Book Club: Chapter 6 - The Energy Incarnate in Self-Expression

Each of the chapters begin with a quote selected by Dorothy Sayers. When I read the T. S. Eliot quote preceding this chapter, I thought if this is any indication of what's coming, I'm sunk! The quote, from a work I'm unfamiliar with, made a small bit more sense after reading chapter 6.

Here in chapter 6, Sayers, draws an analogy between an author's autobiography and the doctrine that God "wrote His own autobiography" in His creation.

She begins again with the tribus: Idea, Power, and Energy. The Idea in our analogy represents the full personality of the writer. The Power, the power of that personality, and the Energy, the total self-awareness of his own personality, and as such, is aware of the Idea and manifests its Power into material form.

She supports her analogy with four points.

1st) That which it creates (the autobiography) is exactly like all his other works in that is suffers the same limitations. He is a character in a book being read by a person who doesn't and can't know the wholeness of the author, only what is being revealed in his written work. The author on the other hand, is aware of and conscious of his eternal wholeness, but cannot, even if he wished to, express all of that to his reader.

That sounds very much like our Creator God to me.

2nd) The autobiography, though a single element in his collection of works, is an interpretation of the whole collection. As we gain greater understanding of the author, it will reveal the relation of all his works to his Idea of himself.

By God's incarnation, He is saying, "See! This is what my eternal Idea looks like in terms of my creation."

3rd) As she explained in earlier chapters, though the autobiography *is* the author, it can never be the whole of an author. We can say it is a true revelation, nonetheless, it is only a partial revelation.

In the analogy terms, the work is equal to the Idea, as touching the author's essence, but inferior to the Idea as touching the author's expression.

In theological terms, the Word is said to be equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His manhood.

It's a perfect revelation, but only insofar as it goes.

4th and lastly) The truth about the writer's personality will be revealed, like it or not. The truth of what he states will be tested by the form in which it is stated. We should be unafraid of holding it to the severest tests of examinations. If a work is handled gingerly, it has the affect of revealing a fear that it won't hold up.

This certainly rings true to me. We have seen how the MSM, having chosen their winners, not only dismiss any examination, but readily cover for their chosen ones should someone else put them to a test.

With regard to Scripture, I think this is equally true. Those who are afraid to question the parts that seem implausible or difficult to understand are revealing their fear that it might not hold up under intense scrutiny. When in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. We have seen and continue to see how science supports the truth of the Word. (Not to be confused with faith, which is a necessary and vital part of inner belief. A person can believe much of the Scripture and even say, "It is true." but not be a child of God.) That is another discussion, but in terms of Sayers' analogy, I think it holds true.

There is the person whose faith says, "I don't need to put it to the severest of tests. I believe it because God said it." While laudable, this person may not be able to help the would-be Believer through his search and investigation, if he isn't willing to look at questions from other sides and answer them honestly and truthfully.

This all sounds rather perfunctory, and I don't mean it to. It reinforces to me the necessity to be in the Word constantly, studying it, and making it my life's primary focus.

Her final sentence was a good summary, "Nobody but a god can pass unscathed through the searching ordeal of incarnation."