{"id":89,"date":"2005-05-11T06:44:00","date_gmt":"2005-05-11T06:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2005\/05\/meet-pastor-john-ames.html"},"modified":"2005-05-11T06:44:00","modified_gmt":"2005-05-11T06:44:00","slug":"meet-pastor-john-ames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2005\/05\/meet-pastor-john-ames.html","title":{"rendered":"Meet Pastor John Ames"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div>\n<p>I suggested yesterday that Marilynne Robinson&#8217;s <span style=\"font-style:italic\">Gilead<\/span> expresses deep themes that find expression also among the Emergent folk, and I&#8217;d like to record here one of those comments. It comes near the end of the book, when Pastor John Ames is about to sign off (which he never does, which too is a bit postmodern). He ruminates on human nature in the following words.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style:italic\">There are two occasions when the sacred beauty of Creation becomes dazzlingly apparent,and they occur together. One is when we feel our mortal insufficiency to the world,and the other is when we feel the world\u2019s mortal insufficiency to us. Theologians talk about prevenient grace that precedes grace itself and allows us to accept it. I think there must also be a prevenient courage that allows us to be brave \u2013 that is, to acknowledge that there is more beauty than our eyes can bear,that previous things have been put into our hands and to do nothing to honor them is do great harm.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Marilynne Robinson,<br \/>\u201cPastor John Ames,\u201d<br \/><span style=\"font-style:italic\">Gilead<\/span>, 245, 246.<\/p>\n<p>There it is: the <span style=\"font-style:italic\">Eikon<\/span> of God sensing both insufficient in God&#8217;s glorious world because the <span style=\"font-style:italic\">Eikon<\/span> is cracked, and the <span style=\"font-style:italic\">Eikon<\/span> knowing (deep inside) that what lies within is even more glorious when restored. The responsibility of <span style=\"font-style:italic\">Eikons<\/span> is to reflect God&#8217;s glory and to govern God&#8217;s good world.<\/p>\n<p>I suggested in <span style=\"font-style:italic\">The Jesus Creed<\/span>, in the chapter on the transfiguration of Jesus, that what we see in Jesus&#8217; transfiguration is as much about who we will be someday as it is about Jesus&#8217; inner nature. What I was getting at there is said better by Pastor John Ames. Iowans have a way with words, you know.<\/p>\n<div style=\"clear:both;padding-bottom: 0.25em\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I suggested yesterday that Marilynne Robinson&#8217;s Gilead expresses deep themes that find expression also among the Emergent folk, and I&#8217;d like to record here one of those comments. It comes near the end of the book, when Pastor John Ames is about to sign off (which he never does, which too is a bit postmodern).&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Meet Pastor John Ames - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2005\/05\/meet-pastor-john-ames.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet Pastor John Ames - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I suggested yesterday that Marilynne Robinson&#8217;s Gilead expresses deep themes that find expression also among the Emergent folk, and I&#8217;d like to record here one of those comments. It comes near the end of the book, when Pastor John Ames is about to sign off (which he never does, which too is a bit postmodern).&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2005\/05\/meet-pastor-john-ames.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-05-11T06:44:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"xscot mcknight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Meet Pastor John Ames - Jesus Creed","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2005\/05\/meet-pastor-john-ames.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Meet Pastor John Ames - Jesus Creed","og_description":"I suggested yesterday that Marilynne Robinson&#8217;s Gilead expresses deep themes that find expression also among the Emergent folk, and I&#8217;d like to record here one of those comments. 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