Does love conquer all?
“Ever since Nietzsche it has been customary to sneer at the apparently wimpish vision of human life in the Beatitudes: the meek, the mourners, the merciful, and so on – when surely everyone knows that the people who make the world go round are the arrogant, the go-getters, the people with sharp swords or at least sharp elbows, the pushy, the proud.
Actually, all Nietzsche did was to articulate what many people, including many would-be Christians, had believed de facto for centuries, but the point is that they, and he, were wrong.
Every professor knows how frustrating it is when a student comes to class so arrogantly convinced of their own theory that they cannot pay attention to the evidence. (Sometimes, of course, students feel that about professors, too, and that makes its own point.)
A University will thrive and flourish, and a society led by its graduates will thrive and flourish, when the Beatitudes’ different, upside-down vision of human flourishing takes effect: when people realise that humility and meekness before the evidence and before one’s peers are the marks of real academic strength; when they recognise that a hunger for justice and a love of mercy form the elusive centre of healthy societies; when they discover that, having invented a thousand clever machines for making war, it is long overdue that they should find one that would make peace.”
— N. T. Wright, The Great Story
I really needed to read this today.
Just yesterday I was saying that I find the ‘brand’ of Christianity I frequently encounter from some of the vocal Christians I know or hear seems to favour the idea violent power and strength, and an angry God. I keep hearing that this message of love and mercy is over-rated. That peace will only come when we wage war and that Christianity has become too ‘sissy’. It’s never said in so many words of course, but that’s what the many statements boil down to at the end of the day… At least to me.
And I just don’t get it.
It leaves me feeling hopeless and confused.
Like the Black Eyed Peas I can’t help thinking, “Where is the love?”
I never thought someone could write a post tying N.T. Wright and Black Eyed Peas together…
