A La Carte (6/12)

Mrs. Spraul needs to read Jane Austen more carefully. The heroines do not always marry the most wealthy and handsome man around, and there are plenty of cautionary tales in the subplots about marriage entered with the wrong motives or marital duties neglected, as well as the occasional example of good older marriages characterized by graciousness and wisdom on the part of the spouses, not romantic magic. And usually the men the heroines reject on the way to their happy endings are those who provide real temptations of charm or wealth or comfort, but turn out to have been really bad choices.

Of course it's a happy ending for the main characters, but not as shallowly as Mrs. Spraul depicts it.

That said, her points overall on chick flicks are well made. But I think Jane Austen properly understood escapes the criticisms she made, precisely because of her realism and understanding of human nature.

Some thoughts on the chick flick article:

Lie #1 is "Men think of romance and relational intimacy exactly like women do."

Based on the chick flicks I've seen, I don't get that message from them. More often than not the guys in the chick flicks are presented *as* being different from women. The women are frustrated by them, the men are emotionally clueless, etc.

The Trinity in Contemporary Worship Songs:

The careful research presented in this lecture serves to support David Wells’ conclusion after a similar study: In his book _Losing Our Virtue,_ in the section on Two Spiritualities, Dr. Wells documents the results of a study he did comparing the doctrinal content of older, traditional hymns with newer praise and worship music. His conclusion is this: Traditional hymns state and celebrate doctrinal truths; most newer music only hints at or assumes doctrinal truth, and is therefore “parasitic” in nature (his words, from page 44). The writers of traditional hymns were, in large part, pastors and theologians: Luther, Newton, Wesley, Bonar, Heber, and others. For the most part today, the writers of newer music are simply that: songwriters. Re: The Trinity, think of the following hymns and the doctrinal truths they state so forcefully: ** “Holy, Holy, Holy” “God in three persons, blessed Trinity” ** The Doxology: “Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost” ** “Come, Thou, Almighty King” Each successive verse praises a member of the Trinity (good reason to sing all the verses of hymns!) ** “Eternal Father, Strong to Save” same as above. ** “Ancient of Days” same as above. ** And many other older hymns name and laud the persons of the Trinity.

Can anyone else get into the Cal.vini.st blog? It was OK yesterday, but today it redirects to a domain name service.

Currently listening to the Trinity in Songs link. Thanks.

As he speaks on the "shelf life" of modern songs, it brings to mind something I have contemplated as a hospice chaplain. So many of my patients (even those with Alzheimer's and dementia) can remember the great hymns, and enjoy singing them with me. This causes me to wonder what hospice chaplaincy will be like in a few decades, when the aging and dying have no "locked-in" songs.

While I appreciated Beth Spraul's article overall, as a literature lover and teacher, I have to speak up in defense of Jane Austen's novels. Jane Austen makes it perfectly clear that Mr. Darcy is a sinner, in fact it is his "pride(hence the title of the book)" that almost prevents his marriage to Elizabeth Bennett. Austen is an author with great insight into human nature. Her novels are overflowing with moral wisdom and her characters have high standards of marriage and refuse unworthy partners. Hopefully, Mrs. Spraul has read the novels, not just based her comments on the movies, which like all movies are charged with emotional music, beautiful looking actors and flashing images; quite different from the novels, which are considered part of the great books of Western civilization, hardly chick-lit!