More Than Stone

In Chapter 2 of Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense, Wright tells a story of a dictator. This dictator ruled his land so that every aspect of life was worked out according to a rational system. One day, this dictator noticed that the water sources were uncontrolled. There were thousands of springs, but they could cause floods, get polluted, sprout up just about anywhere. So, this dictator decided to control the water sources by paving over the whole city and installing an intricate system of pipes that would deliver water to the citizens in a controlled environment. People praised the dictator.

This system worked fine for a while. Until one day, the springs could not be controlled any longer. The water burst violently through the concrete in a huge explosion. Muddy water rolled through the streets, into homes and shops, completely uncontrolled. Roads were torn up and they city was in chaos. Some were happy about this. See, over the years, they had longed for the natural springs that bubbled up. They had been tired of the controlled, anesthetized version of the springs.

Wright maintains that we, in the Western world, are citizens of that city. The dictator is our philosophy of materialism and the water is spirituality. We have tried to controll the hidden, bubbling springs of human spirituality, however, the water is breaking forth and bubbling over, no longer contained by the concrete.