The New Book: And Other Theologies

By Jonathan Bratt Carle

In The New Book, poet and theologian Jonathan Bratt Carle explores the significance of Christian mysticism as it pertains to belief in a Divine Being and the aspects of human awareness which transcend time and space. Is the universe a creation? If so, are human beings loved? If so, can this love heal us … transform us? To what end? Drawing on imagery from classic Christian mystics and thinkers such as Emily Dickinson, C. S. Lewis, and Fr. Thomas Keating, the author wrestles with his own meditative experience of the reality of God and the necessity of reconciling that reality with our human ways of being in the world. These poems invite the reader into their own reflections, hoping that paths may open toward new revelation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Apr 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9781666752571

Jonathan Bratt Carle

Jonathan Bratt Carle serves as a hospice chaplain in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Prior to this he enjoyed many years of parish ministry, having completed his theological training at Vanderbilt Divinity School in 2015. Jonathan is married to Jessica, and they have two boys, Elliott and Ian.

Book preview

THE NEW BOOK

And Other Theologies

JONATHAN BRATT CARLE

THE NEW BOOK

And Other Theologies

Copyright © 2023 Jonathan Bratt Carle. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

Resource Publications

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

Eugene, OR 97401

www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-6667-5255-7

hardcover isbn: 978-1-6667-5256-4

ebook isbn: 978-1-6667-5257-1

version number 021323

Cover Art: Homeless Jesus Sculpture in bronze by Timothy Schmalz. Photograph by the artist © 2012 Timothy P. Schmalz.

New Revised Standard Version Bible copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.

THE POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1951, 1955 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © renewed 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © 1914, 1918, 1919, 1924, 1929, 1930, 1932, 1935, 1937, 1942, by Martha Dickinson Bianchi. Copyright © 1952, 1957, 1958, 1963, 1965, by Mary L. Hampson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

TITLE PAGE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

LEARNING OUR MOTHER TONGUE

KEATING’S GIST

LEAVING THE CONFINES OF COMFORT

THE NEW BOOK

THE FRIEND

INFINITUDE

NYSSA IN DARKNESS

ON OUR WAY TO DAMASCUS

CUTTING FOR STONE

THE GREAT ACT OF WEEPING

LOVE SONG

EPHREM’S PARADOX

CRÉPUSCULE

DOXOLOGY

PERELANDRA

TRANSIT

OREMUS

ADVENT COMMUNION

ODE FOR BLUE CHRISTMAS

NO RETURN TO EDEN

NATIVITY

TRIDUUM

THE CHTHONIC VOICE

WHAT OF MIRACLES

SILENCE AND HER SONG

RETURN TO SENDER

KERYGMA

SPEM RESURRECTIONIS

THE IHIDAYA

APPENDIX

To Barbara, Larry,

Billy, Brad, and Mike

. . . leaving the confines of comfort.

Elohim loved creation so much,

He became the Ihidaya…

The Good News

John 3:16

Acknowledgements

This book exists because certain people took generous notice of me and encouraged the gifts they observed. Each shaped my aesthetic sensibilities in unique ways, and their influence bore fruit as I have explored how my spiritual life translates to the written word. Every person named herein remains indispensable to me. Nevertheless, the most enduring presence is that of my parents, David and Nancy, who taught me to love the music and the meaning of words. With them, my brother, Loren, inspired me from a young age with an appreciation for the power of ideas, proving sometimes at great sacrifice that to care about justice will make you an outlier.

Other indispensable personalities include David Lowes Watson, whose curious love and constant prayers shepherded me to the realization of a call to Holy Orders; and M. Douglas Meeks, who pushed me to become a real theologian, rather than a hack with an opinion; and Victor Judge, who graciously taught me how to write in English; and Blair Meeks, who always agreed to scrutinize my poems; and Mike Potter, who first led me into the beauty of silence; and John Kirkman, whose last ministry was to set me free from doubt; and Mike Wernick, who told me I could do this; and Bob Hundley, who supported me even in disappointment; and Esther Yff-Prins, who reminded me that to be silent means to listen; and—by no means least—Gayle Turner Watson, who blessed the marriage I share with Jessica, the personification of divine providence in my life.

Finally, I must thank our children, Elliott and Ian. You will read this someday, and I want you to know that your insistent, unencumbered love and your innocent joy made my heart sing in the midst of many troubles.

Thank you, each one. Peace be upon you.

Preface

It seems impertinent to introduce poetry—remarkable for its economy of words—with the verbosity of prose, yet it serves to illumine the gesture at hand. These poems probe the questions of divinity and humanity, and our anxiety about origins and endings. Do humans live and die in the presence of divinity, for instance, or as random particles strung together inconceivably from nothing and returning hence? Begging such questions during and after silence gives rise to the present volume. In some way, each poem narrates an experience of the startling revelation that divinity does exist, and that I have come to know this