Mandarins with Vase

Mandarins with Vase, Duane Keiser

Love Drama or Power Drama?

We tend to think of Shakespeare's plays as being tragedies or comedies but this opens things up a bit.

If the distinction is not held too rigidly nor pressed too far, it is interesting to think of Shakespeare's chief works as either love dramas or power dramas, or a combination of the two. In his Histories, the poet handles the power problem primarily, the love interest being decidedly incidental. In the Comedies, it is the other way around, overwhelmingly in the lighter ones, distinctly in the graver ones, except in Troilus and Cressida--hardly comedy at all--where without full integration something like a balance is maintained. In the Tragedies both interests are important, but Othello is decidedly a love drama and Macbeth as clearly a power drama, while in Hamlet and King Lear the two interests often alternate rather than blend.”

Harold Clarke Goddard, The Meaning of Shakespeare, Volume 2

I never thought of it this way but Goddard is right. This is a very interesting way to look at the Bard's work. I just can't praise Goddard's books highly enough, by the way, for anyone who is interested in digging deeper into Shakespeare. Insightful, illuminating, and stimulating literary criticism which always respects Shakespeare's text.

Living with Jonah: Which Hand is Which and Running from God

From my new book, Thus Sayeth the Lord — the final part of the sample chapter we've been reading this week. (Previously:  part 1, part 2, part 3.)

Let's dig into Jonah's story and see what else it can tell us about our own lives, here and now.

Living with Jonah

Which Hand is Which?

Any time that someone tells you the “Old Testament God” is cruel and vengeful, remember the Book of Jonah. Absolutely not. God is God, no matter which Testament we’re reading. The mercy he shows the Ninevites is the same mercy we see Jesus praying for from the cross, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

When I’m embarrassed over things I’ve done in the past, I remember God’s understanding words about the Ninevites, which I think are some of the most loving and hopeful in the entire Bible.

God knows that the Ninevites are ignorant, that they never had an opportunity to learn another way, and that they haven’t been given a real chance to be anyone other than who they are. And he knows that about me. As an agnostic, I made fun of people who remained chaste before marriage; called the Eucharist “that cracker”; and rolled my eyes over the pro-life movement. It has taken a lot of time, a lot of reading, and much internal prompting from God for me to be able to see things from his point of view. I appreciate now how ignorant I was and how obnoxious I must have seemed to Christians around me.

It’s why I also appreciate his gentle correction as I try — sometimes enthusiastically, sometimes halfheartedly — to live my life as a faithful Catholic, in Jesus’ footsteps.

Running from God

I’m like Jonah in more ways than one. I can be pretty quick off the mark in the wrong direction when God calls with something I don’t want to do.

What’s worse, a lot of the time I’m pretending to myself that I’m not turning my back on God. For all Jonah’s faults, he never pretended he wasn’t defying God. He even understood his own motivations. I’m not that honest a lot of the time. My problems are all pretty small compared with having to go declare God’s word to a hostile nation: the acquaintance that I don’t want to invite to a party because she is awkward to be around. The evenings I don’t want to give up to volunteer. The sick person I don’t want to visit because he can be pretty critical.

These petty problems can loom large, and I know I sound exactly like a sulky teenager when I’m coming up with excuses. And, come to think of it, so does Jonah, when he’s on the hill overlooking the city. Just as Jonah only cared that the plant was dying because he  lost the shade, not for the plant’s sake, we often think of everything (including people) according to how it affects us, not for another’s sake. That is where God’s thought-provoking question to Jonah comes in at the end.

We’re not given an answer to God’s question. Instead we, like Jonah, are left to ponder God’s ways and our own. Do I want to be like Jonah? Or just go ahead and try it God’s way? Because the only one I’m fooling is myself.

Next week, I'll share another chapter so you can see how a different prophet might show us something about our lives today.

If you liked what you've been reading, don't wait. Thus Sayeth the Lord comes out on March 31. Preorder your copy now!

St. Peter's Basilica at Night

St. Peter's Basilica at Night, Scott Danielson

Living with Jonah: Mad as Hell

From my new book, Thus Sayeth the Lord — I''m sharing a sample chapter this week. (Previously: part 1, part 2.)

Let's dig into Jonah's story and see what it can tell us about our own lives, here and now.

Living with Jonah

Mad as Hell

Let’s face it: Jonah himself is not a great person. He hates the Ninevites so much. It’s hard to blame him, because the Ninevites are the worst, a lot like ISIS and the Nazis rolled into one. So he runs.

Jonah isn’t simply being disobedient. He knows Scripture well enough to deeply disagree with God’s probable attitude to the Ninevites. In Exodus, God gives Moses the tablets and describes his nature: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.”

It’s the only place in the Old Testament where God describes his own nature,* and you can bet Jonah knew it. Did Jonah want that for the Ninevites? Heck no!

It’s ironic that Jonah’s absolute faith in God’s true nature is horribly justified when God forgives them at the first opportunity. Jonah comes right out and says, “Is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and repentest of evil.”

Mic drop.

What a powerful message this is for the Israelites reading this book. Their whole culture revolves around being God’s chosen people, whether or not they actually obey him very well. Now this clever book preaches a subversive message of God’s equal love for all peoples, all nations, and all creation.

Unfortunately, I understand Jonah all too well. I haven’t had a lot of violence enter my life, but his feelings about the Ninevites match the thirst for vengeance I felt on 9/11. I hated the terrorists, and I equally hated the Middle Eastern women I saw on TV exulting in the death and destruction of my beloved countrymen. How dare they!

It seems to be human nature, doesn’t it? We want justice. Mercy isn’t even on our radar. The troubled look in a gentle friend’s eyes when I told her my feelings finally made me stop and reconsider my lust for vengeance. I was able to let my hatred go when I leaned on the truth expressed by God at the end of Jonah: “And the Lord said … ‘And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?’” Those women didn’t know any better, and I did. That made it my responsibility to take control of my feelings.

* J. Carl Laney, “God’s Self-Revelation in Exodus 34:6-8,” Bibliotheca Sacra 158 (January-March 2001): 36-51, https://www.galaxie.com/article/bsac158-629-03

Tomorrow in part 4 we'll see what Jonah shows us about God's nature toward us and looking at our own behavior compared to Jonah's.

Thus Sayeth the Lord comes out on March 31. Preorder your copy now!

Roman Forum

Roman Forum, Scott Danielson

Quick Take on Jonah

From my new book, Thus Sayeth the Lord — I''m sharing a sample chapter this week. (Read part 1 here.)

Let's get a quick look-see at what the book of Jonah is about.

Quick Take on Jonah
God tells Jonah to preach in Nineveh. Nineveh’s the capital of Assyria, the most powerful and ruthless nation of the time, which all Israelites reading this book would’ve known. Not a place you just want to pop into. Jonah, as we have seen already, hot-foots it in the opposite direction to a ship at the edge of the known world. God raises a huge storm, causing the pagan sailors to toss Jonah overboard, where God saves him by having a huge fish swallow him. Bonus: The sailors begin worshipping God.

After three days and three nights, the fish vomits Jonah onto dry land. (Vomits. You’ve got to love the way the Hebrews keep it real. Jonah gets zero respect.) God repeats his command and, unsurprisingly, Jonah finally obeys.

And — are you ready for this? — the people of Nineveh surprise everyone, probably including themselves, by believing Jonah the very first day and promptly doing penance. They also make their animals do penance. These Ninevites are all in. This might be a first in the history of biblical prophecy.

God forgives them, which makes Jonah hopping mad. He furiously sits on a hill, watching the city, wishing he were dead, and complaining to God that this is why he ran away. “I knew you would forgive them,” he says. God has a plant grow, providing Jonah with much-needed shade, and then has a worm attack the plant so it withers and dies. Jonah gets even more infuriated, giving God some great talking points. The ensuing conversations provide God’s point of view.

We'll skip tomorrow since it will be Ash Wednesday - and pick up on Thursday in part 3 we'll see what Jonah has to do with our own lives.

Thus Sayeth the Lord comes out on March 31. Preorder your copy now!

Rome at Night

Rome at Night, Scott Danielson

Jonah: Mad as Hell and Running From God

From my new book, Thus Sayeth the Lord — I'll share a sample chapter over this week. Let's start with someone we might all be able to relate to — a less enthusiastic prophet we'll never see.

JONAH

Mad as Hell and Running from God

But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

Jonah 1:3

What to Read

• All four short, exciting chapters.

I’ve got to hand it to Jonah; he doesn’t mess around. God gives him a prophecy to deliver, and in the second sentence, Jonah’s on the run, “fleeing.” Look at how the next verse almost trips over itself to get all the information out. No question about it. Jonah’s getting away from God as far and fast as he can.

The Book of Jonah is not only short, it is a story. That’s a huge win when it comes to the prophets, who usually just give us their long, long speeches. Jonah is suspenseful, exciting, and funny. It also invites us to examine our own response to God when we’re asked to do something we don’t like. That’s a lot for four short chapters, but Jonah delivers.

You might think you know the story. Who doesn’t hear “Jonah” and think “swallowed by a whale?”

But Jonah’s packed with details I never noticed until I sat down and read it with full attention. Every one of them matters. The last time I read it I fell in love with the sailors, because they try rowing to shore instead of automatically tossing Jonah overboard, even when they know he’s the reason for the storm. I never even noticed those sailors before. It’s always worth reading Scripture more than once, because you don’t know what you’ll find that makes the story come alive.

Tomorrow in part 2 we'll get a quick overview of the whole story.

Thus Sayeth the Lord comes out on March 31. Preorder your copy now!

Orvieto Neighborhood

Orvieto neighborhood, Scott Danielson

Scott Danielson, my partner in crime at A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast, went to Rome and took some great photos. I'll share a few of my favorites this week.

Khakee - it's not just a color, it's a Bollywood police movie

So, of course, Hannah and Rose are discussing it as part of their cop movie series. It's about four police officers who have to transport an accused terrorist safely to trial in another city. Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar, Aishwarya Rai - what a cast!

Get it at An American's Guide to Bollywood.

MY NEW BOOK! Thus Sayeth the Lord: A Fresh Take on the Prophets

This fresh take on the prophets will introduce you to our biblical role models in a way you might find startling, challenging, and probably not to your grandmother's liking. In this book, you will meet:

• Moses - eighty-year-old freedom fighter
• Elijah - nuking the pagans
• Deborah - kicking ass and taking names
• Hosea - not family friendly
• Samuel - the only hope in a desperate hour
• Amos - sticking it to the man
• Anna and Simeon - God's tag team
• Jonah - mad as hell and running from God
• And a dozen more

We’ve lost touch with what it meant to encounter a prophet, or to be one. Let’s take a fresh look at the familiar prophets in our Bible. Every single one has a message for us in our lives today, because that’s how God rolls. He’s a multi-tasker, and the Bible is one of his main tools in speaking to us. Those very same prophets aren’t just for everyone who came before. They’re for us, too. These ancient, Hebrew prophets can help bring us closer to God’s love and his purpose in our lives — right here, right now.

I'm really excited about this book. I can't tell you how I've come to love the prophets while I was writing about them. It turns out they're not just a bunch of grumpy-pants who want to yell at us. Eighteen good prophets. One bad one. And every single one can help you today in very concrete ways.

It comes out March 31, though, of course, you can order it now.

And I'll have a giveaway so stay tuned for that!

Excerpts available here:

• Jonah: Mad as Hell and Running from God — part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4
• Deborah: Kicking Ass and Taking Names — part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4

===================

And I just discovered, checking the copyright page of my own copy, that it scored an Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat. All of which are official declarations that it is free from doctrinal or moral error.

Of course, if you've been reading the excerpts you know that doesn't mean they are agreeing with all of my takeaways and opinions — but we're totally starting from the right place in looking at these prophets.


Here are a few people who've had an advance look and liked it enough to say so.

===================

Here is Julie Davis at her best: reading stories and telling stories. She knows that narrative is the lifeblood of a family. She shows us where we fit in God’s grand scheme. The words of the prophets were music and poetry when they were first delivered. They hit the heart with a wallop — in this retelling they still do. Highly recommended. – Mike Aquilina, executive vice-president, St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology

Julie Davis is inviting us to take a walk on the wild side of the life of faith by investigating the prophets — those major and minor “Mouths of God” — who populate scripture. Davis’ wit and the casual accessibility of her language make this a galloping read that is both fun and intelligent. Spending time with the prophets was never so painless. – Elizabeth Scalia, Editor-at-Large, Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, Author of Little Sins Mean a Lot

Julie Davis offers an innovative perspective on a time-honored but often misunderstood tradition in our Church. Accessibly executed with terrific storytelling and useable takeaways, this book helps us learn ever-current lessons from ancient prophets, while keeping our hearts open to new encounters with modern prophetic opportunities. – Lisa M. Hendey, Author of I Am God's Storyteller

Julie Davis’s latest book is an energetic, wise, and utterly delightful look at the Biblical prophets, a guide that explores why these holy men and women are relevant today and why they are so important in the development of our own spiritual lives. Thus Sayeth the Lord not only informs, it entertains and inspires. – Gary Jansen, author of Life Everlasting and MicroShifts: Transforming Your Life One Step at a Time

If you've run screaming from the Old Testament prophets, but you have a niggling idea that there has to be something there, this is the book for you. If you find yourself wondering why those OT guys are such a hot deal, this book is for you. If you like diving into scripture so deeply that you float inside and laugh outside, this book is for you. Julie Davis has successfully and artfully woven together what we know, put it in context, and jumped in with both laughs. Enjoy! - Sarah Reinhard, author and blogger, SnoringScholar.com

I hear all the time how the prophets of the Old Testament are a vast treasury waiting to be unlocked, but I've never been able to find the key. Thankfully, Julie Davis has come to the rescue with her book Thus Sayeth The Lord. Finally, I have a way to approach and appreciate the prophets that is clear, accessible, and captivating! – Tommy Tighe, author of The Catholic Hipster Handbook and Catholic Hipster: The Next Level

Hannah & Rose discuss high school romance, the ravages of cancer, and ...

... how to woo the most obnoxious boy in school as they watch A Walk to Remember (2002) on More is More bad movie podcast. It's the perfect bad love movie for Valentine's Day!

Coffee, Two Creams

Coffee, Two Creams; Duane Keiser

The Destiny of the World

The destiny of the world is determined less by the battles that are lost and won than by the stories it loves and believes in.

Harold C. Goddard, The Meaning of Shakespeare, Vo. 2

Listen Up: Bix Banderson Vs. The Universe

The biggest, baddest, most-all consuming Cosmic Empire ever known is about to meet its match:

An eleven-year-old Earth Boy, on the run from summer camp.

Decoder Ring Theatre presents Bix Banderson Vs. The Universe, an intergalactic adventure par excellence.

I've enjoyed Decoder Ring Theatre for a long time, specifically for the noir-style adventures of Black Jack Justice and girl detective Trixie Dixon. Gregg Taylor writes and presents all-new audio adventures in the tradition of the classic programs of radio's Golden Age. They are full-length, full-cast tales of mystery and adventure.

Right now, I've been enjoying the adventures of Bix Banderson. Cleverly playing on a lot of the tropes we know from science fiction, Bix Banderson is both an adventure and comedy. It is really well done and perfect for both kids and adults.

Their website is here. And you can find them on iTunes or other podcast providers.

Imaginative literature and our reactions

Who has not caught some odd resemblance in an ink blot — to a tree, or a lizard, or a map of Florida? A Swiss psychologist has devised a personality test based on the "reading" of especially receptive ink blots prepared in advance. You tell what you see int he blots and unconsciously you expose your innermost self. The psychologist need not have taken all that trouble. The supreme imaginative literature of the world is a survival of the fittest ink blots of the ages, and nothing reveals a man with more precision than his reaction to it.

Harold Goddard, The Meaning of Shakespeare, vol. 1

Anemones in a Vase

Leon Jan Wyczolkowski, Anemones in a Vase
via Arts Everyday Living

Black Woodpecker

Black Woodpecker, Remo Savisaar

We want the definite ...

To our age anything Delphic is anathema. We want the definite. As certainly as ours is a time of the expert and the technician, we are living under a dynasty of the intellect, and the aim of the intellect is not to wonder and love and grow wise about life, but to control it.

Harold Goddard, The Meaning of Shakespeare, vol. 1