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Rev. Joey N. Welsh: Words of Sense, sensitivity, and civility Another Angle: the occasional musings of a Kentucky pastor.Hart County News-Herald 14 January 2007. This essay has been on ColumbiaMagazine.com before, but the title seems very appropriate to recent headlines. -Robert H. Stone The next earlier Another Angle: Letting the scales fall away By The Rev. Joey N. Welsh E-mail: joey_n_welsh@hotmail.com I have been reading and appreciating the writings of Garry Wills since before I was an adult. Wills is the author of nearly three dozen books on history and religion, as well as of numerous magazine articles and frequent pieces for The New York Review of Books. Born in Atlanta in 1934, he has been busy publishing significant and thoughtful books since the presidency of John F. Kennedy. In his early adulthood Wills studied for the Catholic priesthood. He later earned his doctorate in ancient classics and taught Greek for many years at Johns Hopkins University. He is Professor of History Emeritus at Northwestern University. Wills is possessed of a sparkling intellect, and his readers are richer because of that fact. I met up with the writings of Garry Wills when I was a teenager. When the 1968 presidential campaign took place I was 15 years old; that whole year had been full of significant events, and I had made an attempt to stay afloat in the flood of the major news of the year. I had followed up by reading several books that appeared in the years immediately after the close presidential vote in 1968. One book that fascinated me was Nixon Agonistes (1970), a study of Richard Nixon that illuminated the influences shaping his personality, his political outlook and his quest for recognition and power. Written by Garry Wills when the author was not yet 35, the book foreshadowed the later unmistakable evidence of Nixon's many impulses and personality quirks that fed into the Watergate debacle. Agonistes is a Greek epithet that refers to being in a struggle or in combat. When attached to someone's name -- as when John Milton wrote Samson Agonistes, describing the biblical character's final struggles -- it becomes an emblem of the person's private and public tussles. Nixon Agonistes means "Nixon the Combatant" or "Nixon the Struggler." Garry Wills can sometimes say as much in the title of one of his books as lesser authors say in an entire book. As the years passed following the Nixon work, I read more of Garry Wills' books on subjects as diverse as Jack Ruby, ancient Roman culture and Jefferson composing the Declaration of Independence. Then, over 20 years after I had first encountered Wills, I devoured a book that remains a personal favorite. Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America (1992) is riveting history with a bonus for a preacher (or any other aficionado of public speaking). The book, which won a Pulitzer Prize, shines a spotlight on Lincoln and his famous speech. It establishes a detailed context that includes the traditions of oratory from ancient times through 1863, with special note given to funeral and cemetery speeches. The book is a love ballad to the power of the spoken word. Now, at the age of 53, I am appreciating Garry Wills anew. I received as a Christmas present his new book What Jesus Meant (2006), a companion volume to What Paul Meant (also 2006). In his fresh and vibrant translations and interpretations of the words of Jesus, Wills affirms his faith while taking the modern world to task for exploiting and abusing the Word of God for political purposes. As Wills sees it, Jesus would be ashamed to be called a Christian in this age, considering how far from his teachings the people who carry his name have strayed. Jesus would never have allowed any political party -- or many causes -- to lay claim to his name. He was too radical ever to have given his assent to be used as a marketing tool. When people of faith cozy up to the politically powerful, as Jesus knew, it tends to interfere with the divine call to speak truth to power. How can we hate whole groups of people? How can we say we are pro-life or in favor of life abundant when, for instance, we are constrained from speaking out against torture, violence or vengeance wherever it occurs and whoever perpetrates it? Garry Wills is deeply religious and profoundly committed to his Catholic faith. He also believes, though, that Jesus would weep at the spiritual (and temporal) resources expended on the properties and trappings of religion. The Jesus described by Wills is not a prelate or a politician, not a realtor or even a moral instructor. He is in his own category, "... the risen Lord, the Son of the Father, who leads us to the Father." This brief book (142 pages) narrates the events of Jesus' life and covers his major teachings, with plenty of insight along the way. It brings things to a conclusion by tying everything together with the concept of love. The last page is a fresh translation of I Corinthians 13, ending with, "For the present, then, three things matter -- believing, hoping and loving. But supreme is loving." It is the penultimate page that sets the table for that banquet of Paul's "love chapter" written to the Corinthians. Here Wills tells us to learn about one another and to appreciate instead of jostling to judge. He says: "All earthly societies have currently unidentifiable elements of heaven's reign in them, but none of them -- no state, no church, no voluntary organization -- can be equated with heaven's reign. Claims to a 'faith-based politics' or to a perfect church substitute a false religion for heaven's reign -- which is a form of idolatry. "Jesus' followers have the obligation that rests on all men and women to seek justice based on the dignity of every human being. That is the goal of politics, of 'the things that belong to Caesar.' But heaven's reign makes deeper and broader demands, the demands not only of justice but of love. "Saint Augustine came in time to renounce the classical ideals of Plato and Aristotle, which exalted the intellect as man's noblest faculty. Augustine knew that the highest human faculty is love, the self-emptying love of Jesus: 'A new instruction I have given you: Love one another. As I have loved you, you must also love one another. All will know that you are my followers by this sign alone, that you have love for one another' (John 13:34-35)." Garry Wills has given me much to ponder over these last 35 or so years, and he hasn't stopped yet! I hope you take the time to make his acquaintance through his writings. E-mail: joey_n_welsh@hotmail.com This story was posted on 2011-01-16 07:59:32
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Have comments or corrections for this story? Use our contact form and let us know. More articles from topic Commentary:
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