Good companions
One of the great delights of being on sabbatical is the opportunity to spend time in the company of different people. Yesterday I spent a very pleasant couple of hours with different friends in Central London. As I traveled to and fro, I was accompanied on the journey by the two gentlemen below: Kosuke Koyama and the Venerable Bede.
Kosuke Koyama was born and raised in Japan, and later spent time teaching in America, Thailand and New Zealand. His book, Three Mile an Hour God, was first published in 1979. In it he concerns himself especially with issues of identity, authenticity and simplicity. Given the technological revolutions which have take place in the thirty-four years since the book was written, some of his warnings about the dangers of technology ring shockingly true:
“How much technology can we use without being victimized by the technological Maya”? (Where Maya means “illusion”).
“Technology is like a fire. It can cook rice for our enjoyment and nutrition, and it can also reduce our house to ashes”
He also points out the motto of the World Fair in Chicago in 1933: “Science finds, industry applies, man conforms”
For me his most startling image is that of “theological ventriloquism”, where the Bible is made to speak with the voice of those who hold it or manipulate it. As a person who preaches, and trains others to do so, I am constantly on my guard against that particular pitfall.
Images:NYTimes and limpav.com
With Koyama’s book read, I have turned to a very different tome – Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People , written in the Eighth Century. With my hopes set on walking part of St Cuthbert’s pilgrimage route later in the Summer, this ancient tome is part of my homework. As you can imagine, it abounds with fantastical descriptions of healings and miracles. It overflows too, with commons sense. Consider, for instance, Aidan’s advice to a fellow preacher: “methinks, brother, that you were more severe to your unlearned hearers than you ought to have been” . Sound advice indeed. No room for any ventriloquist theology in Aidan’s pulpit!