Spouting Nonesense
God’s folly is wiser than humans, you see, and God’s weakness is stronger than humans. Think back to your own call, my brothers and sisters. Not many of you were wise in human terms. Not many of you were powerful. Not many were nobly born. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong; God chose the insignificant and despised things of the world—yes, even things that don’t exist!—to abolish the power of the things that do exist (1 Cor 1:25-28, NT Wright). This passage, from the first chapter of First Corinthians, is the first passage of the Bible I ever remember encountering outside of church. I was in fifth or sixth grade, and I was reading Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time . It has been my favorite passage of Scripture ever since. L’Engle was an atheist who became an Episcopalian with a daily practice of reading Scripture and praying. She wrote more than 60 books, many of them theological or spiritual,