That picture is of Constantin Brâncusi's 'Bird in Flight', because I want to talk about symbolism.

I've found a blog that argues about more theology in hymns. See? People worry about this stuff. And yes, I wasn't worrying about theology, I was looking up hymns with 'snow' in, because it's been snowing around here. What I found was people nitpicking, which is always fun, right?

This person was mad at John Newton for writing:

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow;

the sun forbear to shine.

But God who called me here below,

will be forever mine.
Amazing Grace (One of the more obscure verses.)

The nitpickers get quite tangled up in their eschatology. Oh, what? Eschatology is a branch of theology that makes up theories about how the world ends: bang, whimper, Douglas Adams version, etc, etc. One of the commenters asks whether John Newton was 'post-Mill'. That's post-Millenarian to the likes of us. There are also pre-Millenarians, and a-Millenarians, I believe. You can look it up, but my advice is: don't go there.

Back when my parents were living in the Burned-Over District, my mom gave some money to a preacher with a ministry to children in villages overseas. She was just trying to help feed and clothe those kids. In return, she got a monthly magazine. The magazine chronicled some laudable activity. It also contained a monthly sermon, mostly on this Millenarian theorising. It bothered her. Finally, she asked me about it, and I laid out the basic argumentation. My mom decided she didn't really need to worry about all that, and I said that was pretty sound thinking. I mean, what are you going to do about it? Now, global warming you can fight. . .

When the Roll is Called Up Yonder, or Not

These same nitpickers were on about When the Roll is Called Up Yonder. Oh, please. They're mad because, '. . . at the rapture there is no roll call as "His sheep know His voice."' By which I'm sure they really mean, 'It's a natural process, there's no roll-calling involved.' Er, yeah, it's symbolic. So why is your 'sheep/voice' symbolism better than the 'roll call' symbolism? Oh, 'cause it's in the Bible. That's me told.

When I was about fourteen, my beloved piano teacher Miss Lindquist asked me in a worried way what sort of stuff they taught in my church. She was a Presbyterian, you see, and she'd probably heard some horror stories. (My bunch were pretty normal.) So she asked me what the people at my church meant by being 'literal' about the Bible. I told her, 'They seem to think it's important that Jonah was really swallowed by some sort of marine creature.' She nodded. 'But when it says in the Psalms, "Our God is a rock," they don't think it means God really is a rock?'

I laughed. 'No. They know that's just poetry.' Miss Lindquist sighed with relief, and we got back to Mendelssohn.

Sometimes poetry is just a way of saying, 'I don't have enough language for all this.' And you're better off with Mendelssohn. Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was the grandson of Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. Having the grandkids convert to Christianity was Moses' idea. He was broadminded. Felix composed hymns, like Still, Still with Thee. The words to this hymn were written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Yeah, that Harriet Beecher Stowe, the woman who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Hymns get around. And no, I don't know if Ms Stowe was pre-, post-, or a-Mill. She'd probably have asked her husband Calvin, who was a bona fide theology professor.