Dr. George Grant in one of his lectures on ancient history tells a story about a visit to a large museum he made. Dr. Grant told about the grand displays of Egypt replete with mock pyramids and tombs. He then went on to tell about the grand displays of ancient Greece and other well known cultures. Dr. Grant emphasized the power and scope of the museum displays of these mighty civilizations. Dr. Grant then went on to tell how after he had viewed these great civilizations he walked into a room where the civilization of ancient Israel was on display. Dr. Grant went on to tell how the ancient Israel display wasn’t nearly as ostentatious as the displays of the other great civilizations. Grant tells how the Israel civilization display was characterized by pottery and eating utensils and other items that comparatively speaking were nick-knacks when compared to the power displays of the ancient cultures such as Egypt and Greece.
Dr. Grant’s point out of this is that Israel didn’t build the kind of civilization as other power civilizations because Israel’s civilization was not built on the basis of slave labor nor was it primarily a centralized state such as the other civilizations. Instead Israel culture was about simple matters like community, family, food, and song. Not the kinds of things that make for grandiose museum displays.
This evening I attended a theatrical version of “Sound of Music” which reminded me of Dr. Grant’s lectures. “Sound of Music” is a musical that has as a backdrop 1938 Austrian culture trying to maintain its simple civilization against the giant Fascist totalitarian culture of Germany. In this way the musical is very Christian. The songs reflect a particular culture and are about love of family, love of music, and love of country. The songs and dances, though not all original to Austria, are in praise of a culture that doesn’t want to be swallowed whole by a “great civilization.”
The christian themes that proclaim the love found in the simplicity of community, family, food, and drink are likewise found in J.R.R. Tolkien’s works. The success of great wars and movements against totalitarian regimes is waged, at least in part, so that simple people can continue to love eating mushrooms, drinking beer, spending time with family, and being indulgent to children.
The christian themes of love for what is nearby in family, community and church are also put on display in Wendell Berry’s Port William novels. In Jayber Crow the story is told of what it means to live in community. In one of the most tender scenes that I’ve ever read in any novel Berry puts Jayber Crow in a local church where he has a vision of the church community over the years so that one gets the sense that even though many of these people lived and died before others they were all one community and belonged to one another because they belonged to that Church.
In all of these the love is for local in defiance of love for the spectacular and grandiose. In all of these the love is for the familiar in contrast to love for wide-scale fame. In all of these there is a turning of the back on mass appeal in order to embrace what is known and has been known for generations.
This desire for the simple, the separate, and the known is a Christian theme it would be good to return to once again.
Thanks Bret