Theologian's Almanac for Week of April 16, 2023
Welcome to SALT’s “Theologian’s Almanac,” a weekly selection of important birthdays, holidays, and other upcoming milestones worth marking — specially created for a) writing sermons and prayers, b) creating content for social media channels, and c) enriching your devotional life.
For the week of Sunday, April 16:
April 16 is Easter Sunday for many Orthodox Christians in Europe, Africa, and Middle East. The Orthodox Church calculates the date of Easter according to the Julian Calendar — as opposed to the Gregorian Calendar, which Pope Gregory instituted in 1582 in order to incorporate advances in astronomy and timekeeping.
April 17 is the birthday of Isak Dinesen, born Karen Dinesen near Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1885. Growing up, she loved listening to stories from Danish mythology, and became a writer at an early age. After a failed effort at running a coffee plantation in Kenya, she returned to writing — choosing “Isak” as a pen name, the Danish version of “Isaac” from the Bible, which means, “laughter.” Her breakthrough book was Seven Gothic Tales, full of magical realism and wild adventures, and she went on to one of the most celebrated literary careers of the twentieth century, including her short story, “Babette’s Feast” (the film version is now considered a classic) and her memoir, Out of Africa.
Like her life and writing, her theology is shot through with adventurous wit. “Truth is for tailors and shoemakers,” she wrote. “I, on the contrary, have always held that the Lord has a penchant for masquerades.” And again: “God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road.”
April 17 is also the birthday of the American novelist and playwright, Thornton Wilder. Wilder won Pulitzer prizes both for his novel, “The Bridge of San Luis Rey,” and his beloved play, “Our Town,” one of the most-produced plays in American history. Each work shimmers with theological themes. The novel is the story of a bridge that collapses in 18th-century Lima, Peru, killing the five people crossing it — and a Franciscan friar who, after witnessing the tragedy, tries to figure out why those five people had to die. And “Our Town” is what Wilder called “a little play with all the big subjects in it; and it’s a big play with all the little things of life lovingly impressed into it... an immersion into a New Hampshire town.” One of its principal characters, Emily, famously says, “O Earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? — every, every minute?”
April 19 is the anniversary of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in United States history. What was Timothy McVeigh’s motive? He sought revenge against the government for the raid — exactly two years earlier, on April 19, 1993 — of the compound near Waco, Texas, occupied by the armed, extremist Christian sect led by David Koresh. The connection between these two events, and their origin in a distorted, abusive, violent form of Christianity, is worth remembering today, especially in light of the recent surge in hate groups and domestic terrorism in the United States.
April 20 is Eid al-Fitr, the day Muslims mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan, a celebration of having completed the month-long fast, often conceived as a divine reward of feasting and festivity. There are about 3.5 million Muslims in the United States today, making it the country’s third largest religion.
April 21 is the birthday of naturalist John Muir, born in Dunbar, Scotland, in 1838 — though he grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. By age 11, he could recite nearly all of the Bible by heart, and his writings later in life are shot through with theological ideas. An avid inventor and fascinated with God’s creation, he was nearly struck blind by a sawmill accident, and realized how important the beautiful world was to him: “I bade adieu to all my mechanical inventions, determined to devote the rest of my life to the study of the inventions of God.” He embarked on a 1,000-mile walk from Indiana to the Gulf of Mexico, and then another from San Francisco to the Sierra Nevada mountain range. He eventually helped found the Sierra Club and tirelessly fought to protect wilderness areas, especially around the Yosemite Valley — and his fateful camping trip with President Theodore Roosevelt resulted in the establishment of the United States National Parks.
While his early journal writings include evidence of racial bigotry against both African Americans and Native Americans, over the course of his life he gained maturity and sensitivity; as an older man, for example, he wrote with passion about how much may be learned from Native American people and ways of life. For a collection of his spiritual writings, check out this anthology.
April 22 is Earth Day, first observed in 1970 — which makes this year the 53rd anniversary. Inspired in part by Rachel Carson’s work, among many others, the original Earth Day was a widespread, bipartisan response to the negative impacts of industrial development — and President Nixon, along with Congress, responded quickly to the popular pressure, establishing the Environmental Protection Agency that same year, and landmark environmental legislation followed close behind. With something like one billion people now participating annually, Earth Day is considered the largest civic-focused day of action in the world.
Jews and Christians, among other religious people, have been involved all the way along in Earth Day’s history — and no wonder, since Genesis so vividly casts humanity as creation’s steward in the first creation story; as Eden’s gardener in the second creation story; and as custodian of creation’s biodiversity in the Noah story. And this year’s Earth Day theme — “Invest in Our Planet” — is both timely and pressing. If the original Earth Day spurred unprecedented environmental action and coordination, the 53rd must do the same!
Check out SALT’s “Strange New World” podcast episode on “The Bible and Climate Change - Part One.”
And here’s SALT’s brief essay, “Earth Day, Climate Action, and the Bible.”