Pages and Coffee - Bookish Notes

 

Reason has moons, but moons not hers
Lie mirror'd on her sea,
Confounding her astronomers,
But O! Delighting me.

- Evelyn Underhill

Have you been reading anything wonderful lately?

I am working my way through my lovely stack of books I purchased whilst in Oxford. It's one of the best ways to fondly recall a trip -  through books. Where I bought that book and why it caught my eye. The place I bought it. The day and all the goodness that was had. The memories of England bookshops. It is a great, pure delight to me.

In an Oxfam bookshop I picked up a distinctly blue Oxford University Press book on Wordsworth, the poet, printed in 1950. A short intro on his life and how he developed his well known masterpieces, such as "Lyrical Ballads", "Lines Composed above Tintern Abbey",  and "The Prelude". I usually pay more attention to his friend and fellow poet (with whom he wrote "Lyrical Ballads") Samuel Taylor Coleridge, so it was lovely to focus on William Wordsworth to gain more insights and analysis on his poems. He was, along with Coleridge, the genesis of the Romantic Poetry movement that gained momentum after them. They looked to nature when society was suddenly shifting dramatically to the reductionist thinking of scientism.  

I am becoming such an admirer of Evelyn Underhill. I have one book and keep coming across her in various ways, through other writers, but I don't often see her books around. Thankfully, in an Oxfam charity shop I did find this lovely slim volume of her collected papers printed in 1946. Mostly lectures from the 1920s-1930s. Evelyn was a poet, writer, and spiritual leader. In 1922 she was the first woman lecturer to have her name on the Oxford University list. She answers questions about what is mysticism, and what it isn't. She gives lectures about prayer, worship, contemplation, and to teachers, encouraging them in their roles as leading the next generation through life's challenges. 

To do great things for souls, you must become the agent and channel of a more than human love.

The inspiration of the painter, the musician and the poet, and often that of the scientist and explorer too, contains a genuine element of worship. All that is best in these great human activities is not done for our own sake; it points right away from us, to something we humbly seek and half-ignorantly adore. It is offered at the shrine of a beauty or a wisdom that lies beyond the world. 

- Evelyn Underhill

Mixed into every few books, one must solve a murder. It's just a requirement to solve a puzzle by gathering the clues before one can move forward into another book. This time, it was The Murder in the Bookshop by Carolyn Wells. I picked this up in Waterstones, a large chain bookshop in the UK that is always good for browsing, a charming vintage looking mystery from the 1920s. Oh these golden age mysteries, they are just so fun. All the old fashioned methods of solving a murder are unknown to us today with all our technology, but the deductions and clues collected take time and a lot of looking for the right thing to lead one to the murderer. As I read these older mysteries I think about how quickly a murder like this one that takes place in the bookshop would have been solved today with camera footage. Kind of wipes out the ability to write a modern murder mystery in this similar capacity. I love going back to these old methods of deduction and thinking about motives and clues, reasons for behavior that is often puzzling, and figuring out in the end how it was all done.

I am also reading through a (not purchased in Oxford) chunky book Augustine In His Own Words, a collection of Saint Augustine's great writings from many of his books - not the lightest of reading, certainly philosophical and historical; I am learning so much and loving it. I was only really familiar with his Confessions, but he wrote so much more than that (he was a bishop as well as a great orator and had all his sermons in his head) and it was time for me to dive in.

Take Time for Tea

 

One of the best things about taking time for tea is that it does exactly that. It takes time. It is a lovely process of slowing down, waiting for the leaves to steep, pouring and letting it cool enough to sip. The clanking sound of teacup on saucer signals to me time for writing, reading, thinking, talking, and resting. Depending on if I am alone or with someone. You can't have a cup of tea in a ceramic cup and saucer on the go. You must sit there and enjoy it. Ideally, you have a pot of tea on the table, so you can refill your cup. This in itself is a beautiful reminder of appreciating the little things and being present in the moment.

My favourite places to have tea in Oxford are Vaults & Garden and the Weston Library. Pictured here. I could visit these places every single day and not grow weary of them In fact, we kind of almost did visit each spot almost daily (perhaps not but close to it). And when we did not go, I missed being there enjoying tea and the atmosphere. 

The Vaults and Garden Café is inside the grand University Church St. Mary the Virgin. It is in a room from 1320 called the Congregation Room where meetings used to be held in the church for the community. With vaulted ceilings and beautiful framed windows, I never grow tired of the space. It gets really crowded at lunchtime, so patience is required as the queue to get in can be long. Outdoors there are tables as well, but you are at the mercy of the weather, which in England can be a bit temperamental. However, sitting outside offers the loveliest view of the Radcliffe Camera. The food served is organic and local, with a seasonal menu changing everyday. It's not only a favourite tea spot, but also lunch spot of mine. Warm and comforting food (soups, rice, potatoes, chicken, curry, fresh vegetables), plus a huge array of cakes (even a gluten free vegan banana bread cake! Heavenly!). The tea is unmatched. They use a high quality loose leaf tea selection, and I highly recommend the Earl Grey and the Jasmine Green. Serving trays are all William Morris prints - a lovely sight every time. You might even see the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams sitting outside in the garden for some lunch!

The Weston Library has a café inside Blackwell Hall. With views of the Bodleian Library above your head, it's a perfectly bookish space. I could sit there for hours. The Bodleian exhibits are also there, across Blackwell Hall, as well as one of the Bodleian gift shops. The café has a large selection of cakes, teas, and salad/sandwich lunch. I recommend the peppermint tea for a perfect afternoon break with a cake or treat. People watching here is grand. Out the front windows is Broad Street and within the Hall are many visitors who come and go.  

Writing about these two spots makes me miss them - missing their atmosphere and delicious teas and thoughts. There's nowhere else like them. Are there places like that for you?

The Beautiful Mysterious

 

7:32 am

Christ Church College

Walking through Tom Quad to the Hall for breakfast.

The Hall on the right. The Cathedral on the left (two doorway entryway).

Footsteps echo off the stone buildings of Christ Church. I stop in mid-step when I see this glow of the sun haloing the corner of Christ Church where I am heading. It's one of those beautiful mysterious moments provided by nature and usually spanning seconds. Catch it or it's gone. 

...time's drops are precious to me. (Saint Augustine)

Augustine of Hippo was a great orator, speaking from his memory in the moment for all of his sermons, instead of writing anything down or even memorizing anything specific. He spent time in prayer and quiet as his preparation. He believed the present moment could be read by the emotion and reactions of his audience. He practiced dwelling in that moment; delivering words that would suit the nature of who he was speaking to. An expert in rhetoric, this is partly how he was such a great thinker and debater of deep theological issues in a turbulent time in Northern Africa. 

When I step into a moment suddenly clasped in a beautiful perhaps unexplainable mystery I am immediately drawn toward the presence of God. I hear the poetic words of a favourite poet Gerard Manley Hopkins - 

The world is charged with the grandeur of God...

Is the world charged, as in fully charged like a battery? Charged up with the grandeur of God? Or is the world charged, as in summoned or entrusted with the grandeur of God? This play with words is why Hopkins was a poetic master, using words that play with meaning (hold double meanings invoking deeper thinking), yet always pointing to the One Creator who made it all possible. He uses the beautiful mysterious letters of the alphabet to capture readers and listeners of his poetry. 

Likewise, Augustine played with words in his sermons and speeches, using rhyme and wordplay of alliteration (in Latin of course) to capture his audience. He didn't shy away from the paradoxes of Christianity. He pointed them out to demonstrate the wonder and mystery of God's mind and how He interacts with us (think: the incarnation), and how we can never fully comprehend or explain it. The goal was always to persuade and captive so that the listeners would be turned to Christ. He understood in this use of words the power of persuasion could be used for good or ill. And in that understanding he was often drawn into difficult debates and situations where his training in rhetoric and his deep faith could speak truth into the many falsities that existed in his day. We can see many similar (albeit different looking) situations today, perhaps concealed underneath ambition and hunger for power and control.

In the moments of mystery, my mind turns to God. What else would explain it? Whilst walking to breakfast a glorious halo shone in the dawn sky. Before I go into the Hall to sit down with eggs, beans, toast, tomato, and tea, I marvel at something wondrous. The wonder in this world does not cease to amaze. Something so simple to the everyday is charged with the grandeur of God.  

Dominion - Notes from Oxford

 

That a man who had himself been crucified might be hailed as a god could not help but be seen by people everywhere across the Roman world as scandalous, obscene, grotesque. 

- Dominion by Tom Holland

Whilst in Oxford, I had the immense pleasure of attending a talk in the splendid Sheldonian Theatre with Tom Holland (historian) about his book, Dominion, and his ideas behind the premise. Take a peak at my last post to see Tom signing my copy of Dominion after the talk when I had the opportunity to meet him.

Here are few notes I scribbled in my notebook during the talk:

- What changed since Antiquity and why don't we celebrate war and enslavement like Julius Caesar?

- Christianity is full of paradox, example is the cross. A symbol of power for the Romans.

- The secular, liberal, humanist view is a mythology itself.

- The British rituals are all Christian, going back to the Old Testament. Anointing of Saul and David. 

- The slavery abolishment is fully Christian as a movement, and it may not have happened if Christianity didn't push it.

- Christianity spans all time from beginning to end.

- Jesus = the greatest story teller of all time.

- The stoic spark in Paul. 

- The ideas that changed culture - All humans have dignity, all are created equal in the eyes of God (Christian thoughts that passed into civilization no matter their beliefs).

Now that I have finished reading the book (I waited to buy it in Oxford specifically so I could have Tom sign it), I am digesting its massive span of history and am so impressed with Tom's analysis.

Dominion is an epic and grand venture taken to explore the Christian values that infuse our western civilization. Tom's argument centers around the fact that a person may live today as one without Christian belief, lives by and through Christian values that are so steeped into society that one doesn't even notice it. This idea is quite valid and fascinating to dig into. The scale of this book is huge. I feel he is only scratching the surface of each age/time he writes about. But it takes us from Roman and Greek Antiquity right into our modern day of the last few years. 

In this chunky 525 page book, he sums at the end:

The retreat of Christian belief did not seem to imply any necessary retreat of Christian values. Quite the contrary.

He goes on to talk about the strangeness of Christianity, and I have heard him say how this aspect of Christianity needs to be expanded upon in churches if they are to stay alive, as churches tend to hide from anything that involves mystery and strangeness. Yet when it comes down to it, that is what pulls us closer to the living God. The mystery and wonder is what makes Christianity so magnetizing. The aspects of Christianity and things that Jesus said and did are so mysterious and paradoxical, and it draws you in if you let it. It nudges you to "come and see" as Jesus would say.

Tom would remind us that even if you (in the western civilization) worship some other god or none at all, you are still living by Christian values and assumptions. You believe in values such as freedom, justice, human rights, dignity, fairness, equality, giving to the poor, and helping others in need. These are all things that came directly from Christianity, and Tom shows us how that looks through the ages of our history. It's absolutely fascinating.