More Annie Dillard

I began to respond to Nick's question to the previous post, but it got so lengthy that I decided it had earned the standing of having its own post. So here it is:

Nick et al, Dillard was born in 1945. She grew up in Pittsburg a Presbyterian it seems, converted or dabbled in Catholicism, and returned (I infer) to some sort of congregationalist/methodist/presbyterian flavor of the Faith. She lived in Washington State for a little bit and then settled back east (New England?) with her husband and children. She's a journalist, as I said, particularly interested in nature. But she's thoughtful and exuberant about the world we inhabit. Here's a little to wet your appetite; this is taken from "Holy the Firm", which, as I went back through it, should also be included with "Expedition" as a good start to liturgics and sacramentology:

"The higher Christian churches--where if anywhere, I belong-- come at God with an unwarranted air of professionalism, with authority and pomp, as though they knew what they were doing, as though people in themselves were an appropriate set of creatures to have dealings with God. I often think of the set pieces of liturgy as certain words that people have successfully addressed to God without their getting killed. In the high churches they saunter through the liturgy like Mohawks along a strand of scaffolding who have long since fogotten their danger. If God were to blast such a service to bits, the congregation would be, I believe, genuinely shocked. But in the low churches you expect it any minute. This is the beginning of wisdom."

--Annie Dillard from "Holy the Firm"