Journal entry by Al Negstad — a minute ago
The journal, The Christian Century, asked pastors and writers what book has helped them understand what it means to live the Christian life. L. Gregory Jones, dean of Duke Divinity School, named Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brother's Karamazov, as his choice of book. Jones writes,
"...in a world in which sin and evil continue to afflict us in horrifying ways, the novel's portrait of faithful Christian life is indeed extraordinary....His response is to show that the most faithful way to engage evil is through holiness, refracting the light of Christ in all that we are and do. Alyosha glimpses such a life in Father Zosima. By the end of the book, Alyosha has become an exemplar himself while his brother Ivan, full of righteous anger, has gone mad." Christian Century, May 22, 2019, P. 30
This brings to mind Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., overcoming evil by absorbing it. With a couple of my elementary school reading groups we read Buddha Boy, by Kathe Koja, a young readers novel. Jinsen, aka Buddha Boy, enters a new high school after a violent past. He steadfastly refuses to retaliate against the bullies who pick on him. We all wanted him to stand up for himself but he refuses, practicing non-violent resistance as did Gandhi and King.
Yes, I do not have to be scratched very deeply to find the violent revengeful self lurking within me.
Takk for alt,
Al
"...in a world in which sin and evil continue to afflict us in horrifying ways, the novel's portrait of faithful Christian life is indeed extraordinary....His response is to show that the most faithful way to engage evil is through holiness, refracting the light of Christ in all that we are and do. Alyosha glimpses such a life in Father Zosima. By the end of the book, Alyosha has become an exemplar himself while his brother Ivan, full of righteous anger, has gone mad." Christian Century, May 22, 2019, P. 30
This brings to mind Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., overcoming evil by absorbing it. With a couple of my elementary school reading groups we read Buddha Boy, by Kathe Koja, a young readers novel. Jinsen, aka Buddha Boy, enters a new high school after a violent past. He steadfastly refuses to retaliate against the bullies who pick on him. We all wanted him to stand up for himself but he refuses, practicing non-violent resistance as did Gandhi and King.
Yes, I do not have to be scratched very deeply to find the violent revengeful self lurking within me.
Takk for alt,
Al
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