Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T02:37:41.876Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Immortal Diamond: The Possible Dream

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Hubert Delaney S.J.
Affiliation:
Lecturer in Philosophy and Ethics, Milltown Institute of Philosophy and Theology

Extract

In a flash, at a trumpet crash, I am all at once what Christ is, since he was what I am, and This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, patch, matchwood, immortal diamond Is immortal diamond.

There are several types of experience common to most people that are worth drawing attention to as a build-up to the consideration of ‘play’ in the life of man. The noise of car wheels turning on gravel, the cooing of a pigeon in a forest on a bright, calm May evening, the lonely cry of the curlew going to feed on the nearby marshlands, the whine of the swans’ wings as the birds move to a new place of feeding, the deep echo of a jumbo jet as it ascends along a steep gradient into the sky, the melody of a piece of music coming from nowhere, the staccato and rhythmic chirping of the birds in tune with the early morning expectancy of another day – these are moments reminiscent of other places and other times. ‘Time present and time past.’ There is a ‘nostalgia’ about them. The feeling is repeated each time similar events re-occur.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 143 note 1 Gardner, W. H., ed., ‘That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection’, Poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins, third, enlarged edition (London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1948), lines 22–25.Google Scholar Hereafter cited PGMH.

page 143 note 2 Eliot, T.S., ‘Four Quartets’, in Collected Poems 1909–1962 (London: Faber & Faber, 1980).Google Scholar ‘Burnt Norton’, I, i. Hereafter cited CPTSE.

page 143 note 3 O.E.D., sixth edition (Sykes, J. B., ed.) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976), p. 744–6Google Scholar

page 144 note 1 Gen. 28:13 (R.S.V.).

page 145 note 1 Ibid. 28:15.

page 145 note 2 Ibid. 28:16.

page 145 note 3 Gen. 28:18.

page 146 note 1 Peirce, Charles Sanders, ‘A neglected argument for the reality of God’, Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce, vols. I–IV, eds. Hartshore, Charles and Weiss, Paul; vols. VII–VIII, ed. Banks, Arthur W. (Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1960–6), 452–91.Google Scholar Hereafter cited CPCSP.

page 146 note 2 PGMH, stanza I, line I, p. 167.Google Scholar

page 146 note 3 CPTSE, ‘Four Quartets: East Coker’, stanza I, line I.Google Scholar

page 147 note 1 Huizinga, Johan, Homo Ludens (London: Paladin, 1970), pp. 713.Google Scholar Hereafter cited HL

page 147 note 2 CPCSP VI, 501.Google Scholar

page 147 note 3 Ibid. II, 755 ff.

page 148 note 1 HL, pp. 713.Google Scholar

page 148 note 2 HL, p. 22.Google Scholar

page 148 note 3 HL, quoting from Plato, Laws, Eng. trans. Bury, R.G. (London: Heinemann, 1926), hereafter cited Laws, p. 239.Google Scholar

page 149 note 1 HL, quoting from Prov. 8: 22–3, 30–1. Douay translation based on the Vulgate, p. 240.Google Scholar

page 149 note 2 Caillois, Roger, Man, Play and Games, trans. Barash, Meyer (London: Thames & Hudson, 1962).Google Scholar

page 149 note 3 Iona, and Opie, Peter, Children's Games in Streets and Playgrounds (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969).Google Scholar

page 149 note 4 Berger, Peter, A Rumour of Angels (New York: Allen Lane/Penguin Press, 1970).Google Scholar

page 149 note 5 Neale, Robert E., In Praise of Play (New York: Harper & Row, 1969)Google Scholar, hereafter cited IPOP.

page 149 note 6 Cox, Harvey, Feast of Fools (New York: Harper & Row, 1969)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Rahner, Hugo, Man At Play (London: Bums & Oates, 1965)Google Scholar, hereafter cited MAP. Moltmann, Jurgen, Theology and Joy (London: SCM, 1973)Google Scholar, hereafter cited TAJ, Miller, David L., Gods and Games: Towards a Theology of Play (New York: Harper & Row, 1970).Google Scholar

page 149 note 7 Pieper, Josef, In Tune with the World (New York: Brace & World, 1965).Google Scholar

page 149 note 8 MAP.Google Scholar

page 149 note 9 MAP, p. 5.Google Scholar

page 149 note 10 MAP, p. 2.Google Scholar

page 149 note 11 MAP, p. 3.Google Scholar

page 149 note 12 Ibid. p. 5.

page 149 note 13 Ibid. p. 5.

page 150 note 1 Ibid. p. 8.

page 150 note 2 Ibid. p. 9.

page 150 note 3 Ibid.. p. 11.

page 150 note 4 Laws, 644DE.

page 150 note 5 MAP, p. 13, quoting Laws, 803 BC.Google Scholar

page 150 note 6 Ibid. p. 14.

page 150 note 7 Ibid. p. 23, quoting Cornelius A Lapide, Commentario in Proverbia, 8:13.

page 150 note 8 MAP, p. 25, quoting from Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Kosmische Liturgie.Google Scholar

page 151 note 1 Ibid. p. 27.

page 151 note 2 Ibid. p. 26.

page 151 note 3 MAP, p. 38.Google Scholar

page 151 note 4 Ibid. p. 35.

page 151 note 5 Ibid. p. 32.

page 151 note 6 Ibid. pp. 42 ff.

page 151 note 7 Ibid. p. 43.

page 151 note 8 Ibid. p. 66.

page 151 note 9 Ibid. p. 66.

page 151 note 10 MAP, p. 67.Google Scholar

page 152 note 1 Ibid. p. 82.

page 152 note 2 Ibid. p. 77.

page 152 note 3 Ibid. p. 89.

page 152 note 4 Ibid. p. 89, quoting Gregory of Nyssa, Homiliae in Psalmos, 6.

page 152 note 5 Ibid. p. 87.

page 152 note 6 IPOP.

page 152 note 7 Ibid. p. 15.

page 152 note 8 Ibid. p. 21, quoting Schiller.

page 153 note 1 IPOP, p. 24.Google Scholar

page 153 note 2 Ibid. p. 25.

page 153 note 3 Ibid. p. 38.

page 153 note 4 IPOP, p. 48.Google Scholar

page 153 note 5 Ibid. p. 42.

page 153 note 6 Ibid. pp. 42–3.

page 154 note 1 IPOP, p. 45.Google Scholar

page 154 note 2 John 14:27 (R.S.V.).

page 154 note 3 IPOP, pp. 45–6.Google Scholar

page 154 note 4 Ibid. p. 47.

page 154 note 5 IPOP, p. 110.Google Scholar

page 154 note 6 Ibid. pp. 49–51.

page 154 note 7 Ibid. p. 56.

page 155 note 1 The next few paragraphs are a part summary of points made in pp. 56–68.

page 155 note 2 IPOP, p. 82.Google Scholar

page 156 note 1 Ibid. p. 107.

page 156 note 2 Ibid. p. 112.

page 156 note 3 IPOP, p. 135.Google Scholar

page 156 note 4 John 1:3.

page 156 note 5 Prov. 8:30.

page 156 note 6 PGMH, ‘God's grandeur’, I, i.Google Scholar

page 156 note 7 IPOP, p. 165.Google Scholar

page 157 note 1 Gen. I: 3, 4.

page 157 note 2 PGMH, ‘God's grandeur’, stanza 2, line 2.Google Scholar

page 157 note 3 Acts 17:28.

page 157 note 4 Matt. 11:17.

page 157 note 5 IPOP, p. 146.Google Scholar

page 157 note 6 TAJ, p. 44.Google Scholar

page 157 note 7 Ibid.. p. 86.

page 157 note 8 Ibid. p. 86.

page 157 note 9 Mateos, Juan, Beyond Conventional Christianity, trans. Sister Kathleen, England (Manila: East Asian Pastoral Institute, 1974), p. 310. Hereafter BCC.Google Scholar

page 157 note 10 Voegelin, Eric, Plato and Aristote, 5 vols; vol. III Order and History (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1972).Google Scholar

page 158 note 1 Matt. 18:3; Mark 10:15.

page 158 note 2 BCC, p. 310.Google Scholar

page 158 note 3 IPOP, quoting from Eliade, Mircea, Patterns in Comparative Religion, trans. Sheed, Rosemary (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1958), p. 17.Google Scholar

page 159 note 1 John 4:16.