The woman, the dragon, and the child

In yesterday's post I attempted to explain what Jerram Barrs means by "echoes of Eden" as he describes them in his book of the same name. Today I'll attempt to share how he explains the apostle John's use of echoes of Eden in the apocalyptic book Revelation. Tomorrow, I'll follow that up by showing a similar echo of Eden in Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road.

Barrs contends  there is a significant echo of Eden used by John. The apostle, claims Barrs, makes "dramatic use of a legend" (79) in the "highly pictorial and symbolic account of the birth of Jesus and his victory over the Serpent" (79). The vision which Barrs repeats in detail is from Revelation 12:

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days. (Revelation 12:1-6 ESV)

Barr indicates that there are "several aspects of this story that would have been familiar to John's readers from the pagan mythology widely known in their part of the world" (80). Barrs introduces a myth from Greece that was strikingly similar. Zeus and Leto conceive a son and before the child is born the great dragon, Python, threatens to destroy the child when it is born. The sea god, Poseidon, offers the fleeing Leto refuge and Apollo is safely born. Apollo then pursues the dragon Python and slays him. Barrs insists that this "Greco-Roman version of this common myth is the one with which all the people of the churches of Asia Minor would have been familiar" (80). Interestingly, Barrs also notes that the reigning emperor, Domitian, claimed to be the incarnation of Apollos. Barrs is convinced that John's readers would know of this myth and  furthermore, that John intended to use it.

We are left wondering why John, and for that matter God, would use the framework of a pagan myth in Revelation. Barrs answers, "In his recounting of the war in heaven and the hostility of the great dragon to Christ, John is showing that Christ is indeed the fulfillment of any vestige of truth found in the myths of the pagans" (81). He continues, "There is a double element in what John is doing here...On the one hand, he is declaring that Christ is the fulfillment of all the best hopes and longings of paganism...John is also giving them a very serious challenge: Don't turn back again to the myths and stories and idols of paganism. They are not the truth and they have no power to save" (81).

This echo is described earlier by Barrs in very general terms. It is this echo that I will demonstrate, in tomorrow's post, that can be seen in the The Road by Cormac McCarthy. This is how Barrs describes it:

One of the striking elements of much pagan religion is the following story, here presented in summary. There is the hope of the birth of a divine son, a hero, or warrior. There is a declaration of enmity against this divine son and the threat of his destruction at birth. There is heavenly protection provided for the newborn infant. Then the heavenly child defeats his enemy (80).

It is readily apparent how the aforementioned myth of Zeus, Leto, Python, Poseidon, and Apollo matches the pattern Barrs has described. It remains to be seen if The Road contains a similar narrative echo of Eden.

What are the echoes of Eden?

I recently finished reading Echoes of Eden by Jerram Barrs and have found it to be book full of helpful instruction and useful information. As a high school English teacher, this past week I used a couple ideas from the book in an assignment for my grade 12 class. I thought I might share one of the very beneficial and informative concepts from the book.

One of the principal ideas, if not the principal idea, of Barrs' book is expressed in the following quotes:

We turn now from our reflections about the nature of the arts to consider an issue that I think will help us understand the universal appeal of art: its echoes of the truth about the human condition (67). 

All over the world there is a sense that our present life in this world is one of having lost our way from our original dwelling place, a place that was better and more beautiful than the place in which we now live.
All over the world there is the knowledge that our present condition is one of alienation and rebellion, that we are not all we should be, that there is brokenness and tragedy in all of human life.
All over the world there is a longing for this brokenness to be set right, and there is the hope for a redeemer. Some of these elements of the biblical story are present in almost every nation's story about the past (75) 

We might even say that all great literature addresses these issues of creation, fall, and redemption because this is the human condition, and there appears to be a racial memory of these things, or perhaps what Jung called "a collective unconsciousness" that recalls these deep longings and shady recollections of the true story of the origin, dilemma, and hope for our race (79).

What Barrs is suggesting here is that literature, specifically great literature, will contain shadowy, and sometime solid, elements of the true revelation that God has given us. God's gracious outpouring of general revelation as seen by all peoples in can be found in creation, humanity, providence, and God's sovereignty. But Barrs suggests that this general revelation can also be discerned in religion, myths, and legends; and its these in particular that he calls Echoes of Eden. He writes,

This fifth means of God's revelation of himself is the pool of memories within the human race of the truth about our condition: what I am calling here "echoes of Eden." It seems among every people on the face of the earth there is a recollection of the original good creation; there is awareness that the world we now live in is broken and fallen, and there is a recall of the promise and hope of the restoration of what is good. This true knowledge exists sometimes in stronger form, sometimes in weaker, but is always present (74)

Barrs finishes the chapter with an imperative:

Christians today need to be prepared to utilize these echoes of Eden wherever they are found, just as did the apostles Paul and John and the Old Testament prophets. The biblical authors used these echoes because pagan religions did indeed contain memories of the true story of our fall into sin and sorrow, our present plight under the powers of darkness, and the hope for a redeemer (84).

In my next post, I'll indicate how Barrs demonstrates that John the apostle used an echo of Eden in the book of Revelation. Then, I'll attempt to explain one of these echoes as it appears in a wonderful novel by Cormac McCarthy; The Road.

Epic Battle: Dad vs. Cookies

In case you were wondering what was better, chocolate chip cookies or me.

Bavinck on the foundations of theology

"Holy Scripture is the external instrumental efficient cause of theology, and divine revelation also requires the internal illumination of the Holy Spirit. We thus identify three fundamental principles for theology: God is the essential foundation (principium essendi); Scripture is the external cognitive foundation (principium cognoscendi); and the Holy Spirit is the internal principle of knowing (principium cognoscendi internum). The foundations of theology are thus trinitarian: The Father, through the Son as Logos, imparts himself to his creatures in the Spirit." Harman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics

5 aspects of creativity

I have recently finished reading Echoes of Eden: Reflections on Christianity, Literature, and the Arts by Jerram Barrs. It is a wonderfully helpful book discussing issues revolving around literature but also touching upon all the arts. I think it would be very helpful to students, as well as parents who are wary of the arts. Barrs does a masterful job in providing sound reasons for enjoying literature and ways to look at literature to appreciate its value.

Early in the book Barrs considers creativity and how it is interconnected with Christianity. I appreciated the 5  aspects of creativity he puts forward for us to consider as we image God in the creative process:

1. We are to seek to glorify God in all we do.
2. We are designed to find fulfillment for ourselves in using, developing, and expressing the gifts God has so richly given to us.
3. We are to seek to be of benefit to others, so that they may be able to look at what we create and say of it, "It is good." The Christian artist always lives in a community and is called to serve others in the development and expression of the gifts God has given to each one for the blessing of all.
4. In being creative, we fulfill our human design by exercising dominion over the earth.
5. We are called, in all we do, including in our creative work, to set back the boundaries of the fall, to restrain the abnormality of our present human life in its brokenness and sorrow and of our resent world that is under the curse and therefore resists our dominion. (22)

For fear of snickers!

Vern Poythress, in his helpful and heart-strengthening book on harmonization of the Gospels called Inerrancy and the Gospels, develops an interesting discussion on intellectual suffering. Poythress draws attention to these oft-overlooked types of trial and encourages readers to face and overcome them. That being said, he also gives the following well-balanced reminder lest we develop a martyr-syndrome:

I said that I do not depreciate the agonies of intellectual suffering that some people may have gone through. Only God knows the story of each of us. But for the sake of balance I should also note that sometimes we give in to temptation under less violent circumstances. Most of us have not come to the point of being screaming martyrs stretched on the rack or whipped until unconscious (Heb. 12:4). Instead, we give in for fear of snickers! We swallow the propaganda that the Bible is outmoded for fear of being thought foolish or uncool. Or maybe we yield when we face the threat of losing a grade or a diploma (111).

Sonship and Kingship

One of the many interesting discussions in Kingdom Through Covenant deals with man being made in the image of God. This topic gets a lengthy discussion in the book. The authors, of course, interact with the Bible in this regard, but they also deal with the societal context of image during the biblical times. The authors eventually produce a succinct and two-fold concept for what the image of God means:

Genesis 1:26 defines a divine-human relationship with two dimensions, one vertical and one horizontal. First, it defines human ontology in terms of a covenant relationship between God and man, and second, it defines a covenant relationship between man and the earth. The relationship between humans and God is best captured by the term sonship. The relationship between humans and the creation may be expressed by the terms kingship and servanthood, or better, servant kingship.(200)

Thus, imaging God can be described as sonship and servant kingship. And this imaging results in two relationships of significance, our relationship to God and our relationship to creation.

Man is the divine image. As servant king and son of God mankind will mediate God’s rule to the creation in the context of a covenant relationship with God on the one hand and the earth on the other. (201)