To the Forum:
Under the heading "How experts greeted news of the breakthrough"
(Daily Telegraph, 27 June), readers were treated to the following
comments by campaigning atheist, Richard Dawkins:
"Along with Bach's music, Shakespeare's sonnets and the
Apollo Space Programme, the Human Genome Project is one
of those achievements that makes me proud to be human."
Clearly, the Professor has a particularly high regard for Johann
Sebastian's work - but attributes it entirely to the man himself!
For a more plausible explanation of his genius it is necessary
that we turn to an infidel of an earlier age: Friedrich Nietzsche
once remarked, "In Bach there is too much crude Christianity...".
Here is a matter in which Dawkins' self-sufficient pride
overlooks a number of simple facts. The first, and most obvious
of these, is Bach's own understanding of the true source of
his inspiration. Regularly inscribing his scores of sacred music
with the letters J.J. (Jesus Juva: "Jesus, help") at the
beginning, and S.D.G. (Soli Deo Gloria: "to God alone the glory")
at the end, he leaves us in no doubt that he regarded himself
(along with the Bible writers) as merely an instrument of God's
eternal purposes. In his own words, "...the aim and final reason...of
all music ...should be none else but the Glory of God and the
recreation of the mind."
Again, there appears to be a complete lack of understanding of the
Holy Spirit's shaping of the history of the eighteenth century
(and of subsequent centuries!) in the so-called 'Evangelical
Awakening'. In particular, the year 1735 saw three great leaders
of Calvinistic Methodism brought - independently - to a knowledge
of the Saviour: Howell Harris and Daniel Rowland in Wales, and
George Whitefield at Oxford. John and Charles Wesley sailed for
Georgia in the same year - though it was not until two years or
so later that both came to a saving knowledge of Christ.
Coincidentally, and remarkably, at Leipzig in Germany, the Divine
Presence was manifesting Himself in the music of J.S.Bach. The
writing of his two monumental sacred works, the St.Matthew
Passion and B minor Mass (widely acknowledged to be the most
noble and sublime outpourings of a soul dedicated to the service
of God) took place in 1729, and over the period 1731 to 1737,
respectively. [It is relevant to note also that Handel's 'Messiah'
(composed in a period of just three weeks!) was first performed in
1742]. Bach's mighty genius - as particularly expressed by these
remarkable creations - represents powerful additional testimony
to the spiritual energy released in those days. Succeeding
generations have been greatly enriched by this legacy - though it
is doubtful whether Dawkins would concede as much!
Bach was also responsible for placing the 'scale of equal
temperament' on a solid footing. This watershed in music's history
prepared the way for further giants like Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven -
and for music as we know it today.
In view of these facts, one has to ask how it is possible that
any lover of Bach's music can reasonably conclude that the ID
represented by its beautiful counterpoints and harmonies is simply
an emanation of the human spirit. Further, how such a gift
(and the 'New World' events which accompanied it) is to be explained
in naturalistic terms.
Vernon
Vernon Jenkins MSc
[musician, mining engineer, and formerly Senior Lecturer in Maths and
Computing, the Polytechnic of Wales (now the University of Glamorgan)]
http://homepage.virgin.net/vernon.jenkins/index.htm
http://www.compulink.co.uk/~indexer/miracla1.htm
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