Pagan Poet ? - Part II

"How brittle are the Piers

On which our Faith doth tread -

No Bridge below doth totter so -

Yet none hath such a Crowd.

It is as old as God -

Indeed - 'twas built by him -

He sent His Son to test the Plank,

And he pronounced it firm." [#1433]

I recently finished a book by Wheaton College English Professor Roger Lundin entitled, Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998. Lundin's work is a fascinating, but sometimes tedious, study not only of Dickinson's life but also the rapidly changing political, scientific, and religious times in which she lived. What is so intriguing to me about Dickinson is her struggle with belief/unbelief and her willingness to deal with it honestly in her poetry and writings. Lundin writes, "With her numerous poems about God and faith, Emily Dickinson demonstrated an impressive grasp of intellectual history. She realized that she was living through a revolutionary period, when unbelief had for the first time in history become a lively possibility. . .In the end, as one who both doubted and believed, she resembled Dostoevsky more than Melville or Nietzsche. Like the Russian novelist, she won her way through doubt to a tenuous but genuine faith."Id. at 148. I hope that Lundin is correct as to Dickinson's faith, but there appears to be ample evidence from her works to support "virtually any conceivable claim about her beliefs." Id. at. 144.

I had the pleasure of hearing Bryan Chappell, president of Covenant Seminary, preach our traditional joint PCA Thanksgiving service a few Sundays ago. He preached on Romans 15:4 in which Paul writes, "For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." What a good God we worship. Knowing how dense we often are, he gives us the scriptures which show us over and over again how he always keeps his promises. My prayer is that all of those who struggle with their faith and assurance, like Dickinson, might find hope in the Gospel.