A number of people have asked about the quotes from Thornton Wilder’s novel Theophilus North that I used in my talk at the 2009 Mockingbird Conference in New York [embedded at the bottom of the post]. The first comes at the end of the chapter ‘Diana Bell’, in which a woman who is trying to elope slowly realizes she is not really in love with the man whom she is trying to marry. She discovers instead that she is playing out once again an old story in her life, without realizing it; one which has repeated itself before and has more to do with trying to escape her difficult parents than with love or marriage or who she really is. I talked about how this moment towards the end, this ‘freezing realization of the repetitions in her life’, is a kind of experience of the Spirit of God.
I carried her suitcases up to the darkened entrance [of her house]. She said, ‘Hold me a minute.’ I put my arms around her. It was not an embrace; our faces did not touch. She wanted to cling for a moment to something less frozen than the lofty structure under which we stood; she was trembling after the freezing realization of the repetitions in her life. ‘Good night,’ she said. ‘Good night, Miss Bell.’
The second quotation comes from the first chapter of the novel, just after the main character, Theophilus, quits his unhappy job teaching at a boarding school. I talked about how this little sequence, which sets up much of the later action in the book, can be read as a kind of moment of being filled with the Spirit. It captures somewhat, by way of analogy, how a truly unconditional picture of God’s grace in human lives – of the life that is justified by faith – manifests in a spirit of humor, freedom, wonder, and childlike play. Not entirely unlike this blog!
From the moment I resigned, two days before leaving the school, I discovered that several things were happening to me in my new state of freedom. I was recapturing the spirit of play – not the play of youth which is games (aggression under the restraint of rules), but the play of childhood which is all imagination, which improvises. I became light-headed. The spirit of play swept away the cynicism and indifference into which I had fallen. Moreover, a readiness for adventure re-awoke in me – for risk, for intruding myself into the lives of others, for extracting fun from danger.
To see the touching and hilarious ways this ‘anointing’ works itself out, you must read the rest of this extraordinary novel. Or, to listen to the talk in question, simply click play:
COMMENTS
21 responses to “Freezing Repetitions and the Spirit of Play in Thornton Wilder’s Theophilus North”
Leave a Reply
OR — see the Helen Hayes Award-nominated play of the same name, based on the novel! Visit http://www.TNorthThePlay.com
I would agree that a part of being human is to react to love and grace with a sense of freedom and joy. This is the case with all people in all circumstances, whether Christian, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, or atheist. But I would disagree that this common reaction to grace is or should be called an anointing of the Holy Spirit. To do so is to move away from the Holy Spirit as a particular third person of the Trinity that Jesus told his followers would be their Comforter until his return,and to move very close to seeing the Holy Spirit as a generalized abstraction which is "present" in any reaction to grace in the face of judgment. The Holy Spirit becomes a free-floating concept untethered to Jesus and the Cross, except as those two are themselves emblematic of other abstract concepts. We can fully appreciate a common human reaction to grace in this and many other works without seeing the Holy Spirit explicitly and literally at work.
MC- How uncharacteristic of you! Even Calvin allowed for the Spirit as an ethical enabler… I wouldn't necessarily advocate that every reaction to grace be tied to the Holy Spirit, but can you allow that this could be the case? I do not think that seeing the Spirit in this way makes him a free floating concept (interestingly, the same could be said about the traditional Lutheran position) but this makes the Spirit an active and vibrant person.
As far as Wilder is concerned, he uses the literary form to describe what it means to be truly human, yet this idea of being human is in some way derived from (even attests to) Christian faith.
What I have said is that as a part of being human, we all react to grace with joy and freedom. This is a part of the way God has hard-wired us as humans. This is a very different thing from being anointed with the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, what seems to be asserted here is that Buddists, and even atheists, are "anointed with the Holy Spirit" when they experience this joy, etc. in reaction to grace. If Calvin makes this claim, I am going to have to see the quote 🙂
3.3.14
That Spirit is not the patron of murder, adultery, drunkenness, pride, contention, avarice, and fraud, but the author of love, chastity, sobriety, modesty, peace, moderation, and truth. He is not a Spirit of giddiness, rushing rashly and precipitately, without regard to right and wrong, but full of wisdom and understanding, by which he can duly distinguish between justice and injustice. He instigates not to lawless and unrestrained licentiousness, but, discriminating between lawful and unlawful, teaches temperance and moderation.
Todd–Are you trying to argue that this quote supports the proposition that, because the Holy Spirit "is not the patron of murder" that Calvin is claiming that, to the extent a Buddhist does not murder, he is not doing so because he has been anointed by the Holy Spirit?
Todd–Although I do not see the logic of the quote from Calvin you have given for the proposition I understood you to put forward, Calvin certainly does argue for the role of the Holy Spirit in so-called "common grace". This is most evident at 2.2.15 which is too lengthy to quote all here, but the following is the most directly on point:
"Science as God's gift:
Whenever we come upon these matters in secular writers, let that admirable light of truth shining in them teach us that the mind of man, though fallen and perverted from its wholeness, is nevertheless clothed and ornamented with God's excellent gifts. If we regard the Spirit of God as the sole fountain of truth, we shall neither reject the truth itself, nor despise it wherever it shall appear, unless we wish to dishonor the Spirit of God. For by holding the gifts of the Spirit in slight esteem, we contemn and reproach the Spirit himself. What then? Shall we deny that the truth shone upon the ancient jurists who established civic order and discipline with such great equity? Shall we say that the philosophers were blind in their fine observation and artful description of nature? …. But shall we count anything praiseworthy or noble without recognizing at the same time that it comes from God? Let us be ashamed of such ingratitude, into which not even the pagan poets fell, for they confessed that the gods had invented philosophy, laws, and all useful arts. Those men whom Scripture call "natural men" were, indeed, sharp and penetrating in their investigation of inferior things. Let us, accordingly, learn by their example how many gifts the Lord left to human nature even after it was despoiled of its true good."
The Holy Spirit has indeed given good gifts to all as a part of our common human nature, which we all carry with us still in fractured form, and these gifts are exhibited in part in the way we all respond to love. However, I am not aware of Calvin ever claiming that the unregenerate, apart from faith in Christ, are ever anointed with the Holy Spirit and experience joy, freedom, etc. as a result of that "anointing".
MC (hammer)- Thank you for the Calvin quote and education. I confess to not have studied Calvin in depth since my college days. I referred to Calvin not to support the idea that the Holy Spirit works in a pluriform and widespread way, but to broaden your narrow definition of the Holy Spirit that manifests himself only in the explicit word of the cross and Jesus.
But back to the point, It's possible that you're extending the analogy beyond its original setting to the regenerate/unregenerate distinction of the gifts of the Spirit. Certainly you do not mean to imply that the Spirit does not work in the unregenerate. If this is conceded, then the first question is why does the Spirit work in the unregenerate? The easy answer is to bring them to faith in the crucified. Yet this begs the question as to how the Spirit brings people to faith. The simple suggestion here is that God is doing this work in a variety of profane ways that extend beyond how Luther or Calvin would have allowed.
This isn't a work of the Spirit for its own sake, but (in good Trinitarian theology) it is the work of the Spirit to the glory of the Son and in service of the Father.
MC Hammer…
I think Michael has a name now. 🙂
Thanks guys for the helpful talk.
Todd– To the extent that God's Spirit works in all things and in all people to accomplish God's will, I would agree. Calvin and Luther would, I think, also agree. But something much more particular and specific I understand is being asserted here, and that is that, totally without reference to Christ, his sacrificial death, or faith in its efficacy, the atheist may be anointed with the Holy Spirit and experience joy and freedom as a direct result. We are not talking merely about there being an analogy to be drawn between a non-Christian experience of grace and the Christian experience of the Holy Spirit, rather, we are talking about an actual experience of the Holy Spirit which actually and directly produces joy and freedom in the unbeliever, who remains an unbeliever in Christ and his cross. I do not see any support for that in Luther, Calvin or in the whole of Scripture. If I have misunderstood what you or Simeon are claiming, then I am happy to be corrected.
Sorry, I deleted the last one for a typo… But I wanted to reveal that my 5 min. of bogus internet research has found that M C Hammer is an ordained minister and that he claims the "MC" now stands for "Man of Christ" 🙂
Stamp, I like "MC Hammer"…I bet it sticks! Sorry Michael, I mean, "MC".
Don't be sorry, Jeff, I have already ordered some extra bling.
"A special shout out to my man MC Hammer: a lot of people dis you, man, but they just jealous."
— Ice-T
We eagerly await the next MB conference, when Michael will be leading a breakout session on PLEASE HAMMER, DON'T HURT EM (a reflection on the crushing power of the Law) and TOO LEGIT TO QUIT (a reflection on Romans 8:1), along with a selection of pieces from his group The Holy Ghost Boys and a dance workshop.
I may be misunderstanding things as well, but I'm inclined to agree with "the hammer" at this point in the discussion. . .
—-this is an incredibly uncomfortable position:) ha!
The nickname is well on its way apparently…
I don't suppose to speak for Simeon. He's the one with the Ph.D.!
If you are able to agree with what I said before, then I think we're in general agreement. With regard to believers I think we are especially in agreement on the ways the Spirit works. No qualms here.
With regard to unbelievers, I don't mean to indicate that every experience of freedom and joy is Spirit-driven, but that such experiences may be Spirit-driven. There can be an ambivalence here and we ultimately don't know one way or the other.