GLOBAL AND ECUMENICAL IN SCOPE
CANADIAN IN PERSPECTIVE
Wayne A. Holst, Editor
My E-Mail Address: waholst@telus.net
This e-mail is sent only to a voluntary subscriber list.
If you no longer wish to receive these weekly columns,
write to me personally waholst@telus.net
*****
Dear Friends:
My special item this week is to introduce the latest in the collected works of Joseph Campbell, published by New World Library. It is an artistic study - the gathering of papers and lectures on the relationship of mythology and dance by Campbell. As with all of Campbell's books (this is the 15th in his collected works series) I find his writings very stimulating and expansive of my understanding of culture, the arts and spirituality. I truly believe God communicates with us through these forms.
Hopefully, you will enjoy the presentation of "The Ecstasy of Being, Mythology and Dance". I hope you will also enjoy the colleague contributions and my collected notes and wisdom from this past week.
Wayne
*****
SPECIAL ITEM
CANADIAN IN PERSPECTIVE
Wayne A. Holst, Editor
My E-Mail Address: waholst@telus.net
This e-mail is sent only to a voluntary subscriber list.
If you no longer wish to receive these weekly columns,
write to me personally waholst@telus.net
*****
Dear Friends:
My special item this week is to introduce the latest in the collected works of Joseph Campbell, published by New World Library. It is an artistic study - the gathering of papers and lectures on the relationship of mythology and dance by Campbell. As with all of Campbell's books (this is the 15th in his collected works series) I find his writings very stimulating and expansive of my understanding of culture, the arts and spirituality. I truly believe God communicates with us through these forms.
Hopefully, you will enjoy the presentation of "The Ecstasy of Being, Mythology and Dance". I hope you will also enjoy the colleague contributions and my collected notes and wisdom from this past week.
Wayne
*****
SPECIAL ITEM
Book Notice -
THE ECSTACY OF BEING
Mythology and Dance,
by Joseph Campbell
New World Library, Novato, CA
$31.00 CAD. 242 pages. Dec. 2017
ISBN #978-1-60868-366-6
Publisher's Promo:
Joseph Campbell's collected writings on dance and art, edited and introduced by Nancy Allison, CMA, the founder of Jean Erdman Dance, and including Campbell's unpublished manuscript Mythology and Form in the Performing and Visual Arts," the book he was working on when he died.
Dance was one of mythologist Joseph Campbell's wide-ranging passions. His wife, Jean Erdman, was a leading figure in modern dance who worked with Martha Graham and had Merce Cunningham in her first company. When Campbell retired from teaching in 1972, he and Erdman formed the Theater of the Open Eye, where for nearly fifteen years they presented a wide array of dance and theater productions, lectures, and performance pieces.
The Ecstasy of Being brings together seven of Campbell's previously uncollected articles on dance, along with "Mythology and Form in the Performing and Visual Arts," the treatise that he was working on when he died, published here for the first time.
In this new collection Campbell explores the rise of modern art and dance in the twentieth century; delves into the work and philosophy of Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, and others; and, as always, probes the idea of art as "the funnel through which spirit is poured into life." This book offers the reader an accessible, yet profound and provocative, insight into Campbell's lifelong fascination with the relationship of myth to aesthetic form and human psychology."
Author's Bio:
Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American mythologist, writer, and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the human experience. Campbell's magnum opus is his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), in which he discusses his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero found in world mythologies.
Wikipedia longer bio:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell
Editor's Words:
"Art is the funnel through which spirit is poured into life" Joseph Campbell often said. He believed deeply that art, like mythology, has a power to open the contemporary, individual mind to a direct experience of the timeless, transcendent wisdom of the universe; a wisdom based in the body and visited in our dreams. According to Campbell, the artist's job is to create "significant forms" that stir the modern, fractured psyche, "offering to consciousness an aesthetic object, while ringing, simultaneously, undertones in the unconscious."
(Campbell was much influenced by James Joyce and Thomas Mann, Cezanne, Picasso... and the ground-breaking psychological theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung... Subsequently he influenced many young writers, poets, painters, sculptors, musicians, composers, actors, directors and filmmakers.)
(Campbell's meeting and marriage with Jean Erdman, a dancer in her own right, greatly extended his interest and reflection on the arts in general and the dance in particular. The great dancer Martha Graham, had had a significant influence on Erdman and the latter continued to build on that. Comparative mythology and interpretive dance were blended in the long-term development of their relationship and careers. Much of the material related here in Campbell's lectures and written reflections on the meaning of dance became a kind of love poem to Erdman, his muse and life partner during the glorious journey of an inspired and inspiring life.)
This collection is divided into two parts. Part I contains seven articles and one transcribed lecture... The second half of the book "Mythology and Form in the Performing and Visual Arts" is an unpublished manuscript that I as editor have left essentially unchanged except for date and footnote corrections and the modern spelling of some names".)
My Thoughts:
ISBN #978-1-60868-366-6
Publisher's Promo:
Joseph Campbell's collected writings on dance and art, edited and introduced by Nancy Allison, CMA, the founder of Jean Erdman Dance, and including Campbell's unpublished manuscript Mythology and Form in the Performing and Visual Arts," the book he was working on when he died.
Dance was one of mythologist Joseph Campbell's wide-ranging passions. His wife, Jean Erdman, was a leading figure in modern dance who worked with Martha Graham and had Merce Cunningham in her first company. When Campbell retired from teaching in 1972, he and Erdman formed the Theater of the Open Eye, where for nearly fifteen years they presented a wide array of dance and theater productions, lectures, and performance pieces.
The Ecstasy of Being brings together seven of Campbell's previously uncollected articles on dance, along with "Mythology and Form in the Performing and Visual Arts," the treatise that he was working on when he died, published here for the first time.
In this new collection Campbell explores the rise of modern art and dance in the twentieth century; delves into the work and philosophy of Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, and others; and, as always, probes the idea of art as "the funnel through which spirit is poured into life." This book offers the reader an accessible, yet profound and provocative, insight into Campbell's lifelong fascination with the relationship of myth to aesthetic form and human psychology."
Author's Bio:
Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American mythologist, writer, and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the human experience. Campbell's magnum opus is his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), in which he discusses his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero found in world mythologies.
Wikipedia longer bio:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell
Editor's Words:
"Art is the funnel through which spirit is poured into life" Joseph Campbell often said. He believed deeply that art, like mythology, has a power to open the contemporary, individual mind to a direct experience of the timeless, transcendent wisdom of the universe; a wisdom based in the body and visited in our dreams. According to Campbell, the artist's job is to create "significant forms" that stir the modern, fractured psyche, "offering to consciousness an aesthetic object, while ringing, simultaneously, undertones in the unconscious."
(Campbell was much influenced by James Joyce and Thomas Mann, Cezanne, Picasso... and the ground-breaking psychological theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung... Subsequently he influenced many young writers, poets, painters, sculptors, musicians, composers, actors, directors and filmmakers.)
(Campbell's meeting and marriage with Jean Erdman, a dancer in her own right, greatly extended his interest and reflection on the arts in general and the dance in particular. The great dancer Martha Graham, had had a significant influence on Erdman and the latter continued to build on that. Comparative mythology and interpretive dance were blended in the long-term development of their relationship and careers. Much of the material related here in Campbell's lectures and written reflections on the meaning of dance became a kind of love poem to Erdman, his muse and life partner during the glorious journey of an inspired and inspiring life.)
This collection is divided into two parts. Part I contains seven articles and one transcribed lecture... The second half of the book "Mythology and Form in the Performing and Visual Arts" is an unpublished manuscript that I as editor have left essentially unchanged except for date and footnote corrections and the modern spelling of some names".)
My Thoughts:
All through life since my early theological studies, I have been
interested in the arts for many reasons, and especially because
I was taught to connect the artistic and the spiritual - from my systematics professor Arne Siirala, a great teacher in my estimation.
I have never been artistic myself. I do not play, sculpt or paint. I do work at my writing. My joy at attending a concert or a movie is to try to reflect on the meaning behind what I am experiencing. I am not merely a concert-goer or a film buff; I am always asking myself - "What is happening here?" So all of this is much more than entertainment.
A second aspect of my interest in the arts is to struggle with how what I have experienced can be integrated to preaching and teaching of the Good News. When I hear quotes in sermons, or watch dancing in the chancel my question often is - "What does this mean as part of the Christian proclamation?" Too often, I fail to get an answer to that question and the value of the art is lost to me.
Theology at its best has always encompassed the arts and many of our great modern theologians are also avid advocates of the arts. This is because, as Campbell says, "Art is the funnel through which spirit is poured into life."
Here is a book that continues to reveal the rich contribution of Joseph Campbell to theology as well as to mythology.
Buy the book from:
Amazon.ca:
https://tinyurl.com/y837vynu
New World Library:
https://tinyurl.com/ycy9bacg
*****
COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS
Mark Whittall.
Ottawa, ON.
Sermons and Blog
January 6th, 2018
"An Epiphany"
https://tinyurl.com/y9dgl4jl
interested in the arts for many reasons, and especially because
I was taught to connect the artistic and the spiritual - from my systematics professor Arne Siirala, a great teacher in my estimation.
I have never been artistic myself. I do not play, sculpt or paint. I do work at my writing. My joy at attending a concert or a movie is to try to reflect on the meaning behind what I am experiencing. I am not merely a concert-goer or a film buff; I am always asking myself - "What is happening here?" So all of this is much more than entertainment.
A second aspect of my interest in the arts is to struggle with how what I have experienced can be integrated to preaching and teaching of the Good News. When I hear quotes in sermons, or watch dancing in the chancel my question often is - "What does this mean as part of the Christian proclamation?" Too often, I fail to get an answer to that question and the value of the art is lost to me.
Theology at its best has always encompassed the arts and many of our great modern theologians are also avid advocates of the arts. This is because, as Campbell says, "Art is the funnel through which spirit is poured into life."
Here is a book that continues to reveal the rich contribution of Joseph Campbell to theology as well as to mythology.
Buy the book from:
Amazon.ca:
https://tinyurl.com/y837vynu
New World Library:
https://tinyurl.com/ycy9bacg
*****
COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS
Mark Whittall.
Ottawa, ON.
Sermons and Blog
January 6th, 2018
"An Epiphany"
https://tinyurl.com/y9dgl4jl
--
John Stackhouse Jr.
Moncton, NB
Personal Blog
January 7th, 2018
"Did God Choose President Trump?
https://tinyurl.com/y7f8mr4k
--
Elfrieda Schroeder,
Winnipeg, MB
"In Transit"
January 6th, 2018
"Purpose"
https://tinyurl.com/yajyalaw
--
Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC
Personal Web Log
January 10th, 2018
"One of My Relations"
https://tinyurl.com/yaf693za
--
Martin Marty,
Chicago, IL.
"Sightings"
January 8th, 2018
"Tales of the Religious and the Secular"
https://tinyurl.com/yckrc85j
--
Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX
Personal Web Site
January 8th, 2018
"How Can It All Have a Happy Ending?"
https://tinyurl.com/y75cqrqx
*****
NET NOTES
A GOOD DEATH
Don Grayston on Dying Well
United Church Observer,
January, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/yavzcl47
--
THE HERESY OF IDIOLOGICAL RELIGION
Sojourners on Lessons from Bonhoeffer
Sojourners,
January 11th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y8fa9gjq
--
ATHEISTS WANT A WORLD WITHOUT CHRISTIANITY
Here's How it Would Look
Christian Week
January 10th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y88htfxq
--
BILLY HONOURED, FRANKLIN PANNED AMONG BRITS TODAY
Queen Liked the Elder; Her Subjects Turned Off by the Younger
The Charlotte Observer
January 9th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/ycve7x25
--
WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES - HISTORIC CHINA VISIT
The Country is Fast Becoming Nation With Most Christians
La Croix International
January 12th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y9bjhpj3
--
RELIC OF ST. FRANCIS MAKES CANADA-WIDE CIRCUIT
Catholic Piety Will be On Display Across the Nation
Catholic Register, Toronto
January 9th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y7rjovde
--
HOW CALIFORNIA'S MEGACHURCHES
CHANGED CHRISTIAN CULTURE
Highly Secular State also the
Seedbed of Transformed Christianity
Religion News Service,
January 11th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y92uk9bm
--
US WOULD BE IN SERIOUS TROUBLE IF TRUMP IMPEACHED
Focus on Family Head James Dobson - A Strong Trump Backer
Newsweek
January 9th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/yayn9gpj
--
COPTIC PLACES OF WORSHIP IN EGYPT A DELICATE ISSUE
Government is Between Rock and Hard Place
La Croix International
January 9th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y7p3yt24
--
CATHOLICS AND EVANGELICALS, CATHOLICS AND JEWS
MEET FOR ON-GOING INTERFAITH DIALOGUE IN CANADA
Established Discussions Continue
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops Website
January 11th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y9ds6vpn
--
Globe and Mail
January 12th, 2018
TRUMP USES PROFANITY TO
DISPARAGE AFRICANS AND HAITIANS
According to officials, the U.S. President asked why his country
would accept more immigrants from "shithole countries" instead of places such as Norway. He was meeting with lawmakers to discuss a bi-partisan proposal aimed at protecting "Dreamers"– the hundreds of thousands of people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. But Trump rejected the plan,which included measures to strengthen border security.
The clock is ticking on an immigration deal as the possibility of a government shutdown looms.
--
BBC News
January 12th, 2018
WILL CAPE TOWN BE THE FIRST CITY
TO RUN OUT OF WATER?
Most recent projections suggest the city's water could
run out as early as March. The crisis has been caused
by three years of very low rainfall, coupled with increasing
consumption by a growing population. The local government
is racing to address the situation, with desalination plants to
make sea water drinkable, groundwater collection projects,
and water recycling programmes. Meanwhile Cape Town's
four million residents are being urged to conserve water
and use no more than 87 litres (19 gallons) a day.
Car-washing and filling up swimming pools have been banned.
And the visiting Indian cricket team were told to limit their post-match showers to two minutes.
*****
WISDOM OF THE WEEK
From Sojourners and the Bruderhof online:
It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now
that I have it, I am not going to be silent.
- Madeleine Albright
--
We are all capable of good and evil. We are not born bad;
everybody has something good inside. Some hide it, some
neglect it, but it is there. God created us to love and to be
loved, so it is our test from God to choose one path or the
other.
- Mother Teresa
--
Patience is more than endurance. A saint’s life is in the hands
of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is
aiming at something the saint cannot see, and He stretches
and strains, and every now and again the saint says, “I cannot
stand anymore.” God does not heed, He goes on stretching till
His purpose is in sight, then He lets fly. Trust yourself in God’s
hands.
- Oswald Chambers
--
Jesus calls us to recognize that gladness and sadness
are never separate, that joy and sorrow really belong together,
and that mourning and dancing are part of the same movement.
That is why Jesus calls us to be grateful for every moment that
we have lived, and to claim our unique journey as God’s way to
mold our hearts to greater conformity with God’s own. The cross is the main symbol of our faith, and it invites us to find hope where we see pain and to reaffirm the resurrection where we see death.
The call to be grateful is a call to trust that every moment of
our life can be claimed as the way of the cross that leads us
to new life.
- Henri J. M. Nouwen
--
are never separate, that joy and sorrow really belong together,
and that mourning and dancing are part of the same movement.
That is why Jesus calls us to be grateful for every moment that
we have lived, and to claim our unique journey as God’s way to
mold our hearts to greater conformity with God’s own. The cross is the main symbol of our faith, and it invites us to find hope where we see pain and to reaffirm the resurrection where we see death.
The call to be grateful is a call to trust that every moment of
our life can be claimed as the way of the cross that leads us
to new life.
- Henri J. M. Nouwen
--
Christians must always nourish in their hearts the fullness of joy. Try to do that, sisters and brothers. I have tried it many times, and in the most bitter situations, when slander and persecution are at their worst, I have united myself intimately with Christ as my friend, and I have tasted a sweetness that all the joys of earth cannot give. It is the joy of God's intimacy, the profoundest joy the heart can experience, even when people don’t understand you. Christ pronounced these words of joy on the tragic last night of his life, knowing that the next day even his disciples would abandon him. Nodoubt there was fullness of joy in the depths of Christ’s soul even when he was ascending Calvary in the bitter agony of his passion, because he was doing the will of his Father and he felt that God was not abandoning him despite all appearances of abandonment.
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete”.
- Oscar Romero
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete”.
- Oscar Romero
--
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You strive to be like them, seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are bows from which children, living arrows, are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
And He bends you with might that His arrows go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also
The bow that is stable.
- Kahlil Gibran
*****
CLOSING THOUGHT - Simone de Beauvoir
Defending the truth is not something one does out of a sense
of duty or to allay guilt complexes, but is a reward in itself.
(end)
***
For Those Interested -
ST. DAVID'S ACTS MONDAY NIGHT WINTER STUDY
A Ten Week Series January 22nd - March 26th, 2018
Monday Evenings, TM Room 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Monday Evenings, TM Room 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Author: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Registration/Hospitality and Book: $60.00.
Book only: $20.00
Registration/Hospitality and Book: $60.00.
Book only: $20.00
40 copies of the book have been secured
29 persons have thus far registered for the course.
These series are going well with strong, enthusiastic attendances.
--
class registrations of 70 and total books sold: 75
Our best year ever, since we began in 1998!
Check our archives for 49 books studied since 2000: http://tinyurl.com/q3bw6dh
This study introduces our 50th book!
Check our archives for 49 books studied since 2000: http://tinyurl.com/q3bw6dh
This study introduces our 50th book!
***
ST. DAVID'S ACTS THURSDAY MORNING BIBLE STUDY
Ten Sessions January 18th - March 29th, 2018
Ten Thursday morning sessions 10-11 AM
Ten Thursday morning sessions 10-11 AM
Biblical book(s) to be studied this winter will be determined by
the class at the first session of the term, Thursday, January 18th.
Gathering at 9:30 AM in the St. David's TM Room.
No charge
Study resource -
"The DK Complete Bible Handbook"
Edited by John Bowker
Edited by John Bowker
***
ST. DAVID'S SPIRITUAL TRAVELERS EVENT, 2017
South Africa was our destination! We planned a nineteen-
day tour that combined a focus on spirituality, social
justice, culture, and nature, and it ran October 21st
thru November 8th.
day tour that combined a focus on spirituality, social
justice, culture, and nature, and it ran October 21st
thru November 8th.
A beautiful brochure with trip cost, itinerary, and
many helpful travel hints was published.
many helpful travel hints was published.
Twenty-five persons registered and paid in full to
take the trip. This was our tour group.
take the trip. This was our tour group.
All together, thirty-two persons made deposits
but some had to withdraw for health or other
reasons.
but some had to withdraw for health or other
reasons.
We have activated a South Africa Spiritual Travelers
discussion list group to and used it to build community
amongst the participants, and to share news and
resources.
discussion list group to and used it to build community
amongst the participants, and to share news and
resources.
We will report our experiences to St. David's congregation
as a travel group reflection during the worship service Sunday, January 14th, 2018.
For information click Rostad Tours:
http://tinyurl.com/hucsaf7
as a travel group reflection during the worship service Sunday, January 14th, 2018.
For information click Rostad Tours:
http://tinyurl.com/hucsaf7
Follow these notices for weekly updates.
*****
No comments:
Post a Comment