NY Times: ‘Christianity Can Make Suffering Sacred’
New York Times Op-Ed: ‘There Was Love, and Then There Was Suffering’: by Peter Wehner (Trinity Forum):
A Q&A With Christian Wiman (Yale):
Christian Wiman is both a magnificent poet and one of the foremost poets of the Christian faith. For 10 years he edited Poetry magazine. Now at Yale Divinity School, he is the author, editor or translator of more than 15 books, including “My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer,” a modern classic of religious reflection.
I spoke to Mr. Wiman about his journey from faith to atheism and back; about living with an incurable cancer and being on the verge of death more than once; and about why, after the “animal terror” he felt when he was first told of his diagnosis more than 20 years ago, he no longer fears death. He talked about how, in the midst of great suffering, he experienced the presence of God. In his words, “the world was lit up.”
Mr. Wiman talked about why poetry is an integral part of his life, about the relationship between his poetry and his faith and why art is better at theology than theology is. He spoke about awe and joy, why certitude can cause God to flee and why the crucifixion of Jesus has so much meaning in his own life. He admitted to me that he’s never heard a convincing explanation for why a good God allows the innocent to suffer. And while he acknowledged being tired and longing for a sense of rest, he talked openly about his intense hunger for God. …
Fundamentals …
Wehner: In an interview several years ago, you said, “There is something in Christianity that makes suffering sacred. It does give a meaning to suffering, even when we can’t understand it.
The Biodiversity Heritage Library
The Guardian: “”Over the past 20 years, more than 64m pages have been made freely available through the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) – a digital treasure trove for fans of the natural world. More than 680 museums, universities, libraries and scientific institutions from China, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand to Europe, Africa, Mexico, Canada and the US, have contributed to the library. This week, a report from Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG),
Kew revealed the crucial role digitisation is playing in “transforming our ability to understand and respond to the climate and biodiversity crises”, but it was the creation of the BHL 20 years ago that first demonstrated how bringing centuries of scientific knowledge online can unlock transformative discoveries and insights about the natural world. David Iggulden, who chairs the BHL executive committee alongside his job as head of data and digital, library and archives at RBG Kew, describes the library as an invaluable and “absolutely essential” resource for scientists in the field.
But it is also used by scientific researchers, environmental historians, educators, art historians, artists, citizen scientists and members of the public who – like Iggulden – simply enjoy browsing its contents on a rainy weekend. “I just get caught up in it sometimes, looking at the various collections,” he says. “I think it’s amazing that we can explore such a vast array of different collections from very different institutions.”
As well as published biodiversity literature and journals, there are letters, illustrations, climate records, field diaries, ecosystem profiles, distribution records and manuscripts containing the original collecting stories of a particular species or detailing voyages of discovery…”
