The Garden Of Eden

The Genesis of a Blog

Nothing is so good as it is in conception.
A baby, a blog, the world.
Creation is the pinnacle of existence.
Purity is easily attained in novelty.

This blog is likely no different, so enjoy the virgin concept while you can.  This blogger will likely partake of some forbidden fruit before long…perhaps within this first post.  However, we are still kicking around this old planet, flaws and all.  So I hope you will overlook the imperfections of this blog and find something you will enjoy here.

Here’s The Concept

Milking The Metaphors is my new literary and theological project.  It is an exploration of faith through association with the world we experience.  My hope is to express my thoughts in a presentation that is both accessible and relevant.  Perhaps through these words readers can find inspiration to express their own faith, in whatever form that may take.

Where I Am Coming From

My thread of faith tends to fall in the lane of emergent Christianity.  In general, emerging faith tends to be more inclusive and less dogmatic than some of its spiritual kin.  To prepare you, my views might be a little different from those of other Christians you see on television, those who evangelize on the street corners, and those who meet in normal churches on a sunday morning…and I like it that way.  Diversity is the spice of life, so I’m trying to do my part in bringing that different voice to my own religion.

Why Symbolism?

I love what symbolism brings to a spiritual conversation.  More than that, what else do we have to discuss spiritual topics?  Faith is hope and belief in the unseen and the intangible, but we still need a way for it to be real in our lives.  Enter symbolism.  It has long been a part of our faith tradition, from earliest manuscripts to modern practices.

From the beginning of the Judeo-Christian tradition, metaphor has been the primary means of communicating faith.  Consider the Garden of Eden in all its natural beauty and harmony.  Consider the different trees, the man, the woman, the snake and of course the fruit.  All of these are amazing representations of spiritual concepts.  Some of these will likely be discussed in a future post on this blog.

Sidetrack –>  I feel like the message of stories like the Garden of Eden may get a bit lost when some more literal readers take ownership of them.  The goal of this story, in my opinion, isn’t to teach us that talking snakes existed.  The goal of the story isn’t to teach us that all our problems and struggles can be traced back to a single couple’s consumption of an apple (alternatively pomegranate, grape, fig, grain of wheat, or whatever).  It isn’t to teach us that Adam, a literal first human, was made out of some soil. It isn’t to teach us that a real woman, Eve, was made from Adam’s rib.  All of those expressions mean something within the context of the allegory, but we miss the point of the allegory if we don’t acknowledge it as such.  

Back on track –> As a person from the Christian tradition, I put significant value on Jesus’ methods of teaching.  Jesus spoke in metaphor consistently when he was speaking of spiritual concepts.  Around 50 parables are recorded in the four gospels.  Each are brilliantly descriptive and have amazing depth. Many, I’m sure more than one, will be discussed here.  As an individual who attempts to follow the ways of Jesus, what better way to pay homage than to have the same kind of conversations…so that’s what I will try to do here.

Hope you enjoy!