Everything That's On My Mind

I greatly enjoyed Michael Spencer's recent essay entitled Grace and The Gospel in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” over at InternetMonk.com. I love Shakespeare's plays as well, although I originally came to them through the study of theater rather than literature. It's been many, many years since I've seen a staging of "The Tempest". I was too young to grasp what is possibly Shakespeare's most complex work. Reading Michael's analysis makes me hungry to see it again. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a decent version on DVD, so I guess I'll have to wait until the Hilberry or Stratford Festival stages it.

(Yes, yes, I know. I can just read the play...and I will. But plays are meant to be staged, not just read.)

Michael's essay got me thinking about faith and the arts again. Shakespeare spoke to the human condition. His tragedies, in particular, were cautionary tales addressing the besetting sins of mankind. Macbeth warns against greed and lust for power, Romeo and Juliet: revenge, Hamlet: falsehood and deception, Othello: envy. Even his comedies often addressed similar themes from a different perspective. We need more art like that today. Art that inspires and challenges assumptions, rather than simply feeding the monster or numbing the brain.