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The second principle of the Christian life that runs against the grain of American culture, Peterson said, is that the ways and means must be appropriate to the ends. "We can't participate in God's work if we insist on doing it our own way." He cited two examples of "doing the right thing the wrong way": congregation and Scripture. We consider both to be our matters, not God's. Instead of forming communities that embody self-denial, sacrifice, and patience for God to become present in them, we form "consumer churches," using commercial methods to attract people and cater to their wants. And rather than reading Scripture as a way of "listening to God revealing God," we treat it as information for us to process to become more successful and enlightened people. In both cases, the ways and means—bowing to the gods of salesmanship and efficiency—are out of sync with the ends—forming a community of believers submitting to God's work within them.

These are familiar themes that bear tedious repeating in an impulsive culture. Coming from Peterson, they are anything but tedious. In The Message, his plainspoken translation of the Bible, Peterson captured the essence of Scripture with neither sanctimony nor glibness. This lucidity marked his address as well, though it was not without nuance. He introduced this baffling paradox of the Christian life. "This is slow work; it cannot be hurried. This is urgent work; it cannot be procrastinated." In American culture, in which "fast" is equated with "good," this is a contradiction. What's worse about the contemplative life, he told me afterwards, is that "most of the time you're unconscious of it. … The minute you start thinking about it, you mess it up; there's a sense of always having dissonance."

The most helpful metaphor for this tension, Peterson said at the end of his address, comes from a neighbor of his who developed a fascination with glaciers. They possess unstoppable force but move so slowly as to be imperceptible. They don't move an inch until they are 64 feet thick. Peterson didn't say this, but he suggested we could use more thickness in our lives and actions. Before long, he said, "the ice will begin to slide," and, as Hopkins envisioned in his sonnet, "we will see Christ in ten thousand places."

Nathan Bierma is Book & Culture's editorial assistant. He writes a weekly weblog for the B&C site.

Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Christianity Today sister publication Books & Culture presents Books & Culture Corner and Book of the Week Mondays at ChristianityToday.com.

Earlier editions of Books & Culture Corners and Book of the Week include:

Recalling California | Want to understand what's going on in the Golden State? Toss your newsmagazines and pick up Joan Didion's new book (Sept. 22, 2003)

The Ph.D. Octopus, 100 Years On | How Christians can make a difference in the upside-down world of graduate school (Sept. 15, 2003)

The Difference Between Conservatives and Prolifers | William Saletan unspins, and respins, the abortion debate (Sept. 8, 2003)

A New View of Worldview | Some critics want to retire the concept. Not so fast, says David Naugle (Aug. 18, 2003)

'A Golden Age' of Religious Tolerance? | The Ornament of the World analyzes how the intellectual elites of medieval Spain eschewed fundamentalism and showed surprising sensitivity in reconciling competing truths. (Aug. 11, 2003)

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September (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47