LITMIR.BIZ

As a pastor and Secretary General of the Protestant Church of the Netherlands, Arjan Plaisier has a good observation point to observe the growing secularism of the Western world, including the widespread disenchantment with the church. Whatever the reason for this malaise, the individual without true religion is really standing on the edge of a spiritual abyss; such a life is one without purpose beyond the day-by-day episodes that constitute an amoral jaunt through the world. Thus, the church is the one institution everyone needs to take seriously. It is the institution that most effectively challenges the idols of our day, provides meaningful community, and urgently addresses the ultimate issues of life. God is the generous and ultimate source of truth, goodness, and beauty. God, in turn, pleads for a response from his creatures. Deep Calls Unto Deep is a book which, laced with creative metaphors, provides much practical wisdom for aligning our present lives with the larger purposes of God's great narrative. The decision to join this high drama, as Plaisier says, can lie as close as our front door.

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Arjan Plaisier believes audiences who view Shakespeare performances and readers who study the plays deserve better than some of the recent interpretations of the Bard's work. In their attempt to be «modern,» these interpreters commit historical amnesia by slighting the Christian ethos of the early Renaissance period in which Shakespeare wrote and by riding roughshod over the religious underpinnings of his plays. This neglect skews the playwright's intentions, confuses the audience, and diminishes the full effect of the play. Plaisier, too, is modern–and in a more profound sense. He sets forth how Shakespeare shapes his plots to conform at an ultimate level to timeless biblical narrative patterns (like Northrop Frye, he regards the Bible as a «code book»), so that there is a «right» ending to the work. And in an Appendix, Plaisier provides some kindly advice to his fellow pastors. You do well, he says to them, to enrich your noble calling with attention to literature. To do this, he says, you will find Shakespeare most helpful. Yes, and Plaisier's perceptive essays point to the deep wisdom in Shakespeare by which we can all live.

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