Driving home from the bookstore on Thursday night, I took the long way home because I liked what I heard on the radio. CBC radio was playing a re-run of Tapestry, and I was so moved by what I heard, I had to pull over and jot some notes in my notebook. It didn’t occur to me until later how delightfully appropriate it was that I’d stopped the car next to a shadowy graveyard and a lit cathedral.
The program was an interview with Alan Jones. His book, Reimagining Christianity: Reconnect Your Spirit Without Disconnecting your Mind is now on my wish list. You can hear the interview here.
Here are a few of the things I jotted down…
– the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty
– religion doesn’t answer the questions, it deepens them
– religion is meant to be uncomfortable – it will piss you off if it means anything
– “mine must have been the slowest conversion in history – I have an enormous capacity for missing the point”
– Christianity is a “way” not a “state”
– you can’t opt out of belonging – if you opt out, then you belong to those others who have opted out
– the universe is made up of stories, not atoms
– imagine the beautiful irony of Jesus, who is the “word of God” but was born as a baby, unable to speak – word and silence must be part of each other
It also helps that his voice is like ear-candy. I think I could listen to it all day.