A. N. Wilson was once a Christian, but “converted” to atheism, rubbing shoulders with Dawkins and Hitchens and others. but now he has started to believe again. The New Statesman has a Q&A with him and he reveals another fascinating aspect of this journey.
They ask: “What’s the worst thing about being faithless?”
Wilson: The worst thing about being faithless? When I thought I was an atheist I would listen to the music of Bach and realize that his perception of life was deeper, wiser, more rounded than my own. Ditto when I read the lives of great men and women who were religious.
Reading Northrop Frye and Blake made me realize that their world-view (above all their ability to see the world in mythological terms) is so much more INTERESTING than some of the alternative ways of looking at life.
Did you catch that? The music of Bach brings to bear a deeper view of life. Something to ponder about our own church experiences and whether they are cultivating a deeper and wiser and more rounded view of life.
- James H. Grant, Jr.
They ask: “What’s the worst thing about being faithless?”
Wilson: The worst thing about being faithless? When I thought I was an atheist I would listen to the music of Bach and realize that his perception of life was deeper, wiser, more rounded than my own. Ditto when I read the lives of great men and women who were religious.
Reading Northrop Frye and Blake made me realize that their world-view (above all their ability to see the world in mythological terms) is so much more INTERESTING than some of the alternative ways of looking at life.
Did you catch that? The music of Bach brings to bear a deeper view of life. Something to ponder about our own church experiences and whether they are cultivating a deeper and wiser and more rounded view of life.
- James H. Grant, Jr.
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