Curtis A. Bronzan

Muse’s most recent album is, like their previous work, rather brilliant. Today I was struck again by the lyrics of Guiding Light, which seem to so clearly describe the dissolution of metaphysical thought:

Pure hearts stumble in my hands they crumble
and fragile and stripped to the core I can’t hurt you anymore
Loved by numbers you losing life’s wonder
and touch like strangers detached I can feel you anymore

And sunshine trapped in our hearts it could rise again
but I’m lost and crushed
I’m cold and confused with no guiding light left inside
You were my guiding light

And come from and won’t come be found I still reach for you
but I’m lost and I’m crushed
I’m cold and confused but no guiding light left in sight

You’re my guiding light you’re my guiding light
There is no guiding light left inside there’s no guiding light in us

And yet, there’s hope. Notice: “sunshine trapped in our hearts… it could rise again” and “still I reach for you.” Further, could the concluding stanza be an explication of man’s depravity?

I clicked onto the Fuller website tonight for I don’t know what. I guess I have a tendency to surf aimlessly at times. But this time it paid off!

I came across this article (from which I also stole the above image) about Dr. John Goldingay, who is continuing the “For Everyone” series started by N.T. Wright, which are short, accessible commentaries on the Scriptures. I – and others I get to work with – utilize Mark for Everyone for our current study at the community I serve, and are always astounded how simple, and yet, profound he can make passages.

Wright covered the Christian Scriptures, the locus of his scholarship, while Goldingay will be writing similar commentaries for the Hebrew Scriptures. Two paperback volumes examining Genesis have already been released.

It’s a joy for me to see him pictured in the t-shirt he was wearing during my first class of my seminary education. Like other professors I’ve had, he exudes the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, that all are equal. And he treats his students as such.

And he loves rock and roll. In fact, his musical tastes are rather brilliant. When I joined other students at his house to watch and discuss a film (back in 2003), we talked about a recent Nada Surf show he’d seen a few nights prior!

So, if you’re ever in the market for any books on the Hebrew Scriptures, look for the ones written by John Goldingay. He doesn’t require any for his classes – only the Bible!

Some great thoughts (if repeated from other talks) engaging Jesus, Chesterton, Kierkegaard, the Apostle Paul, Bonhoeffer, and Žižek (if unmentioned), from Peter Rollins at Revolution NYC.

There’s a blog here somewhere, engaging Derrida and Caputo – maybe even Žižek (who argues that love is the end) – but for now I’m just revelling in the lyrics – and melody – of this great song. Reminds me of some Pedro the Lion tracks.

Everything alive must die
every building built to the sky will fall
Don’t try to tell me my
everlasting love is a lie

Everlasting everything
oh nothing could mean anything at all

Every wave that hits the shore
every book that I adore
Gone like a circus, gone like a troubadour
everlasting love for ever more

Oh I know this might sound sad
but everything goes both good and the bad
It all adds up and you should be glad
everlasting love is all you have