Submicroscopic Particles and History

BEYOND FRAGMENTATION AND SUBMICROSCOPIC PARTICLES

Trying to find the actual Jesus is like trying, in atomic physics, to locate a submicroscopic particle and determine its charge. The particle can not be seen directly.......history is more complex than physics...the intervention of unknown factors has to be allowed for. -Morton Smith in The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant, John Dominic Crossan, Harper San Francisco, 1992, p.xxvii.

.....the hearers require to be roused rather than instructed, in order that they may be diligent to do what they already know, and to bring their feelings into harmony with the truths they admit, greater vigour of speech is needed. -St. Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, quoted in “The Literature of Interpretation”, World Order, Vol.7, No.2, p.12.

.....readers of this prose-poem will find that I believe Christ has returned. On that provocative note I submit the following poem inspired by what for me is a very real--reality.-Ron Price, Pioneering Over Four Epochs, July 1st, 2004.

We’ve got a picture of this new God-man,
thanks to our sharpened perception,
the unequaled significance of that exegisis,
that grand design, that crucible of interpretation,
that superlative power of definition,
tending to establish a reign of love,
beyond the snares and pitfalls of obscurity
and that plurality of meanings
that leads to inevitable fragmentation
which is the theological world we live in.

Directing and guiding, forging,
through our transformation,
a new community,
building an instrument,
not just sheer argument,
no special pride of authorship,
oriented to action,
evolving with his community,
expounding knowledge,
arousing response,
heightening horizons,
intensifying visions,
giving meaning to history
and the future
with a masterly grasp
of a rich vocabulary
like some distillation of ancient
classical virtues, crackling for us--
and them.

Ron Price
23 December 1996