“Psalm Eight,” an essay by Marilynne Robinson
Meeting times and locations:
- Monday, February 14, 7 p.m., 1st floor conference room, Warner Building
- Monday, February 28th, 7 p.m., 1st floor conference room, Warner Building
“Psalm Eight” can be found in Marilynne Robinson’s The Death of Adam: Essays in Modern Thought. The Death of Adam… is now available at Accent on Books, on Merrimon Avenue, at reduced cost, thanks to parishioner, Lewis Sorrells.
Parishioner Bill Turner will lead the meeting on the 14th. Mr. Turner is a great lover (and reader) of Robinson’s essay, so this meeting is not to be missed!
For those wanting to get a sense of Robinson’s reading of the Eighth Psalm, below are the first four verses of the psalm, and below the verses is a paragraph from Robinson’s essay.
Psalm 8 (King James Version)
1 O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that though mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
From Marilynne Robinson’s “Psalm Eight”:
‘What is man that thou art mindful of him?’ A question is more spacious than a statement, far better suited to expressing wonder. The method of the Psalmist is exuberant. He offers the heavens to our consideration, than which nothing vaster can be imagined, then diminishes them in relation to God by describing them as the work, not of his will or even of his hands, but of his fingers. There is a wonderful implication that the great moon and the innumerable stars are astonishing not for the vastness they fill so sparsely and illuminate so slightly, but because God should delight in making anything so small and fine as the heavens and their adornments, in every way exceeding them as he does. I have always imagined the trace of a gesture of conjuration or display left in the clouds of stars curling on themselves like smoke.
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I am new to the Book Group, and I don’t know anything about the Kay Falk Literary Project. How can I learn more about them?
Visit the Center for Spiritual Resources website: http://thecsr.org/all-souls-book-group-resources
The All Souls Book Group is the nucleus of the Kay Falk Literary Project, which is centered at the Cathedral as part of its teaching mission. For more information, please contact Emilie White at etwhite8@charter.net. Newcomers are always welcome.