In honor of my recent college graduation, I am going to begin my new less-scholarly life by recapping my favorite class this semester, taught by Dr. Bill Jolliff. The class was called Prophets and Radicals, and it covered “. . . women and men of conscience. Against more practical judgment, each turned a powerful critical and moral intelligence on contemporary cultures, and they articulated their views in articles and books that people keep reading today. . .” (from the course syllabus). These authors were, importantly, not mainstream Christians. Some were Christians, but all were on the fringe of what people considered acceptable. They were radical, planting and springing from seeds sown by other radicals and prophets. And despite the fact that they were either fringe Christians or not Christians at all, God’s truth is not confined to Christians, which was the main point of this class: learning to search elsewhere for truth that may be hidden where we least expect it. We studied 6 movements/authors/books:
1. Quakerism: John Woolman’s Journal and his essay A Plea for the Poor
2. Trascendentalism: Henry David Thoreau’s A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers and Walden, as well as some letters he wrote to friends.
3. Abolitionism: Harriett Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin
4. The Catholic worker movement: Dorothy Day’s Selected Writings
5. The beat movement: Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums
6. The hippie and back-to-the-land movements: Gurney Norman’s Divine Right’s Trip: A Novel of the Counterculture
I really, really enjoyed most of these books. I think I most appreciate the last two because of my preference for 20th-century American literature, and also because they are novels more than essays or autobiographies (disegard the fact that Kerouac’s novels are autobiographical). So here are a few little tidbits of my learnings.
Our term paper assignment was to choose a person outside mainstream Christianity who has influenced my life, or whom I want to make an influence in my life. I wrote my paper about simplicity, as I saw in Jack Kerouac’s life/writing. Kerouac’s simplicity wasn’t a complete asceticism, as he indulged in plenty of luxuries (namely alcohol, which was his downfall). But in The Dharma Bums he champions the type of asceticism that challenges excess in the way of possessions, comforts, and worry. Thinking of worry as part of a complicated life hasn’t really connected for me in this way before. Reading Ray’s story, though, made me realize that part of a joyful life is simplicity of thought. Ray is so quick to rejoice and so quick to find pleasure in simple things. He spends time purposefully doing very little, meditating and being outdoors. He insists on sleeping outside on many occasions. He rarely complains about anything.
The spirituality of the beat movement, according to John Lardas, “validated and valorized personal experience by interpreting even the most mundane of activities within a context of universal significance” (from The Bop Apocalypse). I want the significance of every aspect of my life to be revealed to me in the same way.
Here’s a little excerpt from my paper, in closing:
Ray encounters normal people and calls them “Buddhas” and “bodhisattvas,” and as he praises God for the beauty around him, Ray demonstrates his perspective on spirituality with this prayer: “Down on the lake rosy reflections of celestial vapor appeared, and I said ‘God, I love you’ and looked up to the sky and really meant it. ‘I have fallen in love with you, God. Take care of us all, one way or the other.’ To the children and the innocent it’s all the same” (Kerouac 186). Ray’s faith here is simple but genuine. He approaches God with the spirit of “the children and the innocent,” which is quite a profound statement by Kerouac, especially following Ray’s often less-than-“Christian” values throughout the story. He seems to suggest that spiritual innocence has very little to do with Ray’s actions and much more to do with the humility and simplicity with which he approaches God.
Merry Christmas. May the beauty of simplicity rest on you tomorrow and Thursday!
“It’s the beauty of simplicty
That brings me down to my knees
I’ll praise you for eternity
Lord I love you
Because you first loved me
It’s the beauty of simplicity
that fills me with eternity
I tasted your divinity
and Lord I love you
Because you first loved me”
(the ever-inspirational Josh White)
Posted by brynna 
