Thin places
In his book The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith (HarperCollins, 2003, HarperSanFrancisco, 2004), theologian Marcus J. Borg writes:
My argument in class was that Jeff Ford's characters in The Empire of Ice Cream have to work really hard, and in a really disciplined fashion, to access thin places, however fleetingly.
Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods is (partially) about the thin places of the United States, while Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is (partially) about the thin places of Britain.
I owe the metaphor of "thin places" to Celtic Christianity, a form of Christianity that flourished in Ireland and parts of Scotland, Wales, and northern England beginning in the fifth century. ...To Borg, thin places are "those places and practices through which we become open to and nourished by the Mystery in whom we live and move and have our being."
Thin places are places where the veil momentarily lifts, and we behold God, experience the one in whom we live, all around us and within us.
Thin places can literally be geographical places. For Celtic Christianity, the island of Iona off the west coast of Scotland is a classic thin place. So also are traditional destinations of pilgrimage: for Christians, Jerusalem, Rome, Canterbury, and others; for Muslims, especially Mecca, but also Medina and Jerusalem. Mountains and high places are thin places in many religious traditions, including the Bible and Native American traditions.
But the notion refers to much more than geographical locations. A thin place is anywhere our hearts are opened. To use sacramental language, a thin place is a sacrament of the sacred, a mediator of the sacred, a means whereby the sacred becomes present to us. A thin place is a means of grace.
My argument in class was that Jeff Ford's characters in The Empire of Ice Cream have to work really hard, and in a really disciplined fashion, to access thin places, however fleetingly.
Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods is (partially) about the thin places of the United States, while Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is (partially) about the thin places of Britain.
posted by Andy Duncan at 2:12 PM
4 Comments:
yeah andy...i can see where Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell could be going down that road...i'm only about 200 pages in...but it seems like the quest of the higher ups in the society is to find the thin places of england, and mr norrell (as of now) is the one they hope to bring them to those places, because they certainly don't want to do the work required themselves
I'm taking a survey of Irish history right now, and I can see that coming out of Celtic Christianity. A lot of times they would make their old pagan gods into christian saints or make old pagan sites into christian ones, claiming that one could become closer to God by venerating these saints or visiting these places. It was a way to easily transition from paganism to christianity.
I do not remember the thin places in "American Gods" requiring much work (aside from the tree in Virginia), but the mystery and nourishment was pretty evident.
As an Alabama homer, though, I have to wonder why a tourist trap in northeast Tennessee had to determine the hope and fate of the nation?
Do the hay creations of Forkland or the man-made ski slope in Mentone not have enough mystery to be thin places?
I've been to both Forkland and I've run up the grassy ski slope in Mentone, and I agree...both are quite mysterious. I especially love the ski lift.
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