Semper Reformanda

Some thoughts on the Church, theology, books, and whatever else.

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Location: St. Peters, Missouri, United States

I am studying philosophy at Lindenwood Universtiy in St. Charles Missouri. I have a brother and a sister, two great parents and we are all members of New Covenant Church. After I graduate, I'm planning on attending Covenant Theological Seminary.

Friday, May 12, 2006

W.H. Auden on Luther

Its not as if I needed another distraction for the last two weeks of the semester, but I've found one nevertheless. This one comes in the form of the Collected Poems of W.H. Auden. His poem Funeral Blues could possibly be the most moving poem of all time, as well as my favorite. Not only was Auden a great poet, but he was also a great man of faith who struggled immensely with the issue of his own sin, including his homosexuality. As such a figure, his poems dealing with Martin Luther, the ultimate source for issues regarding guilt and sin, are particularly profound.

This first poem is simply entitled Luther:

With conscience cocked to listen for the thunder,
He saw the Devil busy in the wind,
Over the chiming steeples and then under
The doors of nuns and doctors who sinned.

What apparatus could stave off disaster
Or cut the brambles of man's error down?
Flesh was a silent dog that bites its master,
World a still pond in which its children drown.

The fuse of Judgement spluttered in his head:
"Lord, smoke these honeyed insects from their hives.
All Works, Great Men, Societies are bad.
The Just shall live by Faith..." he cried in dread.

And men and women of the world were glad,
Who'd never cared or trembled in their lives.

This second verse in taken from a collection of similar short rhymes entitled Academic Graffiti (its not flattering but its funny):

Luther & Zwingli
Should be treated singly:
L hated the Peasants,
Z the Real Presence.

2 Comments:

Blogger Asher Crasher said...

I am currently in the process of relearning HTML... Give it time, Andrew, give it time.

1:25 PM  
Blogger Andrew Stout said...

Ms. Crasher,

I will extend grace, but only because it has been extended to me in Christ.

Hollow person,

Auden is more convenient in that readings of his poems can come between study sessions. Harry Potter is a much more consuming diversion. So, the convenience goes to Auden, but the enjoyment to Potter.

6:40 PM  

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