A Blog By Any Other Name...
OK, quiz time. Notice anything different about my blog? Look closely. Very good. You are most observant. Yes, the title has changed. Allow me to explain.
When I use the Latin phrase carpe diem, roughly translated seize the day, I am thinking of something completely different than its evidently more universal meaning amongst the literati of past generations right up to our present time, including the fictional Professor John Keating in Dead Poet's Society, whom I had quoted in my preamble.
What I mean by "seize the day", is, don't waste one precious day that you have on this earth by God's grace. Use it to make a difference, to do something of eternal significance. Of course, given my last post, I am obviously not always a devout follower of my own principles. So maybe that is a secondary reason for changing the title, to reduce the hypocrisy factor. Just thought of that, but perhaps it has some validity.
But what really brought about this name change was G.K. Chesterton. For those not familiar with Chesterton, he was credited by C.S. Lewis himself as being instrumental in his conversion to Christianity:
"Then I read Chesterton's The Everlasting Man and for the first time saw the whole Christian outline of history set out in a form that seemed to me to make sense."
C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy, p. 223
I am sure if you were to ask Chesterton today, were he alive, he would say that getting my blog name changed ranks right up there as a close second to the C.S. Lewis deal. Well, as it happens, I am not reading The Everlasting Man, but rather Heretics, on my bus ride home everyday, where I came upon the following passage:
"Walter Pater said that we were all under sentence of death, and the only course was to enjoy exquisite moments simply for those moments' sake. The same lesson was taught by the very powerful and very desolate philosophy of Oscar Wilde. It is the carpe diem religion; but the carpe diem religion is not the religion of happy people, but of very unhappy people. Great joy does not gather the rosebuds while it may; its eyes are fixed on the immortal rose which Dante saw. Great joy has in it the sense of immortality..."
G.K. Chesterton, Heretics, p. 107
So whatever I think carpe diem means, to the world-at-large, it means "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die." And that is not the message I want to convey. Indeed it is the very antithesis of the message I want to convey. Paul said it long before Oscar Wilde or Walter Pater:
"If the dead are not raised,
"Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die."
-1 Corinthians 15:32b
But does Paul answer that "if" in the affirmative? Read on...
"When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
"Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?"
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
-1 Corinthians 15:54-57
So there is life after death, so what? Again, read on...
"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."
-1 Corinthians 15:58
Hmmm..."Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord"...or, like I said at the beginning, "seize the day!" Now didn't that all come together nicely?
When I use the Latin phrase carpe diem, roughly translated seize the day, I am thinking of something completely different than its evidently more universal meaning amongst the literati of past generations right up to our present time, including the fictional Professor John Keating in Dead Poet's Society, whom I had quoted in my preamble.
What I mean by "seize the day", is, don't waste one precious day that you have on this earth by God's grace. Use it to make a difference, to do something of eternal significance. Of course, given my last post, I am obviously not always a devout follower of my own principles. So maybe that is a secondary reason for changing the title, to reduce the hypocrisy factor. Just thought of that, but perhaps it has some validity.
But what really brought about this name change was G.K. Chesterton. For those not familiar with Chesterton, he was credited by C.S. Lewis himself as being instrumental in his conversion to Christianity:
"Then I read Chesterton's The Everlasting Man and for the first time saw the whole Christian outline of history set out in a form that seemed to me to make sense."
C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy, p. 223
I am sure if you were to ask Chesterton today, were he alive, he would say that getting my blog name changed ranks right up there as a close second to the C.S. Lewis deal. Well, as it happens, I am not reading The Everlasting Man, but rather Heretics, on my bus ride home everyday, where I came upon the following passage:
"Walter Pater said that we were all under sentence of death, and the only course was to enjoy exquisite moments simply for those moments' sake. The same lesson was taught by the very powerful and very desolate philosophy of Oscar Wilde. It is the carpe diem religion; but the carpe diem religion is not the religion of happy people, but of very unhappy people. Great joy does not gather the rosebuds while it may; its eyes are fixed on the immortal rose which Dante saw. Great joy has in it the sense of immortality..."
G.K. Chesterton, Heretics, p. 107
So whatever I think carpe diem means, to the world-at-large, it means "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die." And that is not the message I want to convey. Indeed it is the very antithesis of the message I want to convey. Paul said it long before Oscar Wilde or Walter Pater:
"If the dead are not raised,
"Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die."
-1 Corinthians 15:32b
But does Paul answer that "if" in the affirmative? Read on...
"When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
"Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?"
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
-1 Corinthians 15:54-57
So there is life after death, so what? Again, read on...
"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."
-1 Corinthians 15:58
Hmmm..."Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord"...or, like I said at the beginning, "seize the day!" Now didn't that all come together nicely?
posted by wilsonte | 7:56 PM
3 Comments:
I enjoyed this post! "The Everlasting Man" is one of the greatest books I ever read, just behind "Orthodoxy". Chesterton really knew how to plumb the depths of spirituality through the use of reason. Is that what attracted CS Lewis to him?
I am looking forward to reading "Orthodoxy" next. I chose to read "Heretics" first, because I read somewhere, I believe in the preface to "Orthodoxy" itself, that "Orthodoxy" was an answer to his critics who read "Heretics" and said we know what you are against, but now what are you for?
As for C.S. Lewis, yes, I think he was affected and moved first by reason. Like he said, Chesterton's explanation of Christianity "made sense" to him.
He also said, though I don't remember where, that he, being a professor of Medieval Literature, was intimately familiar with the writings of myth and fable, and that the gospel writings did not have the ring of myth to them, but rather the ring of truth. In other words, they "made sense".
So yes, I think C.S. Lewis' mind was won over first, and then his heart. And what heart!
If you haven't guessed by now, C.S. Lewis is another one of my favorite authors.
C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite authors as well. And I've always wanted to read more of Chesterton - I had to read excerpts from both Heretics and Orthodoxy in college...but anything in a forced scholastic situation always turned me off. Now, I'd love to go back and read them in entirety. As soon as I get past the 3 books i'm currently reading now and the 12 I have in my 'book queue'. I need more hours in the day! (PS - keep them coming Tom! No pressure!)
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