The 21 poems in this collection were influenced by the work of many, including Neruda and Tagore, the nature poems of Galway Kinnell and Jim Harrison, and the modernist poets Hart Crane, Rainer Maria Rilke, Wallace Stevens, and William Carlos Williams. It is perhaps Williams most of all whose imagist aesthetic infuses the poems. I've always liked the Zenlike attention he gives to the real, ordinary things of the world, so that in essence, they become extraordinary, a part of the reader's imagination. The poems can be divided up thematically into Cape Cod poems, fishing poems, New England nature poems, and spiritual pieces. Most of them came quite spontaneously and I let the words arrange themselves on the white tundra of my notebook pages with little thought of form; later, I tried to find the internal music, sense, and rhythm in each, adhering to Williams dictum that a poem is a little universe. In a sense each is an unfinished fragment, not wholeness itself but a search for wholeness and form. The first story, "Tracks of the Beleaguered" emerged after a two or three year gestation period not unusual for my process. I had been wanting to write a Vermont story for some time, one that would include a veteran of World War II tracking a wounded whitetail deer high up a mountain. I wanted the buck to embody the soul of the Green Mountains wild, primordial unchanged by technology and industry. Elisha represents the wounded modern exile, seeking a higher and more profound sense of identity after the dehumanizing brutality of the Pacific island fighting. I was reading Joseph Campbell's Primitive Mythology around the same time, and came upon a passage about the Buriat of Siberia and how with shamans there is usually a summons, a calling, which begins with a crisis and a dream of being broken apart physically, the discovery of an extra bone, followed by an interfusion of beingness. In a sense, Elisha and the buck become one, seeking sanctuary from the senseless violence and appearance-driven industrialized world. "Billie Holiday at the Atlantic House" is less esoteric and has its origins in trips to Provincetown where I frequently go to write, and where the actual Atlantic House exists on Masonic Street. Billie Holiday really did perform two separate engagements there. This one lived in my imagination for a year or so as well, percolating until all of the elements coalesced and resonated. I liked the idea of having Lucas be a Portuguese fisherman who listened and empathized with the blues and Jazz singer; I liked the innocence and naivet of the storyline. To create a fictive Holiday, I listened to the Verve recordings I own, and went online to listen to rare interviews with her. Like Elisha in the first story, Lucas is somewhat out of step with society, and instead lives a vivid and intense inner life. As in the Vermont story and poems, the natural world predominates, always there for sanctuary, solitude, and transcendent experience. These thematic strands continue in the novella Whoever We May Be At Last whose title comes from The Ninth Duino Elegy by Rilke. The germ of the story came in a dream I had two years ago, and I spent a summer writing the first draft, watching it take on a life of its own. I wanted the setting to be a relatively small rivertown in Connecticut with a history of industry. I liked the idea of the story being told through five narrators, each having a connection to the central figure, Ian, who's about to enlist in the Marines and fight in Afghanistan. It's difficult for me to talk about this one, since it's more visceral than anything I've written before. I'll let the reader decide on interpretations. In some respects its about the nature of sacrifice, the portrayal of a modern American town coming to terms with loss. Artistically, it seems to represent a living process of the imagination, of trying to piece together a semblance of the truth, and not so much a
Imparting the Blessing is very insightful book (group study guide) revealing biblical foundations for imparting the verbal blessing. God commanded Moses and Aaron to bless His people in this way. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob blessed in like manner. You will journey from the Old Testament to the New and see God's blueprint for imparting blessing. Learn the redemptive power of the blessing, how to break the verbal curse, and hear dynamic testimonies of families that have practiced the verbal blessing and seen it's results.
This fifth volume begins the doctrinal treatises of Perkins with three contributions of catechetical theology. The first treatise is An Exposition of the Symbol or Apostles’ Creed . Examining the contours of Christian faith, Perkins handles each article of the Creed according to its basic meaning, the duties it calls us to, and the consolation it brings. He closes the entire work by explaining how the Creed is a “storehouse of remedies against all troubles and temptations whatsoever.” The second treatise is An Exposition of the Lord’s Prayer . Detailing the chief Christian desires, Perkins explains the meaning of the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer and the “manifold uses” for each. Perkins closes his exposition with the proper uses of the Lord’s Prayer in general, the circumstances related to the way we pray, and a word on God hearing our prayers. This treatise also includes a collection of prayers (with short expositions) from the Bible and a poetic song “gathered out of the Psalms, containing the sobs and sighs of all repentant sinners.” The third treatise is The Foundation of Christian Religion Gathered into Six Principles , which sets down the principle points of Christian religion in order to establish readers in true knowledge, unfeigned faith, and sound repentance. Providing a rudimentary understanding of the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the two sacraments, Perkins’s Foundation sets a framework for people to profit more from sermons and to receive the Lord’s Supper with comfort.
The concept of blessing pervades the everyday life of Christians—from testimonies recounting God's provision, to praise songs, to wishing someone well. In fact, the term has been so integrated into Christian language that it is rarely considered thoughtfully. In the pages of Scripture, blessing seems to be either physical or spiritual, but a fuller biblical-theological approach reveals that God's blessing has always been both spiritual and physical. In Divine Blessing and the Fullness of Life in the Presence of God, William Osborne traces the theme of blessing throughout Scripture as he guides readers into a deeper understanding of how God's gracious benevolence impacts the everyday lives of Christians.
History The Parker Society, 'For the Publication of the Works of the Fathers and Early Writers of the Reformed English Church', was formed in 1840 and disbanded in 1855 when its work was completed. Its name is taken from that of Matthew Parker, the first Elizabethan Archbishop of Canterbury, who was known as a great collector and preserver of books. The stimulus for the foundation of the society was provided by the nineteenth-Century Tractarians. Some members of this movement, e.g., R.H. Froude in his Remains of 1838-9, spoke most disparagingly of the English Reformation: 'Really I hate the Reformation and the Reformers more and more'. Keble could add in 1838, 'Anything which separates the present Church from the Reformers I should hail as a great good'. Protestants within the Church of England therefore felt the urgent need to make available in an attractive and accessible form the works of the leaders of the English Reformation. To many it seemed that the Protestant foundations of the English Church were being challenged like never before. Thus the society represented a co-operation between traditional High Churchmen and evangelical churchmen, both of whom were committed to the Reformation teaching on justification by faith. Subscribers were also involved in the erection of the Martyrs' Memorial in Oxford, although this was as much anti-Roman Catholic as anti-Tractarian. The society had about seven thousand subscribers who paid one pound each year from 1841 to 1855; thus for fifteen pounds the subscribers received fifty- three volumes - the General Index and the Latin originals of the 1847 'Original Letters relative to the English Reformation' being special subscriptions. Twenty-four editors were used and the task of arriving at the best text was far from easy. The choice of publications was controversial and some authors and works were unfortunate not to be included in PS volumes. While some of the volumes have been superseded by more recent critical editions, today this collection remains one of the most valuable sources for the study of the English Reformation.
The Power to Curse or Bless Others" is the second book in a continuing series on Christian conduct by William Derrick Moore. This book provides insight into the very nature of evil, demonic beings, and our own contributions to what we have come to know as evil. It also takes a look at arealm of evil that many Christians fail to see or acknowledge. Once an understanding is reached on all the sources that can influence what we percceive as demonic activity or evil, we have an opportunity to change our role in the process of being a curse or a blessing to others. An important variable in understanding the problem of evil is the rejection of one of God's greatest commandments, love. In rejecting this commandment, it changes the potential and capacity to extrodinarily bless someone into the potential and capacity to extrodinarily curse someone. A central theme in this book is God's gift of free will and volition to his creations both human and angelic. God has given us all the power to bless or curse others. Misusing this gift and power from God constitutes evil. "The Power to Curse or Bless Others" takes a deeper look into the major causes of evil and it also provides insight and understanding of God's true role in allowing evil to continue in the world.
This second volume contains Perkins’s Commentary on Galatians . Perkins preached on Galatians each Lord’s Day for over three years. Ralph Cudworth obtained Perkins’s handwritten notes and edited them for publication. Because Perkins did not complete the commentary, Cudworth supplemented the manuscript with his own comments on chapter 6. This commentary of Perkins and Cudworth on Galatians first appeared in print in 1604, two years after Perkins’s death. Perkins’s other writings had already begun to be gathered and published. When the three-volume edition of his collected works first appeared, Galatians occupied over 320 large folio pages in the second volume (1609). It continued to appear as a part of several editions of the Works through their final 1635 reprint. Evidently, interest in the commentary warranted its publication again as a separate volume in 1617. Following the model taught in his treatise The Art of Prophesying , Perkins’s pattern in commenting on Galatians is to explain the text, deduce a few points of doctrine from it, answer objections raised against the doctrine, and then give practical uses of what the passage teaches.
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