From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 40 - The Displaced Person

“They’re all the same…”

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 39 - The Displaced Person

Some horrible transgression is about to be perpetrated on the community….
The fundamental (last) taboo has been broken.

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 38 - The Displaced Person

A hand raised clutching nothing…
Mrs. Shortly had been displaced from all that belonged to her.
The power of the soap opera…the mimetic vortex.
At her death Mrs. Shortly has on her face a look of astonishment as she seems to contemplate for the first time the tremendous frontiers of her true country.
The sacrament of confirmation: a vaccine against the mimetic entanglements.
If we believe our existence derives its legitimacy from the social order we are unwittingly creating the sacrificial setting.

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 37 - The Displaced Person

The crisis of distinctions where everything is mixed up and indistinct.
The Shortly’s departure: “Where we goin’?”
The apocalypse

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 36 - The Displaced Person

Mrs. Shortly’s apocalyptic vision.

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 35 - The Displaced Person

A war of words…a crisis of distinction.

Mrs. Shortly begins reading her Bible and comes to understand that God had created people like her, the ‘strong’ people, to do what needs to be done

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 34 - The Displaced Person

The effects of the Gospel: the moral high ground is occupied either by the victim or the defender of victims.

The Devil (diabolos) and Satan – the one who sows division and the accuser who points out the one responsible for the crisis.

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 33 - The Displaced Person

Myth making…a grand construct designed to justify the repudiation of the sacrificial victim

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 32 - The Displaced Person

Immunity from scandal: “Your place too low for anyone to dispute for it”…at the bottom of the social arrangement

Blessed are the poor in spirit

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 31 - The Displaced Person

“I would suspicion salvation got from the devil….”

A diminished version of Iago…insinuating scandal, sowing discord

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 30 - The Displaced Person

Visions: of the peacock, the Priest, and Mrs. Shortly’s inner vision of refugees flooding in and displacing the Negros.

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 29 - The Displaced Person

The mimetic mind: everything inspires a comparison – one’s own identity is always on the line.
The priest and the peacock.

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 28 - The Displaced Person

The crisis of distinctions & the mimetic mind – living life out of the corner of one’s eye

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 27 - The Displaced Person

The arrival of the the displaced person – Mr. Guizac and his family, a refugee from the death camps in Poland, like Babette a refugee from history.

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 26 - The Displaced Person

Mrs. Shortly and the peacock...and their respective states of consciousness

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 25 - The Displaced Person

Comparing of the central characters of "Babette’s Feast" and "The Displaced Person" continued...

Identity derived from the social order or an identity grounded in a transcendent reality

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 24 - The Displaced Person

Comparison of the central characters in the stories "Babette's Feast" and "The Displaced Person"

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 23 - The Displaced Person

A comparison of the initial images pressented in Dinesens's "Babette's Feast" and O'Connor's "The Displaced Person"

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 22 - Babette's Feast

Babette is the spirit of the church…

The master and the servant become the same person.

Was Babette a Pétroleuses?

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 21 - Babette's Feast

Was it a sacrificial or a sacramental meal?

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 20 - Babette's Feast

“The vain illusions of this earth had dissolved before their eyes like smoke..”

“It costs not less than everything”

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 19 - Babette's Feast

To try to convey a tradition without having been changed by an experience of it is to betray it. Treason and tradition both come from the same root word.

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 18 - Babette's Feast

General Logenhiem’s speech, continued...finite or infinite grace. Mercy and truth, dear brethren, have met together; righteousness and bliss have kissed one another.

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 17 - Babette's Feast

The grapes of Eshcol…providing a foretaste of the promised land is the purpose of the church

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 16 - Babette's Feast

Babette as "liturgist"...directing the course of the meal...manna in the desert

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 15 - Babette's Feast

Turning water into wine, the miracle at Cana...

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 14 - Babette's Feast

Gen. Logenhiem’s anamnesis continued…

“you’ve gotten to the top of the ladder only to find it is leaning on the wrong wall.” - CS Lewis

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 13 - Babette's Feast

The dinner begins with the late dean’s favorite hymn:

“Jerusalem my heart’s true home, your name is forever dear to me, your kindness is second to none, you keep us clothed and fed, never would you a give a stone to a child who begs for bread.”

The world is not a moral but a mystical concern

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 12 - Babette's Feast

The fractious community unites in secret opposition to Babette’s French dinner

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 11 - Babette's Feast

Babette wins 10,000 francs in a ‘godless’ lottery just as the community prepares for the 100th anniversary celebration of their founder's birth – agreeing to let Babette provide the meal

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 10 - Babette's Feast

Passions, memories and longings are the basis for true spiritual depth and vitality - the spirit of the church

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 9 - Babette's Feast

Discipline leads to freedom, repression does not.

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 8 - Babette's Feast

Babette learns to cook split cod and ale and bread soup. The dark Martha came to live with the two bright Marys as the "stone that was almost rejected..."

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 7 - Babette's Feast

Philipa & Achille Papin - continued
Babette arrives, a refuge from history

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 6 - Babette's Feast

Phillipa's lover...

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 5 - Babette's Feast

Sin is seeing my life through other people’s eyes

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 4 - Babette's Feast

Mercy and truth, dear brethren, have met together; righteousness and bliss have kissed one another.

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 3 - Babette's Feast

Setting the scene...an aging sectarian community.

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 2 - Babette's Feast

...living on dried split cod and bread & ale soup
A meager fare.

From the Archives: Crucial Choice Part 1 - Babette's Feast

This excerpt begins a series of talks Gil Bailie gave in 1993 under the title "Crucial Choice - Reflections on Isak Dinesen's 'Babette's Feast' and Flannery O'Connor's 'The Displaced Person' "

Crucial Choice coming in 2013

Starting in early January I will be posting excerpts from a series of talks Gil Bailie gave in the 1990's entitled the "Crucial Choice". The first part of this series will focus on the Isak Dinesen story/film "Babette's Feast". The following paragraph from an article in the Journal of Religion and Film, 'Kierkegaard at Babette's Feast: The Return to the Finite', by Jean Schuler (http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/kierkega.htm) makes a point that was proposed yesterday on Gil's Facebook page about the scope of human desire that fits nicely here:

Babette's Feast achieves what Kierkegaard treated as impossible: to make the hidden movements of faith visible. A film about goodness threatens to bore its audience; a film about holiness that manages to get it right would seem to be as impossible as roses blooming in December or sitting down to a banquet fit for kings in a Jutland cottage. The usual ways of analyzing character and plot don't size up the elderly sisters who move with such grace through the quiet grays and browns of the village. A modern critic might insist: these daughters were controlled by a powerful father fixation. What a waste to have never experienced romantic love or the flowering of their talents! To try on a psychological analysis is to realize somewhat ruefully that it doesn't quite fit. Freedom, sorrow, and also joy hang together in this delicate balance. This wisdom does not belong to the stoic who trims desires to match the situation and remains tranquil at all costs. Here desire, like fine sauce, bubbles loudly; we aren't about to quench desire or diminish its searing effects in our lives. In Babette's kitchen, we hesitantly sit down to feast holding close to the promise of Psalm 85 quoted throughout the film: "Mercy and truth shall meet. Righteousness and bliss shall kiss."

A René Girard Christmas Card...

courtesy of National Review Online - Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson...René Girard (born December 25, 1923)

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 194

They returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the Temple blessing God.
Leaving behind the old sacred system but only under the impulse of a religious prompting.

There’s no way out.
you were born to waste your life,
You were born to this middle class life
As others before you were born to walk in procession
To the temple
Singing

Louis Simpson

NOTE: This is the final excerpt from the Poetry of Truth series. Beginning in January we will start a new series of excerpts from a presentation Gil Bailie made in 1993 entitled "Crucial Choice" focusing on stories by Isak Dinesen, "Babette's Feast", and Flannery O'Connor, "The Displaced Person".

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 193

The resurrection of the body.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 192

The Emmaus Road story continued..."were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the way?"
"...that same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem...they found the disciples gathered in one place."

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 191

The Emmaus Road story continued...the experience of the crucifixion of Jesus from the disciple's perspective. And then Luke's story of how the early church interpreted the cross in the pattern of the liturgy.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 190

The Emmaus Road story continued...the disciples stood still looking sad.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 189

On the road to Emmaus...

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 188

Another Simon who goes to find out what really happened...in William Golding's Lord of the Flies.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 187

Simon Peter running to the tomb. He wants to find out what really happened. An example of moral empiricism.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 186

Gathering and scattering revisited...the women at the tomb.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 185

Going back to the tomb. "Death, where is thy sting?"

Creating sacrality out of the most numinous thing around…death. The scandal of the cross.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 184

“Vampire novelist Ann Rice launched her new book by dressing up in a bridal gown and lying in coffin in a New Orleans cemetery…”

Our fascination with death is symptomatic of our abandonment of the Biblical revelation.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 183

“Rapture and terror bound by blood…” a review of a movie based on Ann Rice’s novel. Our culture is increasingly ‘in the business of death…’

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 182

Secularization…breakdown of conventional cultural morality. The empty tomb and the cult of death. Ann Rice’s book: Interview with the Vampire . In some sense every culture is a cult of death

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 181

If the Cross represents the decisive beginning of the descralization of our world, will the result be simply secularization?

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 180

The empty tomb...all culture begins at the tomb. The corpse is the gathering apex of conventional culture.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 179

Eric Gans continued...a different approach to Girard's mimetic desire

An abortive gesture of appropriation...the crowd reaching out to take the body of their victim.

Prestige is nothing but mimetic contagion focused on one object

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 178

An anthropological understanding of 'gathering and scattering' courtesy of Eric Gans

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 177

Gathering and scattering continued..."but all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things..."

Simone Weil - attentiveness & prayer

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 176

Gathering and scattering continued...the parable of the lost sheep

A new kind of gathering.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 175

Gathering and scattering continued...a parenthesis into the Gospel of John:

Caiaphas says, "It is to your advantage that one die rather than the whole nation should perish." And the writer of John's Gospel adds, "He did not say this on his own but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one." John 11:49-52

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 174

The effects of the Gospel continued: gathering and scattering.

Myth veils sacred violence so as to hide its morally troubling aspects. Myth tricks violence into spending itself on victims whose death will provoke no reprisals. To avenge a death is to reenter the sacrificial system

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 173

The effects of the Gospel continued: the ethics of war...mythologizing of violence

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 172

The effects of the Gospel revelation: gathering and scattering. There is a race between the message of the Gospel (gathering) and the effects of the Gospel (scattering). An example from the news of 1995

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 171

This excerpt begins the final tape in the Poetry of Truth series. Gil Bailie reviews with emphasis the theme of 'gathering & scattering' from the end of prior tape.
"The crowds who had gathered for the spectacle went away beating their breasts..."

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 170

"Surely this was an innocent man." a Roman Centurion.
The crowd that had gathered for the spectacle went away beating their breasts...now scattered.
Those who had followed him from Galilee including the women stood at a distance watching these things.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 169

The crucifixion.
"Father forgive them for they know not what they do." The definition of human ignorance, of human 'not knowing'.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 168

"If they do this when the wood is green...what will happen when the wood is dry?"

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 167

Two "sons of the father", Jesus - son of the Father of self-donating love and Barabbas - son of the father of sacrificial violence.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 166

Pilate interrogates Jesus. Capitulating to the demand of the crowd he frees Barabbas.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 165

Jesus judged by his accusers. But in fact it is Jesus who is the judge. Starting from this point all of history will be judged by how people respond to this revelation, the revelation of the cross.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 164

Peter around the fire in the courtyard where Jesus is being interrogated…while he was speaking in denial of Jesus, the cock crowed, and the Lord looked at him.
He remembered the word of the Lord and went out and wept bitterly.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 163

In the couryard of the High Priest Peter gathers with the crowd around the fire. And a servant girl recognizes Peter…sees him in the fire light.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 162

Suffering and death – cannot separate Jesus from his relationship with his Father

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 161

The Passion...Jesus is handed over.
The betrayal with a kiss...but love is stronger than death.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 160

At the Mount of Olives...the agony in the garden. Jesus' prayer, "Not my will, but your will be done."
Sweat mixed with blood...the temptation to bypass the cross and forsake his mission.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 159

Arm yourselves…be ready! Are two swords enough?

Correction to Previous Post

A kind and attentive follower of this blog informed us of a duplicate audio track in the posting of Parts 152 and 153 of the Poetry of Truth series. We have corrected this error and have updated the audio track on Part 152 posted on 9/29/12.

Thanks again to all who follow these excerpted posts. We hope you find them helpful.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 158

Jesus' mission is understood in retrospect...no one 'gets it' until after the fact.
Jesus says to Peter, "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 157

Jesus goes to the cross with his whole mission in shambles...

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 156

In the upper room: after Jesus has shown the disciples how to break and give away their lives...a dispute arose as to who among them was the greatest.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 155

The breaking of the bread...Jesus tries one last time to get across to the disciples what they need to come through the experience of his crucifixion and death (and their scattering) so that they may come back together (gathering) at the resurrection.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 154

Preparing for the Passover meal - the upper room - the last supper ending in total failure...

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 153

Luke ch 22 - "Now the time of the Passover was approaching and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus..."

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 152

Everything is there in the cross...it teaches us how to lay down our lives so that given life by God we may give life to others in turn. This is a mysterious bond between one another and God.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 151

The locale of the 'scene of the crime' - in the 1st century Roman world crucifixion was reserved for the worst criminals. And in Jewish understanding anyone executed by 'hanging on a tree' (Deut 21) was considered accursed by God.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 150

 



Notes from the scene of the crime...book by Danish archeologist P. V. Glob- The ‘Bog People’

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 149

The love or the wrath of God?
"How could we have possibly understood God as love without the cross?" Hans Urs Von Balthasar

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 148

Taking away the sin of the world...the cross is the place Jesus went to take away the sin of the world.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 147

Speaking about the crucifixion..."to speak without breaking the silence" Thomas Merton
Who was it that got crucified?

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 146

When you see these things taking place (the heavens and the earth being shaken) stand up and lift up your heads for your redemption draws near - Lk 21:28….by your endurance you will gain your souls Lk 21:19

This endurance is an act, a commitment. It is a form the imitation of Christ.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 145

The parable of the fig tree - the Kingdom breaking in on human history

Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away

Panic – reconstituting the old sacrificial system around the latest ‘victim’ – finding and victimizing the latest victim’s victimizers

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 144

A digression from Luke's apocalyptic discourse...2 Thessalonians ch 2: the 'Katechon' - restraining the 'Lawless One'
Hobbes' Leviathan - the power of the state
Carl Schmidt

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 143

These are the days of vengence...endless cycles of reciprocal violence.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 142

But before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecuted you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors and all on account of my name.

Luke 21:12

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 141

Realized eschatology

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 140

Realized eschatology...apocalypse occurring in events in the present, not just at some future date.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 139

Luke's apocalypic themes and eschatological vision.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 138

Gil Bailie’s interpretation of Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. What is going on in history?