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Wonderful Suffering
No full textWhen I began the MFA program at the Sewanee School of Letters, I wasn’t sure which genre I would write in, but I knew what story I wanted to tell. I was struggling through the onset of Bipolar II as a college sophomore when I learned of Robert Schumann’s mental illness and his wife’s close and lasting friendship with their friend and fellow-composer Johannes Brahms. While I am only an amateur choral singer, my
grandmother played the piano well, and she especially liked Schumann. The spring I entered the Schumanns’ circle, my grandmother bought a piano to replace the one her husband had sold to a drinking buddy, saying “Nobody plays this old thing.” She grieved when he died, when I was six, but she took great pleasure in returning to music and played “Traumerei” from Schumann’s Carnaval and “Claire de Lune” over and over well into her 80s. Both of my grandmother’s children, my mother and uncle, had serious mental health problems, like Clara Schumann’s husband and son, and this parallel led me to explore the intersections between artistic creativity, romantic love, and mental illness
in my own life. Deeply affected by the bipolar psychiatrist Kay Redfield Jamison’s Touched With Fire, a study of bipolar illness and the artistic temperament, and Setting the River on Fire her clinical biography of Robert Lowell, I wanted to bring the historical and personal together in a cycle of poems inspired by the letters, compositions, household books, and flower diaries of Clara and Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms. As my research deepened each summer, certain questions arose again and again. Does compulsive attention to a particular form, such as fugue, for Robert Schumann, or iambic pentameter for Lowell, exacerbate or help mental illness? What are the demands on the mind and the
body of indulging the connection to something beyond daily life? What is the cost of a life that seeks to do more than live, and how is that cost born by the body, the mind, and the family of the artist? I draw consolation from Clara’s exacting standards, from her resolution not to compromise, and I hoped to write my way into some of the strength that allowed her to endure the deaths of her husband and three of her children, the depression and chronic pain she suffered as she persevered to perform hundreds of the finest piano performances of her time.
My advisor Nickole Brown introduced us to a set of habits around observation and composition that will likely be the most lasting effect of the program. We read longer, looser poems by Larry Levis and Ross Gay that documented the poets’ lived experience and impressions of their immediate surroundings and practiced imitations of their work. I found this very difficult, partly because, like many mentally ill people, my
outer senses are often dull or inaccurate. Cultivating habits of attentiveness and gratitude led me to a fuller understanding of what poetry could do. Imitating Nick Flynn’s poems in Some Ether about his mother’s mental illness and suicide offered opportunities to approach similar content from my own experience. The next summer, our workshop group walked on moss with our eyes closed, listened to music, free wrote at length, and read, among others, Patricia Smith, whose use of form explored traumatic, shared memory in Blood Dazzler. I was also inspired by
Natasha Trethewey’s illumination of the experience of a mixed-race sex worker in New Orleans at the turn of the century in Bellocq’s Ophelia. Clara Schumann described her career as a virtuoso as an obligation to her own talent, but quit composing in midlife, after writing 70 compositions, because she “had not known a woman to do it.” Hadn’t she done it herself? Perhaps that wasn’t enough. Between summer sessions, I began to study German for reading knowledge and dug deeper into biographical details the broader record obscured, including the birth of a daughter to Schumann by a domestic worker, and Clara Schumann’s awareness of this relationship. I listened to the music of all three composers constantly, particularly Helene Grimaud’s recording of Brahms’ first piano concerto, which Clara Schumann performed three times in her life, despite the damage the technically demanding piece did to her hands and arms. I read Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain and Joseph and his Brothers in English and practiced my own translations of Rilke, Heine, and Holderlin poems the composers had set to music. I had studied German Romanticism in a previous graduate program and returned to the works of Jean Paul and Novalis to understand the
intellectual context for the Schumann’s relationship with Brahms, whom Schumann entrusted with his considerable library. Many of these works emphasize the significance of “pure” music that does not tell a story or draw on historical or personal content, but rather transports the artist and the listener to a realm beyond that of earthly experience. In search of further assistance in structuring my work, I turned to Jessica Jacobs’ Pelvis with Distance, a biography-in-poems of Georgia O’Keefe’s relationship with Alfred Stieglitz supported by a frame narrative charting the author’s personal and creative investment in the project. In a telephone conversation, Jacobs emphasized the poet’s
responsibility to create and manage an experience for the reader, something she manages in Pelvis with Distance through controlling the balance of pieces in each voice or perspective and allowing extracts of the O’Keefe correspondence to stand alone as found poems. As a result, I winnowed down my many epigraphs and quotations to focus on the Brahms-Clara letters and imposed a three-part structure modeled on the form of the first piano concerto
The Pitch of a Woman's Voice: Paradigms in Preaching and Power
No full textThis project focuses primarily on the voices of female preachers. The interest arose from personal experiences as a woman whose voice has been challenged and questioned as well as encouraged and sustained both within the life of the church and in the world-at- large. The timing of this project is important in light of the ways in which women’s voices continue to be opposed, oppressed, or silenced. This project discusses the use of language in sermons as well as how the absence of certain language benefits preachers and listeners alike. Because the Women’s Movement and Feminist Theology overlooked the additional challenges faced by women of color, the writings of Womanist Theologians and preachers are included. This is followed by considering the metaphor of ‘voice.’ The project offers ‘real-life’ experiences of a group of diverse women preachers as they undertake using their voices in varied settings. Their generosity extends to offering examples of their own sermons for our edification and inspiration. This work provides preachers serving in a variety of ministry settings an overview of the still- unfolding theological reflections of women as well as guidance on applying feminist and womanist theology to the process of sermon-writing. An overarching goal is to encourage preachers, particularly women, to find and use their voices for the benefit of all of God’s people. An appendix is provided for those desiring to read more about the relationships between gender, patriarchy, and power, and the contributions made by feminist theologians past and present.Rev. David Star
In defense of the development of Augustine's doctrine of grace
Get PDFAugustine contributed to Christian thought with some pivotal works that have developed Christian doctrine. His works continue to be relevant today in theology and Christian practice. He responded to some of the main controversies the Catholic Church faced in the fourth and fifth centuries on the doctrine of Trinity, Christology, and Grace. He believed that only the grace of God can bridge the chasm that sin creates between the Creator and creatures. Only grace can usher believers into God’s salvation. He also claimed that those to whom God chooses to give grace, God does so despite their power to resist. Pelagius and his followers, on the other hand, arguably misinterpreted Augustine’s doctrine of grace especially on the aspect of original sin; so Pelagius therefore denied the efficacy of baptism. He also claimed that Augustine denied the existence of free will in humans and that he held that free will was destroyed by sin, and thus free will was incompatible with Augustine’s doctrine of grace. He also accused Augustine of being a Manichean because of his doctrine of concupiscence. On the contrary to Pelagius, Augustine advanced the view that humans lost their free will only when Adam sinned. He, therefore, emphasized the believer’s restoration in Christ and the need for the grace of Christ. Therefore, the point of this project is to examine Augustine’s doctrine of grace including its development and key tenets. The analysis includes Pelagius’ criticism and its effect on the development of Augustine’s arguments on free will and efficacy of grace. Before its conclusion, Augustine’s response to Pelagius and his proponents becomes key in the project.Rev. Dr. Robert MacSwai
Like a tree planted by streams: A Christian mandate for placedness
Get PDFTrees find strength in being rooted. Do humans need similar stability and placedness? This thesis explores the questions: “Is there a mandate for being placed?” and if so, “What is the impact on the local church?” In the transient, unrooted culture of the USA, the concept of place is easily lost. Individuals and whole communities are detached and disconnected. In this thesis, place will be explored through the lenses of Christian scripture, Christian theology, and social and environmental sciences. The final chapter will then explore the impact of placedness for the local church. In the first chapter, I will look at the biblical mandate for placedness, mainly focusing on the Hebrew Scriptures. The second chapter will address a theological mandate, with an emphasis on sacramental theology. The third chapter will look at the mandate for place that informs some secular studies , mainly in the fields of social sciences and environmentalism. The last chapter will then address how the local church can intentionally seek the sense of place, or placedness, that is mandated by these different studies.Dr. Andrew Thompso
Searches for Truth in the Age of Lies
No full textAs rapidly as technology has spurred the creation, assimilation, and distribution of information, so too have Americans grown more polarized, more apt to choose ideology over facts, and more resistant to constructive dialogue. The speed and volume of our consumption have accelerated as well, with our preference of food, entertainment, and news all at our algorithmic beck and call. With this transactional mindset, we’ve begun to commoditize the ways we learn, interact, and relate to others. More and more we express value in dollar terms, instead of appreciating factuality, historical significance, or beauty. The more I considered and grew frustrated by these social patterns, the more I thought
about the underlying problem—the irrational avoidance of truth. Anything that conflicts with our preferences we’ve come to call “fake.” Painful realities nonetheless exist. Sometimes we don’t win, sometimes others get what we want, sometimes our self interest negatively impacts others. But we don’t want to accept anything that conflicts with how we want the world to be, so we disregard the truth, or assault it altogether, en route to solidifying misguided opinions. What’s worse, we act on that misinformation by voting with our ballots and our dollars in ways that often run counter to our own best interest. It’s easy to see and criticize this flawed behavior in others, and the more I found
myself doing exactly that, the more I saw those very faults in myself. The three essays that follow grew from my need to respond to this revelation. The Lies We Call the Truth is the personal story of my trip to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in December of 2016. The essay describes the internal struggles I went through as much as it details the history of the Dakota Access Pipeline conflict itself. I
came face-to-face with my own whiteness and cowered at the glimpses of what my life would be like without privilege. Grasping for my bubble of safety, I allowed those fears to cut my time at Standing Rock short, leaving after just one night, mere hours from the water protectors’ victory, when the Obama Administration blocked construction, though the stay was ultimately temporary. While the trip was brief, my awareness about how I see and interact with the world has grown much clearer, my sense of humanity more humble and inclusive, and my mind more open. A Study of Feminine Beauty explores the constrictive definition of what the modern world considers beautiful about women and how I grapple with that limited notion as a male fashion and portrait photographer. From the history of standardizing women’s
clothing sizes to the catastrophic impacts the fashion industry’s commercialism had on the health and happiness of models and the women who wanted to look like them, the essay explains how such a narrow definition of feminine beauty took root and where
there are signs of positive change. The Dark Side of Whiteness uncovers the truth about the history of the Confederacy and its white supremacist underpinnings that sill drive racism today, most notably seen in the August 2017 riots in Charlottesville, Virginia. My study included my own family’s culpability in the slave-owning South as well as the broader political motivations that created and sustained the Lost Cause mythology—misbegotten tenets that have repeatedly prevented social healing in America and continue to drive the wedge ever
deeper. Through historical research, interviews with University of Virginia professors, and a personal homecoming to my alma mater in Charlottesville, this essay untangles the debate over the fate of Confederate monuments in America by analyzing the conditions
under which they were raised in the first place.Meera Subramanian
Neil She
Michael Ramsey, Authority, and the Anglican Communion
Get PDFThis thesis examines the challenges posed by the understanding and use of authority within the existing structures of the Anglican Communion. Ramsey’s work highlights the special role of the episcopacy within the church. Ramsey argues that not only is the episcopacy a necessity, but also that those exercising the office are to use it in such a way as to support the constant process of the building up of the Body of Christ. Ramsey’s thinking on the issue forms a large part of the foundation of the theologizing around the proper use of authority which has taken place in the last twenty years. Two of the principal documents produced in the context of these debates, The Virginia Report and the Ridley-Cambridge Draft of the Anglican Communion Covenant, raise questions around the necessity of centralized governance structures which have the purpose of resolving doctrinal disputes. These documents also raise questions as to whether ascribing authority to a centralized structure is an undesirable innovation within Anglican ecclesiology.Rev. Robert MacSwai
How Travel Informed the Artistry of James Merrill's Early-and-Middle-Period Poetry
Get PDFThis author has provided only the abstract for his thesis to be included in the repository.From a very young age, James Merrill sought out and decided on a path in his personal and professional life that was purely individualistic. Beginning with his strained relationship with his father, Charles E. Merrill, the founder of Merrill Lynch, and his mother, Hellen Ingram Merrill, whom Charles divorced when Merrill was an adolescent, as well as his estrangement from both of his parents because of his unorthodox living arrangements due to the above, Merrill was forced to create his own identity. At about the same time that his parents divorced, he left to attend prep school at Lawrenceville. Thus, his raison d’être, instead of being formed by a traditional, close-knit family background, came about due to his formation of close friendships with fellow students in prep school and then at Amherst College. Instead of delving into team sports, as a child he liked to wander in the woods and at the beach, swim, go to the theater, and create his own puppet shows. His escapes from a privileged though unhappy childhood living in different homes during different parts of the year as a child were reading and writing, which were to become the formation of his métier.
After excelling in the arts and in English at both boarding school and then college, Merrill chose the path that made the most sense for a burgeoning writer to gain exposure in the world of literature while continuing to write; he accepted a position teaching English to undergraduates at Bard College.
Though he only spent a year teaching at Bard, he gained new contacts in the literary field while there, including literary critics, editors, and some who were involved in the publishing field in New York. Perhaps restless or eager to leave the confines and upward climb of a career track as a professor, and bolstered by sufficient family wealth to become a free agent, Merrill set out on his own to make his name as a poet, and never looked back.
The central theme of this thesis argues that Merrill made a decision early in his career to live and work in a culture and country apart from his own for part of each year, a lifestyle he followed every year in the summer months, beginning with travel in Europe in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, until and his partner David Jackson bought a house in Athens in 1964, which would become their permanent second home.
Living in a country such as Greece where ancient history and classical architecture blended with scenic city- and seascapes and where he met scores of new and interesting friends—both foreigners and expatriate—gave Merrill the sense of individual freedom he felt was crucial in order to experience creative inspiration for his work. He sought a lifestyle and milieu with more libertarian social mores in which to thrive. The different people, landscapes, art, and architecture he found while living and traveling in Europe fulfilled this need for him and provided him with a greater impetus to create.
A second and very important corollary to the theme of travel as an integral influence on Merrill’s facility and success as a poet was the aspect of duality in his life. The two different worlds in which he existed—living at his house in Athens and traveling in Europe in the summers, and then moving back to his house on Water Street in Stonington, Connecticut the rest of the year—nuanced and colored his poems accordingly, as a great deal of them were written in and about life in Greece and Europe; others were set in America.
Merrill’s home in Stonington and in Athens were opposites in geographic and cultural terms, but, perhaps because of Merrill’s affinity for duality, he thrived in terms of both productivity and enjoying life in equal terms in both places. The harbor and proximity to the water around Stonington, the architecture, milieu in which he shared his home with friends and other writers and artists, the sense of living in a rural community within an urban town—all reminded him of Athens. Imagery relating to this theme is a hallmark of several of Merrill’s poems, though perhaps especially evident in “From the Cupola” (see pp. 49 of this work).
Though Merrill did not follow his father into finance and business, and though he loathed having to deal with money, he depended on it to have the freedom he enjoyed traveling and living as a financially independent (at least in his early career) writer. He also gave significant amounts of it away as gifts to friends as well as to philanthropic causes, such as the Ingram Merrill Foundation. He cherished his relationships with his friends and love interests, but at times clashed with both, personally and artistically; he loved his time and libertine existence in Greece, but equally loved his home on in Stonington.
Though his relationship with his mother throughout his life was strained, he also felt an affinity with her, and loved her deeply.
What Merrill found as an expatriate was the ability to thrive in European cultures such as Rome and Athens where sexual mores are more libertine than in the West, and as such would befit his life as a gay man who enjoyed the company of others with the same orientation, and allow him the peace of mind to create the art of his poetry without having to be preoccupied with hiding his personal lifestyle from the public eye. In the 1950s and 1960s, being gay was nowhere near becoming accepted by the American public as an acceptable sexual orientation, and it wasn’t until perhaps the mid-1970s—by which time Merrill was in his 50s—that the gay rights movement began to gather momentum.
This lifestyle also allowed Merrill to mingle with people he met in Europe and fully delve into their cultures by becoming part of intimate rituals such as dancing and drinking ouzo late into the night at tavernas, imagery of which is most evident in poems treated in this work such as “Ouzo for Robin;” fishing with locals, as seen in “16.x.65;” enjoying café life, having long discussions and sharing ideas on literature and art with intellectuals, as seen in “Words for Maria;” resonant and colorful images of (Greek) landscapes, as seen in “Olive Grove;” and more land- and seascape, art, and architecture imagery in “After Greece,” to name a few.
Thus, it is this reader’s contention that although Merrill traveled widely throughout Europe, as well as South America, Africa and Asia, Greece best provided for him a personal refuge in which his creativity as a poet flourished, and it is for this reason that many of his best early- and middle-period work (~1959-1969) was written in and about Greece
Sacramental and Sacred: A Catechetical Introduction with Respect to the Relevance of a Sacramental Church in the Twenty-First Century
Get PDFThis project grew from my desire to explore the relevance of being a sacramental church in the twenty-first century and how that forms us as sacramental people in the world in which we live. Because baptism, confirmation, and eucharist are the three sacraments that most people will encounter in our traditions, they will be the focus of this doctoral project. My intention is that it will serve as a resource for any who are interested in understanding why and how the sacramental nature of the Episcopal Church enlightens our personal faith, as it also empowers us to do the mission of the church. This study is a program model that delves into the origins, evolutions, and current practices of these
three sacraments to determine how they work together. Much attention is paid as to how Scripture is intertwined in the practices of a sacramental church. The person using this model may be new to our church or a longtime member in search of answers to questions previously not explored or understood. In either case, a fuller knowledge of the “inward and spiritual grace” that they convey to make us “outward and visible signs” of that grace in our sacramental lives is the objective of this work.The Right Reverend J. Neil Alexande