Reflections on God, man and the world through the eyes of popular culture.
Keith, I like the songs that you've chosen and the overall project of highlighting the perennial wisdom that is latent in the raw instrumentation and lyrics of today's music. Are you familiar with a band called Dream Theater? They rock VERY hard, but the music is instrumentally complex and the lyrics are often deeply religious. Check out, for instance, the song "Repentance" on the album Systematic Chaos.Keep up the great work!God bless,David
David, yes I have come across them in my "research". Right now I have a backlog of great stuff that I hope to get posted in the coming weeks and months. What I hope will begin to emerge is a kind of artistic participation in the "great conversation" of perennial questions and ideas. I will take another look at Repentance. Thanks for the input!
I want to add something from Pope Benedict that relates directly with this theme of finding the real. What is the real? I think that Alter Bridge and the Pope have something in common here.============================="Eternal life" is not -- as the modern reader might immediately assume -- life after death, in contrast to this present life, which is transient and not eternal. "Eternal life" is life itself, real life, which can also be lived in the present age and is no longer challenged by physical death. This is the point: to sieze "life" here and now, real life that nan no longer be destroyed by anything or anyone.(Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, vol. 2, pp. 82-83)
So, finding the real is about more than mere existence. In the language of metaphysics this is being-as-being. Pope Benedict adds theological insights to this as he continues:============================This meaning of "eternal life" appears very clearly in the account of the raising of Lazarus: "He who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die" (Jn 11:25-26). "Because I live, you will live also", says Jesus to his disciples at the Last Supper (Jn 14:19), and he thereby reveals once again that a distinguishing feature of the disciple of Jesus is the fact that he "lives": beyond the mere fact of existing, he has found and embraced the REAL life that everyone is seeking. On the basis of such texts, the early Christians called themselves simply "the living" (hoi zontes). They had found what all are seeking -- life itself, full and, hence, indestructible life. (op. cit.)
Keith, I like the songs that you've chosen and the overall project of highlighting the perennial wisdom that is latent in the raw instrumentation and lyrics of today's music. Are you familiar with a band called Dream Theater? They rock VERY hard, but the music is instrumentally complex and the lyrics are often deeply religious. Check out, for instance, the song "Repentance" on the album Systematic Chaos.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the great work!
God bless,
David
David, yes I have come across them in my "research". Right now I have a backlog of great stuff that I hope to get posted in the coming weeks and months. What I hope will begin to emerge is a kind of artistic participation in the "great conversation" of perennial questions and ideas. I will take another look at Repentance. Thanks for the input!
ReplyDeleteI want to add something from Pope Benedict that relates directly with this theme of finding the real. What is the real? I think that Alter Bridge and the Pope have something in common here.
ReplyDelete=============================
"Eternal life" is not -- as the modern reader might immediately assume -- life after death, in contrast to this present life, which is transient and not eternal. "Eternal life" is life itself, real life, which can also be lived in the present age and is no longer challenged by physical death. This is the point: to sieze "life" here and now, real life that nan no longer be destroyed by anything or anyone.
(Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, vol. 2, pp. 82-83)
So, finding the real is about more than mere existence. In the language of metaphysics this is being-as-being. Pope Benedict adds theological insights to this as he continues:
ReplyDelete============================
This meaning of "eternal life" appears very clearly in the account of the raising of Lazarus: "He who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die" (Jn 11:25-26). "Because I live, you will live also", says Jesus to his disciples at the Last Supper (Jn 14:19), and he thereby reveals once again that a distinguishing feature of the disciple of Jesus is the fact that he "lives": beyond the mere fact of existing, he has found and embraced the REAL life that everyone is seeking. On the basis of such texts, the early Christians called themselves simply "the living" (hoi zontes). They had found what all are seeking -- life itself, full and, hence, indestructible life. (op. cit.)