesive group, though the connections may be elusive. Who are
these people? What did they write? Why are they important? Which of their books
should we read? Some of these writers were part of the literary discussion group known as the Inklings. Others came before, and their earlier writings nurtured their literary progeny.
Seven Sages presents an overview of the lives and works of these writers, pointing out their common ground and differences,
identifying their connections, and providing recommended reading.
Dan has edited numerous George MacDonald novels, written a fantasy trilogy (Tales of the Forgotten God), and co-authored two books with his wife: Should I Home School? and Look Both Ways. Dan and Dr. Ed Brown wrote In Pursuit of C. S. Lewis, which tells the fabulous story behind the magnificent Lewis collection that now resides at Taylor University in Indiana.
Dan and his wife, Elizabeth, helped buy, rescue, and preserve The Kilns, C. S. Lewis’ home from 1930 on, where he wrote the Narnia series and many of his other books. Dan co-founded the C. S. Lewis and Friends Society at Taylor University and the Central Indiana C. S. Lewis Society in Indianapolis.
| The Kilns @ 1997. Photo taken by jschroe from Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, USA, and uploaded to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kilns |
Dan is finishing The Inn at the
End of the World, a volume of short fantasy stories intended as a companion
to Tales of the Forgotten God.
BOOKS BY DAN HAMILTON
BOOKS BY DAN HAMILTON
Tales of the Forgotten God:
The Beggar King
The Chameleon Lady
The Everlasting Child
The Beggar King
The Chameleon Lady
The Everlasting Child
WITH ELIZABETH HAMILTON
Should I Home School?
Should I Home School?
Look Both Ways
WITH DR. EDWIN W. BROWN
In Pursuit of C. S. Lewis
In Pursuit of C. S. Lewis
EDITED BY DAN HAMILTON
George MacDonald Novels
The Parish Papers:
A Quiet Neighborhood
The Seaboard Parish
The Vicar's Daughter
George MacDonald Novels
The Parish Papers:
A Quiet Neighborhood
The Seaboard Parish
The Vicar's Daughter
The Last Castle
The Prodigal Apprentice
On Tangled Paths
The Elect Lady
Home Again
The Boyhood of Ranald Bannerman
The Genius of Willie MacMichael
The Wanderings of Clare Skymer
The Prodigal Apprentice
On Tangled Paths
The Elect Lady
Home Again
The Boyhood of Ranald Bannerman
The Genius of Willie MacMichael
The Wanderings of Clare Skymer
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Can I Just Say...
Does my sweetie know me, or what?
Plus a matching card!
This post is a couple of months overdue ... so I'm craving another licorice fix.
Maybe he'll see this and take the hint?
:-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)


