Book Club Chapter 8: Pentecost

Pentecost

The Power of the word made manifest.  I found this chapter interesting and thought-provoking.  I am wishing for more time to mull the ideas presented here, but lo, I am a few weeks behind in our reading schedule.  :-) 

The Power of the word.  Once the idea is made manifest and is communicated to others, it dwells in the mind and works with creative energy and eventually begets a new response.  (I found myself wondering if it is possible for one to read and read and read and not have the Ideas set forth invoke a new response.  I think it is possible and that is why Sayers often qualifies her language with the "creative mind."  But I think this might make for an interesting discussion.)

Sayers states that this power is dangerous because every word (intential or idle) will be accounted for at the day of judgment.  This reminds me of Heb. 4:12, "For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword ... "

That is the Word of God, but our words fit the "living & active" part of that description.  For, once the Idea, communicated with words, enters the minds of others, it will tend to reincarnate itself with increasing energy and power.  In other words, they (words) have creative force.  No idea is completely void of power.  It is true that the weaker the Idea, the more anemic the power.

Yet, I have seen in my own home the power of an Idea that I presumed weak, play out in a very strong way.  (Likely due to the selfish nature of the individual.)  Here is where Cindy's encouragement that 'prayer, also, has consequences' is a welcome reminder. 

Sayers says that it is through the power that we see a reflection of the original Trinity.  For a reader, that is the book itself, presented as:

1. Book-as-Thought:  it existed as an Idea in someone's mind prior to being written.  (analogous to Creator God)
2. Book-as-Written:  the piece of work compiled on paper in ink, existing within time and space.  (analogous to Jesus as Man on earth)  Interesting point made here about the elimination of an Idea.  The Pharisees, believing they could eliminate what Jesus represented, responded by crucifying Him.  But it was too late for that.  Sayers points out that, in a way, Herod showed himself wiser than the Pharisees by trying to eliminate the "Book-as-Written" at the very start of His life, before He could grow and elucidate the Idea in time and space.  But I think the day Christ was born it was already too late for elimination.  The Idea had become manifest, flesh & blood, in time and space.
3. Book-as-Read:  "the power of its effect on the responsive mind."  (analogous to the Holy Spirit)  The author says this is the most difficult part to analyze because we are trying to perceive our own perception of the thing.  We can examine detached aspects of it, but not the movement of it on our own mind.

And it is this very thing that better prepares us for communicating our Ideas to the next set of readers.  We read Ideas made manifest (books), particularly those with grand and forceful, beautiful ideas and they work on us and become a part of us.  When we seek to make manifest our own Ideas, the image-laden language that has become a part of who we are, flows forth in a new way.

Here is where Sayers makes one of her main points:

"The traditional view is that each new work

 should be a fresh focus of power through which

 former streams of beauty, emotion, and reflection are directed."

This, I believe, is the true aim of education.  Inculcating our students' minds with beauty and truth so that what proceeds from them is the same.  The same, but their own, new, if that makes sense.

As this correlates to the Holy Spirit, Sayers states:

"The Power -the Spirit- is thus a social power, working to bring

all minds into its own unity, sometimes by similarity,

and at other times by contrast."

Of course, I view this as the ultimate goal in a child's education  ~ being responsive to truth and beauty, they will recognize it, love it, and respond to it.  When the Spirit calls, they will answer.

Lastly, as a logophile, I would be remiss if I didn't share a word, new to me, found in this chapter:

epithalamium  (epə thəˊ lāmēəm):  a song or poem celebrating a marriage.  etymology: via Latin from Greek, epi upon + thalamos bridal chamber.