Words from the 8th century, B.C.E.

Posted on December 14, 2006
Filed Under All, Politics, Taking Faith |

Micah was an eighth-century prophet, B.C.E. (before the Christian Era) a contemporary, perhaps a disciple of the prophet Isaiah, according to Robert Ellsberg’s All Saints, a tome from which it is our custom to read the concise life of a ’saint,’ both the Church-declared sort and the actual kind, each day. Last night I read these ten-thousand year-old words, Micah’s ‘definition of religion’:

He has showed you O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice and to love kindness
and to talk humbly with your God?

Wow. It would seem I’m not alone, nor hardly the first to think that that religion is best which gets the least in the way of faith.

Reason I mention this is my long-gestating essay about faith and atheism was one of the things that was saved from yesterday’s hard-drive crash (divine intervention?), along with an essay about work in the 21st century, both of which I’ve been working on slowly, on Caltrain during the UCSF radiation-therapy commutes.

I started the N Judah portfolio-in-progress, an ad-hoc project if ever there was one, in November, and I kind of like the freedom to just move it along when I can, even if people see less-than-perfect work. I published a censorship essay that I was trying to write in the evenings while still working, and it moved along slowly, published in pieces as they came - it still needs a part 2, but at least I got something up.

So I think, under current circumstances I will publish both the faith and labor essays as in-progress works as well, kind of in the wiki-style. Not that the world is beating down my door on this, nor are many likely to care about my verbal drop in the web’s verbiage ocean. However I promised some guys at the LAT Pressman’s union that I’d publish the labor thing, and there was an incident during a strike more than ten years ago that I think illuminates, of all things, the faith vs. atheism issue. Sharpening our cyber ‘pencils,’ making calendar time and getting down to some writing… should be fun…

Comments

One Response to “Words from the 8th century, B.C.E.”

  1. Natalie on December 15th, 2006 10:21 pm

    Chris, this is so much the way I feel:

    “…that religion is best which gets the least in the way of faith….”

    I might even quote you! “The God Interviews” book is nearly ready for publication, just posted the cover design on Blaugustine.

    Wishing you full recovery, good health and Chritmas blessings to you and your family.

Leave a Reply