Monday, October 15, 2007

juxtoposition

Since I'm on an 'I'm a crank, offending everyone with my religious extremism!' kick, I thought I'd share a funny juxtaposition I saw at Borders the other day in the Religion section.$
"Your Best Life Now," which I think belongs to the "Prosperity Gospel" wing of Christianity (ie, God wants you to be Happy! And Wealthy! Just send me $10.95 and I'll pray for you and you'll be as rich as I am!)
right next to:
"A Long Obedience in the Same Direction," which is about long-term discipleship. And a journey towards Jerusalem covered in the Psalms. A pilgrimage, if you will; saying our life is a long journey, and it requires much patience and perseverance, and possibly some travel mishaps.
It boggles my mind that these two books are shelved right along side one another. That "christianity" means such different things to people. Of course, I often struggle with how different my interpretation of Christ's words is from people who attend my church, much less people in different parts of the world that have completely different frames of reference than me, so perhaps it shouldn't surprise me.
Also, lest I get too persnickety, I should mention that I own "A Long Obedience" and have not read it through. It's a classic...like all those other classics I haven't read. So perhaps I shouldn't be so snide.
There you go. Does that seem odd to anyone else? Or have I just had too much wine?

No comments: