Category Archives: Arts

Arts, Christianity, Culture

The Book of Proverbs: Down-to-earth advice

BE KIND, BE CAREFUL

– A narrative from Proverbs

MOST Western people tend to be cautious when it comes to giving money or sharing possessions. Finding the balance between being generous or foolhardy on the one hand, and selfish and uncaring on the other, is not easy.

The Book of Proverbs in the Old Testament, which contains hundreds of pithy sayings about wisdom and daily life, suggests two principles to inform our actions. One is to help the poor. Under no circumstances are we to take advantage of them (22:22). To pour scorn on them is to insult our Maker (17:5) while being kind to the poor is like lending to God (19:17).

This is echoed in Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46) in which acts of kindness to others are in fact done to God.

It is unwise to withhold good from those who deserve it (3:27), but wisdom requires more than just being nice to nice people. “If your enemy is hungry, feed him” (25:21,22) was directly quoted by Paul in Romans 12:20 and alluded to by Jesus in Luke 6:27-30. If nothing else, it makes black deeds even worse, which is the meaning of “heaping coals of fire on their heads”.

The second principle is that while love may be blind, wisdom isn’t. Proverbs draws the line of generosity at standing surety for someone else or “you will surely suffer” (11:15). It even urges the person who has already underwritten a deal to free themselves from it even if it humiliates them to do so (6:1-5).

It is worth asking why. Human nature probably relaxes when it knows that it is not ultimately responsible for a debt or agreement. It is easy to default after a while. Wisdom acts responsibly, but it is encouraging responsibility in others, too.

GOD BE IN OUR UNDERSTANDING

PROVERBS assumes the spiritual dimension. Scattered through the book are reminders that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (1:7). Faith is like a fountain keeping our life fresh and productive (14:27). Respect for and worship of the LORD must always be present.

With the prophets, Proverbs asserts that sacrifice without faith is detestable to a God who looks for inner truth rather than outward conformity (15:8,26). Therefore we should confess our sins in order to find mercy (28:13) and accept God’s “discipline” as a means of spiritual growth (3:11). Only then will we be sure of receiving his guidance through the maze of life (3:5; 19:21).

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Arts, Books, Literature, Poetry

Poetic gifts of comfort and joy

POETRY COLLECTIONS

A TIME of “comfort and joy” doesn’t always deliver either, which is why some people (more than one might expect) turn to poetry for consolation and confirmation. You may ask why that is the case. It is because many discover that our longings are universal, and our pain is not unique. A poetry book can be a gift of healing.

Rachel Kelly’s anthology You’ll Never Walk Alone: Poems For Life’s Ups And Downs (published by Yellow Kite), is the perfect guide. A true evangelist for poetry as an aid to emotional wellbeing, the mental health campaigner begins, “Words can be a way to make sense of our feelings”. She divides her choices into the four seasons – representing moods of sadness, hope, joy and reflection. The range is engaging, offering old favourites such as Keats and Derek Walcott, as well as songs and new writers.

Kelly follows each poem with a beautifully concise explanation which will be welcomed by anyone unaccustomed to reading poetry. Fresh delight is also brought to those who encounter familiar poems anew. The whole book is an essential companion.

Padraig O Tuama has a similar idea with his anthology Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems To Open Your World (published by Canongate). His choices are “sometimes exploring common ground, sometimes not”, and are drawn from a very wide range of nationalities and cultures.

Based on the popular podcast of the same name, this collection is more for the experienced poetry lover, although O Tuama’s expansive and deeply personal essays about each poem are very helpful. As he explains, “The poems have become like friends I turn to and return to.”

He doesn’t really structure his choices and most of the poems offered will not be familiar. It is a journey of discovery; an anthology that provides a challenge on every page as well as a wealth of frank autobiographical material from the Irish poet, teacher and theologian.

Either of these books is a gift from all the poets to each individual reader. They reassure us that there is nothing strange in our feelings, and that joy can flicker when you are least expecting it.

Book Review and Synopsis – Berlin by Sinclair McKay (published by Viking, 464pp)

IF THERE was a focal point for the history of the twentieth century, then Berlin was it. The city had a central role in all of the country’s defining conflicts: both World Wars and the Cold War. Its citizens endured, in the words of Sinclair McKay, “an unending series of revolutions, a maelstrom of turmoil and insecurity”. And yet it survives.

It didn’t look that way in 1945 as Allied bombs reduced it to rubble and Soviet soldiers raped, slaughtered and pillaged, exacting revenge on the ordinary people of Hitler’s Germany for their years of complicity.

With unburied bodies strewn through its streets and mass suicides by Berliners who saw no future for themselves, its fate seemed to encapsulate “all the nihilist horror of that sad century – mass death without meaning on an unimaginable scale”.

And then, split in two, it became the pressure point for a new confrontation between Moscow and the West. If the world was going to end with a bang, the first sparks might well be here.

McKay, a stylish and elegant writer, tells all this with great panache and understanding, his research extensive, and his observations profound.

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Arts, Books, Culture, Society

Current Affairs: Books of the Year 2022

RECOMMENDED READING

. The Fall of Boris Johnson by Sebastian Payne (Macmillan, 288pp)

WITH ANOTHER PM down this year – and on to the next one! Seasoned Westminster commentator Payne exquisitely and with breathless brilliance captures blow-by-blow the car crash at Downing Street. The narrative shows how Boris was turned from the hero of Brexit, Covid and Ukraine, to almost zero before being stabbed and ruptured in the back, front and side.

Prominent among the fingerprints on the knife are those of a vengeful Dominic Cummings – a warning to other government ministers to never make an enemy of your special adviser. They know where the skeletons are.

Yet, Boris’s worst enemy was (as always) himself – failing to get a grip on Partygate, on leaks, on his private office, on his Chancellor, on Michael Gove and, most of all, on the words that came out of his mouth. He blustered and bent the truth while Rome burned.

Payne does, however, acknowledge his substantial successes – “his actions will have consequences for decades” – but concludes that the most mercurial prime minister in a generation was always likely to come to a premature and sticky end.

. The War on the West by Douglas Murray (HarperCollins, 320pp)

THIS is a passionate plea to end the blame game which attributes all the world’s ills to the West, the very culture – “the goose that has laid some very golden eggs” – that has benefited mankind the most. The author delivers an eloquent and refreshing read.

The outspoken Murray is baffled and angered that it is those living in the West who are its biggest detractors, with their one-sided woke arguments and deliberate distortions of language and history.

Dishonest scholars, hypocrites and those intent on spreading hate and disinformation are undermining reason, democracy, science and progress. “In a demented discourse of their own invention,” he writes, “they have pulled us into a zero-sum discussion that insists the history of the West is one of patriarchal oppression, sexism, racism, transphobia, homophobia, larceny and much more. An unfair ledger has been created.”

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