41. Five impossible things to believe before breakfast.

Dearly Beloved

Charles Dodgson was highly intelligent and imaginative. He seems to have retreated into his inner life of fantasy and mathematics in response to severe bullying he suffered at his boarding school, Rugby. In his book, Alice in Wonderland there is this snippet of conversation with the White Queen:

'Alice laughed.... She said; "one can't believe impossible things." "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

Charles Dodgson came from a high church background and was a deacon in the Church of England; he loved puzzles, doubtless some of his were theological. Below are five suggestions (including the photograph) that would allow you to at least think about five impossible things before breakfast even if you did not get as far as believing anything about any of them.

1. The Filioque Controversy.

This was, and remains, a disagreement about the relationship of the Holy Spirit to the other two members of the Trinity. In the 6th century in Spain there arose an addition to the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed that is set out in italics below:

And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Life Giver, who proceeds from the Father and from the Son, who with the Father and the Son is co-worshipped and co-glorified.

By a process of diffusion it was taken up throughout the Western Church, but was censored by the Byzantine Patriach Photius (d. 867) which resulted in a disagreement so intense it split the Church into what is now the Western and Eastern Orthodox Churches. The loss of Constantinople and the Church of Hagia Sofia can be traced back to the schism, as crusaders on the 4th Crusade sacked Constantinople in 1204 – which, it is widely believed, so weakened the Byzantine Empire that it fell to the Ottoman Sultanate in 1543. That is why the Hagia Sofia cathedral is now a mosque.

Few of us are able to understand the significance of the two creedal statements; and there is no simple way of demonstrating the truth of either. So perhaps that is why there is no agreement which would allow a healing of the Church. We are fortunate in the Church of England that, in an act of wonderful common sense, if not spiritual generosity, all adult members of any Christian Church may join us at the altar rail for the Eucharist, a vault over the chasm of disagreement, confusion and schism, and a celebration of the spiritual centre of Christianity.

2. The Song of Songs.

Is this just a love song to be performed at a marriage, or is it really about the union of the soul (the bride) and God (the beloved)? Or is it an account of the love between God and Israel, or between God and the Church. Or is it all of these? It starts with kisses, fragrant oils, love, wine and rejoicing in the first four verses, and so it continues. Only the female protagonist announces herself, topically: 

“Black am I but beautiful; oh daughters of Jerusalem...” Here is a self-confident soul experienced in working in the vineyards and gardens, and in guarding her flocks in the hills, and watching the gifts of the seasons as they pass. ‘I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of he valleys.’ (2.1). It is left to her to describe her beloved.

There are two passages where the bride loses the bridegroom and searches for him (3:1-3 and 5:6-16). These passages have been used by contemplatives such as St John of the Cross in his Spiritual Canticle (circa 1577) as an analogy for the soul searching for to God, an echo of the searching soul lost in The Cloud of Unknowing, that anonymous English work of a 14th century contemplative.

There are questions too. ‘Who is this that looks forth like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army with banners?’ (6:10) 

‘Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?’ (3:6)

And surely every young man should be described thus: ‘Like an apricot tree among the trees of the forest is my beloved among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste!’(2:3)

There are eight chapters to the Song of Songs so it is wise to put off breakfast and instead have brunch by which time reading and believing the impossible might be completed for the day.

3. Negative (Apophatic) Theology.

Before making your early morning tea or coffee it is an essential start to the day to describe God by what he is not. The principle is that, since God transcends everything we are, everything we know and everything we understand, we are unable to describe him in positive terms but can make some progress using descriptive negatives. For example take 1 Kings 19-20 when God tells Elijah (who is sheltering from his enemies in a cave in the mountains) that He will pass by. There follows a huge, rock-crushing wind, an earthquake and a fire; but, we are told, God was not in any of these. Then there was a still small voice, and in that stillness the Lord calls to Elijah. Clement of Alexandria (150-215 AD) said that, although God's essence is unknowable, his energies and his powers may be known to us. Gregory of Nyssa (335-395 AD) initiated the idea that, although God is unknowable, Jesus can be followed, as this is our human way of knowing God; and, of course, this idea lies at the core of the Eucharist.

4) Silence.

Contemplatives starting their journey towards God seek silence, but what is silence?  Is it anything? If it is something, what is it?

(Don't forget to set an alarm clock or you may not get breakfast at all!).


5) The photograph below.

It combines concentric circles normally associated with neolithic culture (4,500 to 1,700 BC) with two, basic, sculpted Christian crosses. What can one believe about the history of this stone lintel?

The sixth impossible thing to believe before breakfast has an entire Dearly Beloved letter to itself.

Peace,

Paul.

Completed 12 September 2020.

Photo: Paul Munton.

Stone Lintel over a barn door in the village of Nadalie, South West France.


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