Review: The Freedom of a Christian by Martin Luther

[originally from a review I posted on goodreads.com. Check out my profile for more content like this.]

One should practically ignore my rating of this text as it conveys very little of my thoughts on the matter. Luther’s letter to Pope Leo X and his subsequent defense of Sola Fides is masterfully crafted. The Freedom of Christian accomplishes Luther’s goal splendidly. However, I can also see how the shallow Protestantism that so many object to today can spring from such thought.

Luther spent all his effort trying to clear up what is at the core of Christianity, God’s Grace and the Faith that sustains those who live through Him. But I’m not sure I agree with Luther’s tangential claim: because we are free from the demands of works, ceremony, structure, and the law we should eliminate them from our lives when they prove unnecessary. He uses an analogy where he likens ceremony to that of building plans. They are necessary for creating a beautiful and orderly structure but once complete, you set them aside and place your attention upon the structure itself. They are no longer necessary for the enjoyment and use of the space. I’m not sure this analogy works, though. Building plans serve a preparatory pre-role in the building of a structure, whereas ceremony, works, and the law, these things we may actively participate in alongside faith. Luther is correct in saying that they do not supersede faith but cannot they bring greater depth and meaning to our faith?

Consider, for example, the analogy of a picture frame. If I obtained a painting by the great Leonardo da Vinci and proceeded to frame it and place it in my home, no one would say that by adding a frame to the painting I was participating in the actual painting of the work. But you could make a pretty good argument that the frame might compliment or even emphasize the beauty, execution and master-craftsmenship of the painting.

Luther provides the church with its bare bones requirement and he admonishes us that we let nothing supersede it. But why would we simply hold to the barebones. As long as we rightly order all things, are not (as Luther and Paul so eloquently point out) all things permissible; and might some of these things even be beneficial? This is a question I will certainly be pondering for a long while yet.

Wonderstuck: Reimagined

This blog began as a tool to help me actually start writing more often, a means by which I could share my thoughts in a constructive and meaningful manner. That obviously didn’t work… I haven’t written within this space for years and, to be honest, I completely forgot it even existed. The only reason I am writing here today is because WordPress reminded me that my claim on this domain name was set to expire in five days.

I have a tendency to jump from one shiny new thing to next, completely letting go of and often even forgetting whatever it was that had my attention moments before. I get these really good ideas that I latch on to and try to make into reality; then, some new idea comes along and, just like the proverbial grass on the other side of the street, I am drawn to all that looks greener.

This blog was one of those really good ideas. But, alas, it just so happened that at about the same time I began the blog, I also met the love of my life. We had a six hour conversation in a coffee shop and I realized that the grass was definitely greener on the other side of the street. Before long we were married and now we are preparing to welcome our first child (a baby girl!) into the world. The blog? I already told you that I had completely forgotten about that.

While still in high school my grandmother with Alzheimer’s disease came to live with us for a time. I sometimes feel like my brain is already wired (or perhaps frayed) like hers was; unable to linger on or ponder a thought for more than few short moments before something else takes its place. Now if I’m being perfectly honest, I at least have some agency in the matter; I can ponder things for way longer than a few short moments. I can ponder for days, weeks, or even years. I can choose to linger longer if I put my mind to it. Nana, literally—mentally—could not. But I think I can understand just a little bit of the experience of moving uncontrollably from one moment to the next.

A personality test called Working Genius recently revealed to me that this is due to being driven by wonder and lacking in tenacity. Using the language of the test, I am a “working genius” in the domains of Wonder and Discernment but I need support in the areas of Ideation and Tenacity. I will happily get lost in the clouds of big (or little) ideas. I can often wisely discern healthy courses of action but will rarely traverse them to their end because, along the way, I see other wonderful and exciting paths that I can’t help but explore. This either leads to going in circles or ending miles from my original intended goal. This acute sense of wonder leads me into all sorts of trouble. Ha! Would you look at that. I really am quite often wonderstuck! But look at me, I have already strayed from my original point.

I have decided that I will begin to write on this blog again. I have no particular goal or direction in mind. I simply want to share my thoughts. Hopefully, they will carry some meaning—perhaps to myself, perhaps even to others. Of course, as the contents of the post have already indicated, there is no guarantee that such writing will actually take place. Who knows where I will be in in a year from now when my domain name once again approaches the renewal date. But as one of my favorite book series so wonderfully points out: journey before destination!

Endings

You watch as darkness slowly slips beyond the horizon. The stars that once graced the vast expanse seemingly vanish. But this is no sudden vanishing. Their disappearance just feels sudden for you are never really certain when the actual point of “vanishing” occurs. They’re there and then, after some indistinguishable amount of time… they’re not. It is an ending that appears to have no clear ending; for who can say when night ends and day begins? Is it when the first rays of dawn unsettle the distant hills? Or is it when those distant hills earn their golden garments? Or, not to be outdone, is it when Helios finally spreads his fiery wings upon an unsuspecting yet entirely expectant world?

But what of those nights that fall away to thick, milky-gray morns. You know, those dawns that never really “dawn on you”. It’s as if you’ve entered some alternate kind of “lighted night” where the world still sleeps and the wild things still roam. This “lighted night” envelops you like the sheet you pull over your head when you know you have to wake up but you are just too comfortable to do so. When does night actually end and day ACTUALLY begin?

The alarm declares proudly that it is time to wake up. Your slumber must come to an end. You produce a series of strange grunts that some obscure animal from the other side of Planet Earth (a creature you will likely never encounter during your wanderings in this life) would interpret as an invitation to mate, and then you proceed to search blindly for your phone to end the outrageous sound you have set to wake you up at precisely 6:00 AM. What an odd way to end your slumber. You set a particularly annoying sound to go off at a time that you know you will likely not be awake just so you can be jolted out of your peaceful rest to press the “snooze” button. Not to mention that you do this with the utmost care to avoid any use of your eyes at any time during this procedure as they MUST remain (with no clear reason as to why) firmly shut.

But, alas, you end your night like this every morning; or, at least on the occasions in which it is imperative that night come to an end. Otherwise, perhaps night need not end. Lazy Saturday mornings aren’t really mornings at all. Night lingers on in the artificial reality of your tightly sealed bedroom. Light need not bid you its fervent salutations.

Endings are rather fluid things. They tend to follow the gravitational pull of beginnings, taking a path of least resistance towards their ever impending… end. Like most respectable people, you probably perceive the dawn as a beginning: the beginning of the day. Dawn is, after all, a very beginish term. Phrases like “the dawn of time”, “the dawn of man”, and “it just dawned on me” all point to a particular moment in which something that “was not” came “to be” (time, man, and idea).

But every beginning must also be and end. Every first marks something else’s last. Many such lasts are worthy of remembrance. God forbid we cling too tightly to what comes next that we forget to be thankful for what came before.

I, therefore, dedicate this blog post as a eulogy to all that ends upon its publishing. The beginning will come in due time, do not worry, all shall come to pass. For now, however, I simply say goodbye.

Greetings

If you sometimes wake up in the morning and wonder why it is you happen to be at all then this is a place for you. If you want to wake up wondering why it is you happen to be at all then this is also a place for you. However, if you are instead one of those people who wakes up every morning with a clear sense of why you exist then you had better leave. This place will only provide you with useless prattle concerning things you have already made peace with.

Lastly, I must warn you that if you are one of those people who simply does not care about why it is you happen to be at all then this place is the last place you should be. Run away immediately! I guarantee that prolonged exposure to this page will result in symptoms that include (but are not limited to) eyebrow raising, nose scrunching, head scratching, upwards gazing, prayerful pondering, ridiculous raving, and question making. Proceed at your own risk!