Mysterious and mystic

There's that thing with blogging that if you leave it too long you feel like you have to write something completely epic to break the silence. This isn't completely epic, but it does at least break the silence. I've had a weird couple of weeks, actually, some strange things happened. Then too it's been reading week, and I actually did spend the week reading, and writing papers. I wrote two ten page papers, one that isn't due for a while but I wanted to get it out of the way, and the other that was for the Imagination class.

Consequently, ten days ago I was in a bit of a blind panic. I had no idea what to write about for the imagination paper and I had to just start reading without a sense of where the paper was going or if I would end up with enough time to do it well. I hate that kind of stress. The other problem with writing about theology and imagination is that it's a little too immediately applicable. I got distracted imagining how it connected with how I believe. It's quite strange to academically examine such an ethereal thing. In the end I did manage a fairly good paper, which is to say, one I'm happy to hand in. I compared George Lindbeck's postliberal approach and Mary Warnock's description of religious imagination (with a sprinkling of O'Donoghue writing about Mystical imagination, which I don't recommend reading too much about when you live on your own - things start to get a bit psychedelic).

Here is a piece from my conclusion, for your edification. (I have a habit of waxing lyrical in my conclusions, mostly because I get tired of academic language, but also because I liked the mystical stuff and I'm always on a bit of a high by the time I get to the conclusion):

A religious experience expressed through the mediation of a set of symbols doesn’t diminish its value - clearly it is the only way a human can express themselves - it is an instrument rather than a funnel. As limited humans, we have to begin by feeling able to grasp some small measure of order and sense through learning the cultural symbols and stories of our religion. This is a conceptual, symbolic and cultural web. Once we know the narrative, then we can then start to dare to accept the invitation to peek beyond the borders of our sorted, organized, narrated world, through the holes in the web, to the unifying, timeless Mystery that always remains. 


I'm tired now, and I have another half a term to go, with the summer looming (I'm not much into summer, for reasons I may explain as it approaches). I enjoy my studies, I do, but I'm tired. Here's to care of the soul.