Mustard Tree

When it comes to myth and metaphor, and the power of storytelling (which I've touched on before), it's quite an enlivening thought that a "new" idea, or perhaps even a "wrong" or a distasteful idea might still be made persuasive by being dressed in a different, more meaningful metaphor.

The word "meaningful" in this case refers to the subjective, emotional structures of meaning for the individual, rather than a dictionary definition, or an argument from logic. Is this what the art of persuasion ultimately consists of?  The selection of metaphorical structures, imagery and language that somehow click and resonate with the belief structures of an individual, and so carry a new meanng on the back of an old?

Despite my meanderings about fundamentalist and dogmatic theology (specifically of the Christian kind, but not exclusively), I find great comfort in some of the most poetic images that writers and thinkers use to express their views about God.  This is an elegant, mindful approach, and I came across a great example the other day, which I reproduce below.

"Running like a gulf-stream through the sea of time, comes the affirmation that God has manifested Himself to man, and the best men have affirmed it most persistently.

Wherever this affirmation has made its way, the icebergs of scepticism have disappeared, the temperature of virtue has risen, and the sweet fruits of charity have ripened.

If the belief be false, then a lie has blessed the world, and the soul is so organized that it reaches its highest state of development in an atmosphere of deception; for it is a fact that man is purest, and woman most virtuous where belief in God's manifestations is most intense and real."

O.P. Gifford