“The Echo of a Voice”

I have been avoiding continuing what I began, but your comments encourage me.

The quote above from one of N. T. Wright’s books, Simply Christian, seems to say it well. He develops the idea that beauty is an echo of truth and says we have to be careful that we do not mistake the echo for the voice itself. And so, it is not the voice or truth that changes, but the echo or beauty that takes on different forms of expression in the interpretation of creation. Wright uses the example of a composer’s masterpiece.

Think of a time when you were part of a group of people gathered to hear live one of your favorite performer’s concerts whether a symphony orchestra, chorus or band. There were likely moments when you felt especially moved. When the lyrics seemed to take on a different story or meaning than you had understood before, or when the layers of stringed instruments sustain and build within you an emotion, unexpected. Like when you pause over lines of a poem because you realize it is pointing to the very impressions or ideas you have known in your own living.

These are beautiful echoes.

And Wright asks “what is the whole masterpiece like and how can we begin to hear the music in the way it was intended?”