But for all that, Eden has never returned. The world’s woes are beyond repair by the world’s successes: there are just too many failures, and they come too thick and fast for any program, however energetic or well-funded. Dives, for all his purple, fine linen and faring sumptuously, dies not one whit less dead than Lazarus. And before he dies, his wealth no more guarantees him health or happiness than it does exemption from death. Therefore when the Gospel is proclaimed, it stays lightyears away from reliance on success or on any other exercise of right-handed power. Instead, it relies resolutely on left-handed power–on the power that, in a mystery, works through failure, loss, and death. And so while our history is indeed saved, its salvation is not made manifest our history in any obvious, right-handed way. In God’s time–in that kairos, that due season, that high time in which the Incarnate Word brings in the kingdom in a mystery–all our times are indeed reconciled and restored now. But in our time–in the chronos, the sequential order of earthly events, the low time of days, years, centuries, millenia–the shipwreck of history drags on unchanged and unchangeable now. And the only bridge between the now in which our times are triumphantly in his hand and the now in which they are so disastrously in our own is faith. The accomplished reconciliation can only be believed; it cannot be known, felt, or seen–and it cannot, by any efforts of ours, however good or however successful, be rendered visible, tangible, or intelligible.
…Death, you see, is absolutely all of the resurrection we can now know. The rest is faith (317).
Why haven’t I read everything this man has written? Any suggestions on where to start with Capon?
I would recommend starting with his Kingdom, Grace & Judgement parable book. It’s one of the most scripture focused of his books and it reveals the genius of his insight into scripture and it’s these insights that leads to the enlightened theology that makes his other books so good. In the parables book he talks about God’s “right handed” power (which is what we traditionally think of as power – miracles, healings, etc.) versus God’s “left handed” power – the power displayed in the mysterious death of the messiah. He talks about how Jesus starts his ministry using traditional right hand power but then changes midway through his ministry – Capon pins the time as being after the feeding of the 5000 – and how after that point is all Jesus’ talk of death and the cross. It’s like he realizes after the great miracle of the feeding of the 5000 when instead of some spiritual transformation of the masses who witnessed the event they instead want to make him king that the right handed power method isn’t going to get it done and instead the only truly way for him to save us is to go down into our death and take us all with him. OK, that’s my summarized version of Capon’s much longer and clearer version. Go read his!
I wouldn’t start with Between Noon & Three (especially if you come from an evangelical background) as it’s too much of a shock to the system. He uses an extramarital affair between two married people to present the grace of the gospel and it warped my head a lot at first! Also, the scene and environment of the story is an erudite, urbane and sophisticated part of Long Island where they throw around Auden poetry like we would the words to a Rolling Stone’s song and so I had a hard time relating. BTW, you will need a dictionary when reading Capon! Kindle’s are great for this because they have a built in dictionary. I definitely would read Between Noon & Three, just not as my first exposure to Capon.
The Mystery of Christ is an easy read of his and where I started. I just finished Genesis, The Movie and once again had a bit of a hard time – the man is just way smarter and a lot more educated than me – but I did hang with it and loved it.
Below is a long quote from the parables book that I loved. The quote comes after his telling of the parable of the gardener and the barren tree. Christ’s peace.
“The world lives, as the fig tree lives, under the rubric of forgiveness. The world, of course, thinks otherwise. In its blind wisdom, it thinks it lives by merit and reward. It likes to imagine that salvation is essentially a pat on the back from a God who either thinks we are good eggs or, if he knows how rotten we actually are, considers our repentance sufficient to make up for our unsuitability. But by the foolishness of God, that is not the way it works. By the folly of the cross, Jesus becomes sin for us, and he goes outside the camp for us, and he is relegated to the dump for us, and he becomes garbage and compost, offal and manure for us. And then he come to us. The Vinedresser who on the cross said “dphes” (“I forgive”) to his Lord and Father comes to us with his own body dug deep by nails and spears, and his own being made dung by his death, and he sends our roots resurrection. He does not come to see if we are good: he comes to disturb the caked conventions by which we pretend to be good. He does not come to see if we are sorry: he knows our repentance isn’t worth the hot air we put into it. He does not come to count anything. Unlike the lord in the parable, he cares not even a fig for any part of our record, good or bad. He comes only to forgive. For free. For nothing. On no basis, because like the fig tree, we are too gar gone to have a basis. On no conditions, because like the dung of death he digs into our roots, he is too dead to insist on prerogatives. We are saved gratis by grace. We do nothing and we deserve nothing; it is all, absolutely and without qualification, one huge, hilarious gift.”
He’s great, Josh. I’ve just finished using his Kingdom, Grace, & Judgment for a 10 week study of Jesus’ parables at my church, and people really loved it. So that’s the one I would recommend. But, for what it’s worth, Mockingbird had the privilege of asking Capon himself that same question last year in an exclusive interview. He recommended (the amazing) Between Noon & Three: https://mbird.mystagingwebsite.com/2011/09/the-outrageousness-of-gods-indiscriminating-grace-a-brief-interview-with-robert-farrar-capon/
Thanks JAZ, I must have somehow missed the Capon interview. I have always meant to get his books. Now I know where to start. Also, I may be in Chucktown next weekend. Maybe we could meet up. I’ll be in touch.
I would agree with Father Capon. Be aware however that this book (Between Noon and Three) will plain blow the top of your skull clean off your head and explode your heart with with a kiloton boom of ultra-gospel TNT. Open it to the first page knowing that when you get to the last, there is a very good chance that your world will be completely rearranged from the inside.
I can testify that the Holy Spirit used this book to absolutely positively destroy me and and I have been more alive since than ever in my life before. Father Capon’s writing was the catalyst of what I call my third conversion.
So read it. Just make sure you strap yourself in.