Substitutes for God

Thank you, Lia, for setting up the blog. I hope all will contribute as and when the inspiration strikes.

I propose that we sign our posts. . .

Mark Van Doren has an essay entitled "Substitutes for God" in which he quotes Henshaw Ward to the effect that God has been made to disappear "beneath a heap of definitions, a universe of words." There follows this arresting sentence:"Scientists, sociologists, professors of divinity and liberal clergymen had conspired, no doubt unwillingly, to convert god into a theory, and so to remove him forever from our modst, since theories are neither true nor untrue but merely everlastingly discussable."

From The Mark Van Doren Reader (1942), pp. 29-30.

Please check out the Best American Poetry web site - and blog. From February 7 through the 15th (and possibly longer), a different guest blogger is at it every day. See http://www.bestamericanpoetry.com/

-- DL

Source of Inspiration

"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life: and man became a living soul" (Gen. 2:7, KJV). 

I thought it might be appropriate to inaugurate this blog with a post on the word inspiration.  As we discussed the above passage in class, I thought of how the idea of breath corresponds to creative impetus, which connects me to the definition of inspiration as breath.  

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the literal (physical) senses of inspiration are:

the action of blowing on or into;

the action, or an act, of breathing in or inhaling; the drawing in of the breath into the lungs in respiration (Opp. to expiration);

a drawing in of air; the absorption of air in the 'respiration' of plants.

The figurative sense are:

a breathing in or infusion of some idea, purpose, etc. into the mind; the suggestion, awakening, or creation of some feeling or impulse, esp. of an exalted kind;

the suggestion or prompting(from some influential quarter) of the utterance or publication of particular views of information on some public matter;

something inspired or infused into the mind; an inspired utterance of product.

I think this relevant piece of the literal definition adds yet another layer to our understanding:

the action of inspiring; the fact or condition of being inspired; a breathing or infusion into the mind or soul. (Theol. etc.) A special immediate action or influence of the Spirit of God (or of some divinity or supernatural being) upon the human mind or soul; said esp. of that divine influence under which the books of Scripture are held to have been written.

(The last entry is the oldest dating back to 1303 AD.)

*There are similar concepts regarding breath, life energy, and inspiration in many other belief systems.  A couple that cross my mind are prana in Hinduism and qi in Taoism.

Feel free to investigate. (Click on the title for the O.E.D)