A Guest Post from Chris Calderon!

Liturgy and Literature: an idea on Mythopoeia and the Nature and Origin of Story in relation to St. John

In his excellent book Planet Narnia, Michael Ward talked briefly about a theologian named Austin Farrer, who was an acquaintance of Lewis and Tolkien, and even mentioned a book he wrote, A Rebirth of Images, the Making of St. John’s Apocalypse. What Farrer wrote is really an exposition of both the layout and the philosophy behind the most controversial book in the Bible, Revelation. For many Christians just the mention of that name is all it takes to fill a whole room with uncomfortable looks, and they’re not alone. In fact, there is a rumor the early churches debated about whether it should ever even be in the Good Book. If any of it is true, thank Goodness sense prevailed.

Farrer’s book is the kind of tome you love to get a headache from. It is both frustrating in the extreme, and yet it rewards you for paying attention. Part of this has to do with Farrer’s subject matter (how could a theology of Revelations not be difficult?) and partly through his roundabout elliptical style of writing that winds round itself like a Ouroborus swallowing its own tail. Nonetheless, if the reader trudges on, and is very perceptive, perhaps some interesting ideas contained in St. John’s Revelation begin to show themselves, such as the apostle’s use of planetary symbolism, the intriguing suggestion that he is presenting a “Sacred Diagram” of the universe, and the possibility that we are presented with at least one of the possible origins of Western Literature as we know it.

The best place to start is from Farrer’s follow up to Images with a quote from page 44 of his The Revelation of St. John the Divine: Commentary on the English Text, which is given in full (italics mine): [Read more…]