Revival's Over

No recollection this morning, because Mary was up and accused me of stealing all the covers. It's funny, and it shows what part of my brain is engaged when I pray the Psalms in the morning. If I have to interact conversationally, I don't remember. If I'm meditating on a phrase or a verse, I still might. But no dream recollection today.

Our revival preacher, Chris Micheal, was phenomenal. His preaching style is quite reminiscent of Will Willimon's and last night he went on a tangent that actually led back into his central image! It's so rare that I hear a crafted sermon, I always appreciate the ones I hear, and Chris delivered four works of art this week. Perhaps they're special "traveling revival" sermons, and perhaps his normal week-to-week work isn't anything like it, but I don't know, and I don't care. This week has been great.

I've got one chapter plus the epilogue left in Tracy's book. I don't know why people hadn't been reading this guy at Emmanuel--his work is great for integrating all the kinds of things that Emmanuel folks tend to be interested in. I finally got to the part in which he lines out what "Analogical Imagination" is, and it's great. Basically, in an intellectual context that will not allow an easy denial of otherness, analogies are the best way to connect between two story-selves. No ontological category is assumed for both participants to fit into; instead, each conversation partner's categories are left intact, and the work of connection involves imagining analogous experiences and symbolic moves and those sorts of things between people. I've not articulated that entirely well, and the book is sitting next to Mary, who is sleeping, in complete darkness, so I'm not going to go get it. But all the same, I have a hunch this book is going to join the hall of great theology books in my story.