Saturday, December 12, 2020

1,001 Nights: 18

 

"Old World Landowners" by Nikolai Gogol (story)

We hear the tale of an old serf-owning couple who passed away. They let the serfs eat them out of house and home, the provincial officials steal from the woods from their property, meanwhile the woman of the house does all the work and the husband sits idle. But they love each other and eat a lot and then one day they pass away and there is nothing much left of their estate. What is left is inherited by a distant family member who owns the property but doesn't manage it.

"The Mower's Song" by Andrew Marvell (poem)

The mower cuts the grass, and this cutting down is like the poet feeling cut down in his heartache for his love Julianna.

"The God as Teacher and Savior" by Soren Kierkegaard (essay)

The teacher needs the student as much as the student needs the teacher. The teacher wants his student to learn as much as the student needs to learn. God is such a teacher, but being a god he is no need of anything, yet out of love, he wants his children to learn and grow. Since the teacher-student relationship between God and his children would be intimidating if God presented himself in all his majesty, he comes to us as a servant. This is Kierkegaard's theology.

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