Love Does, by Bob Goff, was highly praised from the pulpit yesterday. Many in our church will be reading it in the coming weeks, myself included. It comes out on Tuesday. I'll try to share some thoughts, either on the book itself or how it relates to whatever it's supposed to relate to regarding our community. In part, I will try to share these thoughts because it's been a long time since I've shared anything over here. But also because I suspect this is going to be one of those relevant books that either hits us or it doesn't. Also, there are colorful balloons on the cover. And that's just fun.
because you were all wondering what I'm writing my dissertation on, here's a brief synopsis of my 'research context': When James Macpherson published his Fragments of Ancient Poetry in 1760, he went to great lengths to make the Fragments appear to be authentic remains of an ancient, heroic oral tradition. His reasons for this were largely political, and as such, influenced the content of the epics themselves. As an attempt to establish a particularly Scottish identity, the poems were quite effective. However, to do so required both a simplification and a manipulation of traditional mythology. Stripped of anagogical significance, the Ossian epics more or less represented an Enlightenment version of history, tradition, and mythic heritage. The stories themselves were changed by their very purpose and in turn changed the manner of representing myth in future narratives. Moreover, the emphasis on the Ossian epics as authentic tales from the past, as ‘fragments,’ served...
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