I love that O’Connor quote. It’s from The Violent Bear it Away and it refers to Tarwater struggling to accept his vocation as a prophet. The full quote goes, “The Lord out of dust had created him, had made him blood and nerve and mind, had made him to bleed and weep and think, and set him in a world of loss and fire all to baptize one idiot child that God need not have created in the first place and to cry out a gospel just as foolish.”

A little later on there’s another, more devastating line, where she writes of Tarwater, “In the darkest, most private part of his soul, hanging upsidedown like a sleeping bat, was the certain, undeniable knowledge that he was not hungry for the bread of life.” Wow!

I wondered if you had read any of Richard Beck’s posts on Johnny Cash. haha I love the two quotes he has on his home page. One of them is by Johnny Cash the other by Flannery O’Connor. Both are great.

…trudging into the distance in the bleeding stinking mad shadow of Jesus…the Lord out of dust had created him, had made him blood and nerve and mind, had made him to bleed and weep and think, and set him in a world of loss and fire… –Flannery O’Connor

My old friend Lucifer came / Fought to keep me in chains / But I saw through the tricks / Of six-sixty-six –Johnny Cash

Brilliant stuff Mike. Very much enjoyed reading your work on this one. I resonate deeply with the thoughts about the Koala Bear that’s gone blind. haha

Great articles, thanks for pointing them out.

Thanks Matt. I haven’t read Hilburn’s book, but Richard Beck refers to it in his series on the theology of Johnny Cash. You might enjoy reading them. Here’s part one: https://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-theology-of-johnny-cash-part-1-i.html

Of course! I hope there is enough there for your group to chat about. Thanks for taking my words so seriously.