samedi 11 octobre 2014

Seasick Steve, Dooyeweerd, Rookmaaker, Van Til, Schaeffer


Chaidh an t-aiste seo fhoillseachadh air tùs air Gobha-uisge ri Plubraich, ann an 2009.

Co-là breith agam a' bhòn-dè. Siathad 's a h-aon. Trì fichead 's h-aon. Fhuair mi CD bho Chiaran. Seasick Steve. Caran an aon aois rium fhìn saoilidh mi. Bho a choltas, co-dhiù. Chunnaic mi agallamh leis air an TV o-chionn dhà no trì seachdainn. Na shuidhe ann an dungairìos. Chluich e sean giotar a rinn e fhèin às bucas siogàr. Math fhèin. Fuaim a thug dham chuimhne an nòs cluich sònraichte ud a bhuineas ri blues a' Mhississippi Delta. Duine gasta iriosal. Gun mhòrchuis:
anyway i don't know why you wanna listen 
to what i got to say at all -
don't you got nothin better to do?
don't you got nothin better to do?
don't you got nothin better to do?
than listen to a man 
from another time? 
("Man from Another Time", Seasick Steve) 
Agus post-dealain bho Alan Wilson a' togail ceist mu bheachd Dhooyeweerd a-thaobh Sgriobtair. Deagh cheist gun teagamh. Nach robh Dooyeweerd air iomrall buileach sa chùis seo? Barrachd spèis aige ann am feallsanachd na Facal Dhè? Dubh-cheist. Doirbh freagairt a thoirt seachad. Chreid Dooyeweerd gu robh Facal Dhè fada nas farsaing na Sgriobtar. Gar cumail suas gach là. Biodh solas ann. Tha solas ann. Tha am Facal beò agus cumhachdach. Agus cha tig duine sam bith dhan Sgriobtar gun chagair gun fhiosta na chluas bho fheallsanachd a-choireigin. Aquinas. A' chuid as mò againn fo bhuaidh Aquinas nam Meadhon-Aoisean. Aquinas fhèin fo bhuaidh Arastotail.

don't you got nothin better to do?
don't you got nothin better to do?
don't you got nothin better to do?
than listen to a man
from another time?


Aquinas. Feallsanachd nan Seana-Ghreugach a' cagarsaich na chluas. Eilidheachas. Sgolàstachas. Sgoltachas. Sgaradh is sabaid eadar Apollo is Dionusas. Eadar anam is corp. Eadar nèamh is talamh. Eadar Spiorad is Ùir. Gun rèite ann. Ach THA rèite ann an Crìosd. Sin an soisgeul.

                                                                             
Herman Dooyeweerd
Chreid Dooyeweerd an Sgriobtar. Ach, mar a thuirt e fhèin, chreid na Farasaich an Sgriobtar. Agus cheus iadsan Crìosd. Cha tug iad spèis dhan Chruithear. Dhan Fhacal san robh a h-uile càil a' co-sheasamh. Dhan Dia Bheò. Sin cnag na cùise. Ontaig a' toirt bàrr air teòiric. Sin agad seasamh Dhooyeweerd. Cha bu chòir dhuinn a bhith saoilsinn gur e fìor-bhith a th'anns an eòlas-diadhaireachd. Rud easchruthach beachdail a tha sin. Is e gnìomh teòiriceach neo-fhoirfe daonna a th'ann am mìneachadh an Sgrìobtair. Rud a tha gabhail àite am broinn na h-eanchainne. Chan e rud teòiriceil a th'ann am Facal Dhè, ge-tà. Tha an Sgriobtar, mar gum biodh, ro-theoiriceil. Tha Facal Dhè beò. A' toirt breith air smuaintean is rùintean a' chridhe. Is e an cridhe a' chùis airson Dooyeweerd. Chan e "cridhe" san t-seagh "faireachdainnean" seach "smuaintean". Ach cridhe mar fhacal Sgriobtarail a tha ciallachadh am fìor-phearsa. Am fìor thusa. Am fìor mhise. Thusa agus mise nar tùr-dhoimhneachd phearsanta. Os cionn tìme. Faodaidh beachdan fàs aost agus rag mur eil an cridhe beò:
my greatest fear before i die
is to turn into a borin old fart
all that i can do is keep on playin what's in my 
heart 
heart
heart
("Man from Another Time", Seasick Steve)
Chreid Dooyeweerd gu bheil ar cridhe os cionn tìme. Os-tìmeil. Tha sìorraidheachd sa chridhe (Ecc 3:11). Tha ar cridhe, ar fìor-fhèin, ann an sìorraidheachd an dràsta fhèin. "Leis gach uile dhìcheall glèidh do chridhe; oir as a sin tha sruthan na beatha" (Gnàth-Fhacail 34:23). Gu ìre tha mi tuigsinn Dooyeweerd agus ag aontachadh ris. Ach mar Alan tha teagamh agam nach eil Dooyeweerd a' cur cuideam gu leòr air ùghdarras teacs an Sgriobtair cho math ri dunamis an Sgriobtair. Ach ged a thogas sinn ceistean a-thaobh seasamh Dhooyeweerd air Sgriobtar, tha e iongantach a' bhuaidh a tha air a bhith aige. Air Cornelius Van Til, mar eisimpleir, ged a thuit an dithis seo a-mach thar nam bliadhnachan.
Cornelius Van Til
Tha leabhraichean Van Til dìreach air am foillseachadh as ùr le P&R Publishing. Is e am fear-deasachaidh William Edgar. Faic, mar eisimpleir Diadhachd Rianail Van Til. Bha Francis Schaeffer na oileanach aig Van Til, ged a chaidh e a shlighe fhèin gu ìre mhòr. Tha aiste aig William Edgar mun diofar eadar an dithist seo: "Two Christian Warriors: Cornelius Van Til and Francis A. Schaeffer Compared(ceangal briste).
 
Francis Schaeffer
Thàinig Edgar fhèin gu Crìosd fo bhuaidh Francis Schaeffer agus Hans Rookmaaker aig L'Abri san Eilbheis. Ann an aiste eile air loidhne, tha Edgar ag ràdh:
     "Rookmaaker's lectures at l'Abri...stress the unity of life. In them he defends the Kuyperian approach to a world-and-life view. He reminisces on his discussions with his closest friend, Francis Schaeffer, about Dooyeweerd, recalling that they both profited from his critique enormously but made a conscious effort not to use his difficult terminology. Rookmaaker was deeply critical of pietism. He believed that the great tragedy of modernity was to have split the world into a sacred and a secular realm. He cautioned against Christian attempts at living in a subculture, because that unwittingly supported the same split world."(Why All This?: Rediscovering the witness of Hans RookmaakerWilliam Edgar 2006) 
            
Hans Rookmaaker
Tha Edgar cuideachd ag ràdh a-thaobh Rookmaaker:
     "Several aspects of Rookmaaker's life and thought are particularly worth underscoring. What were his major influences? During World War II, he served in the Dutch navy. He was interned in a prison camp near Nuremberg, then another in Stanislau, doing hard labor. Though not from a believing background, he began to read the Bible upon the recommendation of a friend back home. He became convinced of its truth. He read other books, and wrote papers on prophecy and aesthetics. In prison, he met Captain Johan Pieter Albertus Mekkes, a Christian, who introduced him to the Amsterdam philosophy espoused by Stoker, Vollenhoven, and, especially, Herman Dooyeweerd (1894–1977), whose New Critique of Theoretical Thought revolutionized Rookmaaker's outlook on epistemology and apologetics...      
After the war, Rookmaaker devoted much of his early writing to aesthetic theory based on the Cosmonomic Idea (feallsanachd Dhooyeweerd), which posited that nothing was neutral... Students of Rookmaaker's in the '60s and '70s may not have realized how deeply his thinking was permeated by the Amsterdam philosophy." (Ibid)
Tha William Edgar gu math comasach mar chluicheadair jazz, eg The Christian Roots of Jazz (MP3).

Bha Hans Rookmaaker na Ollamh de Eachdraidh na h-Ealain aig Oilthigh Saor Amstardaim. Ach bha e cuideachd na ùghdarras air jazz agus blues. Tha Edgar ag innse dhuinn:
     "Hans Rookmaaker spoke of the great artistry and authenticity of Victoria Spivey, Texas Alexander, Bumble Bee Slim, Blind Willie Johnson, and a host of other founders of classic black music. Not only was Rookmaaker the European editor of Fontana Record's series, Treasures of North American Negro Music, but he had been to America and met Thomas A. Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson, and Langston Hughes. What was the attraction of jazz to this Dutch art historian? For that is what he was during his professional career. He said it often in his lectures and throughout his writings. It put iron into the blood! Discussing his hero, Joseph "King" Oliver, he compares the New Orleans cornetist's orchestral sounds to the music of J. S. Bach. He finds very similar musical qualities in the baroque polyphony of the Brandenburg Concertos and Oliver's Creole Jazz Band from the 1920s. Not only the technical structure, but the mood and atmosphere are similar. Especially, he finds in both of them joy, true joy, not romantic escape. In stark contrast to Theodor Adorno's attacks on jazz, which found it "unruly," "rebellious," and "emasculating," Rookmaaker describes it as orderly, harmonious, and full of vigor. The opposite of joy for him is happiness, or the escapism of those who look for depth in the tragic and ruinous. And the ultimate source of true joy, whether in jazz or any other human expression, is biblical Christian faith, which Bach and Oliver shared." ("Why All This?: Rediscovering the witness of Hans Rookmaaker, William Edgar 2006). Faic cuideachd an t-aiste seo le Edgar: "Art and the Christian Mind: The Life and Work of H.R. Rookmaaker" (William Edgar 2005)
Agus mu dheireadh an dràsta, seo dhuinn faclan Rookmaaker fhèin a-thaobh Dooyeweerd:
     "In the course of the years [Francis] Schaeffer and I discussed many things, among which philosophy and particularly Dooyeweerd’s philosophy were favourite topics. Dooyeweerd’s ideas have had an influence on Schaeffer and L’Abri in that way. Of course Schaeffer incorporated these ideas in his own thinking and continued on. Neither of us is a slavish pupil of Dooyeweerd. I make quite an effort not to use his difficult terminology, which in a way belonged to the style of the 1930s. So you will not find Dooyeweerd’s vocabulary in our discussions at L’Abri, but his thoughts are there just the same.     Dooyeweerd himself wrote a good and short introduction to his work called [In] The Twilight of Western Thought. In the first part of that book he asks the question how Western thought is to be approached. Is it really Christian and if not, what is it? Escape from Reason is Schaeffer’s version of what Dooyeweerd develops in those chapters. They both talk for instance about nature and grace and about the influence of Greek concepts. Dooyeweerd tries to trace the various ways of thinking in Western history to their starting points. A starting point can be defined as the basic answers that are given to basic questions like: What is the world? Who is God? or What is the source of this world? The answers given to those questions colour the answers that are given to all other questions. The second part of Dooyeweerd’s book deals with a truly Christian approach to reality. Firstly it is basic to such an approach that we begin with a world that is created. Secondly we hold that this world is fallen, it is not perfect. But thirdly we say that this is not the end, there is redemption as Christ came to redeem this world. On the basis of these truths we can try to grasp reality and analyse how this world is made. Dooyeweerd then proceeds to give such an analysis." (Hans Rookmaaker 'A Dutch view of Christian philosophy' The Complete Works of Hans Rookmaaker edited by Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker Vol 6 Part III The L'Abri Lectures. Piquant, 2005)(Faic "Rookmaaker on Dooyeweerd and Schaeffer" air "An Accidental Blog" leis an Dooyeweerdach Steve Bishop.
"never ever go west 
when you know you should be headin south
never ever whisper 
when you know it's time to shout!" 
("Man from Another Time", Seasick Steve)