on being human...

so after 2 weeks of class i'm feeling overwhelmed in both the positive and negative senses of the word. i'm taking Intro to New Testament Greek, which in many ways is totally kicking my [hind-quarters] and i come away from that class wondering, "What the heck am i doing here?"... i'm waiting to settle into a good groove with that one... the first two weeks there is a lot of information dumped on you all at once. but then i have the opportunity later in the day to be in a class called Christian Thought and Culture I... this class is blowing me away. first of all, the format is amazing... there is a different lecturer each day (choice regent faculty) who are speaking within their realm of expertise. not only are they giving their best in the lecture because their lives are devoted to the subject on which they speak, but they are speaking in front of another 6 or 7 regent professors as well which, i'm sure, provides a little more motivation to be on their "A" game... so this class tracks Christian thought (as the name suggests) from the early church ages until the reformation and we have had some amazing lectures already. (and the class not only consists of lectures, but mandatory weekly tutorial sessions led by a professor that consist of about 12 students discussing and grappling together with the reading and lecture from the previous week.) needless to say, i'm thoroughly enjoying the class and am being stretched in amazing ways already.

today we focused a lot on the greco-roman philosophies that were dominant during the time that Jesus walked the earth and throughout the first couple of centuries, while the early church was being established. it's amazing to see how Gnosticism has affected our beliefs as Christians, even to this day. (namely the dualism of soul and body, and the elevation of the soul over the body)... and i guess it's true: i've always elevated "soul" over "body"... it was argued today that this is a Gnostic thought and that they two can't even be separated (monism)... interesting fodder for thought, that's for sure.

anyway, along the course of our tutorial discussion, our prof brought a poem to our attention that i think deserves sharing...

On Being Human

Angelic minds, they say, by simple intelligence Behold the Forms of nature. They discern Unerringly the Archtypes, all the verities Which mortals lack or indirectly learn. Transparent in primordial truth, unvarying, Pure Earthness and right Stonehood from their clear, High eminence are seen; unveiled, the seminal Huge Principles appear. The Tree-ness of the tree they know-the meaning of Arboreal life, how from earth's salty lap The solar beam uplifts it; all the holiness Enacted by leaves' fall and rising sap; But never an angel knows the knife-edged severance Of sun from shadow where the trees begin, The blessed cool at every pore caressing us -An angel has no skin. They see the Form of Air; but mortals breathing it Drink the whole summer down into the breast. The lavish pinks, the field new-mown, the ravishing Sea-smells, the wood-fire smoke that whispers Rest. The tremor on the rippled pool of memory That from each smell in widening circles goes, The pleasure and the pang --can angels measure it? An angel has no nose. The nourishing of life, and how it flourishes On death, and why, they utterly know; but not The hill-born, earthy spring, the dark cold bilberries. The ripe peach from the southern wall still hot Full-bellied tankards foamy-topped, the delicate Half-lyric lamb, a new loaf's billowy curves, Nor porridge, nor the tingling taste of oranges. —An angel has no nerves. Far richer they! I know the senses' witchery Guards us like air, from heavens too big to see; Imminent death to man that barb'd sublimity And dazzling edge of beauty unsheathed would be. Yet here, within this tiny, charmed interior, This parlour of the brain, their Maker shares With living men some secrets in a privacy Forever ours, not theirs. C S Lewis

there is a certain beauty in being human, isn't there? i mean, in having bodies... each one distinct, beautiful, and significant. and Christ chose to be embodied as a human...
anyway, i'm still processing.
any thoughts?