Keeping Faith & Breaking Ground

Book 11 can be seen as the mid-point in the story Homer is telling and as in other tales it is in the middle of things, the middle of life, that the journey into the nether world, the world of the dead is situated. Here the shades may speak to the wayfarer of unknown mysteries and give clues to the road home.      

The Odyssey books 9-12: Odysseus departing from the Phaiatians enters the liminal or transitional stage of his attempt to return home. He encounters the laid back lotus eaters who suggest there is really nothing to be so concerned about – the journey is inconsequential; and the Cyclopes who know nothing of human culture and whose single vision lacks parallax with no depth of field or perspective.

Part 2 of Gil Bailie's reflections on Homer's Odyssey. Having wandered onto Calypso's island and spent seven years under her care Odysseus longs to return to his wife and home on Ithaca. Sailing away he is punished by Poseidon for blinding the Cylcops and is shipwrecked on Skheria home of the Phaiatians whose beautiful princess, Nausicaa, finds and becomes infatuated with this fast talking stranger. Hosted by king Alkinous Odysseus listens to the the royal bard Demodocos sing of the tales Troy. Will the crafty man of stratagems be able to overcome his contentious spirit to find a quest that is not a conquest and make his way home?  

In this first part of the eight part series on the Oydessy Gil Bailie explores the theme of fatherlessness and its attendant spiritual paralysis both via Homer’s epic poem and in late modernity's cultural moment.

An excerpt from the audiobook version of Gil Bailie's 2016 Angelico Press book, God's Gamble - the gravitational power of crucified love. (The audiobook is available on Audible as well as other platforms)

Gil Bailie examines Herman Melville’s last novel as a case study of how the Christian Gospel is gradually undermining the legitimacy of the scapegoating mechanisms upon which cultures depend. The race between the message of the Gospel and the effects of the Gospel has begun. Will it lead to repentance or apocalypse? 

Gil Bailie examines Herman Melville’s last novel as a case study of how the Christian Gospel is gradually undermining the legitimacy of the scapegoating mechanisms upon which cultures depend. The race between the message of the Gospel and the effects of the Gospel has begun. Will it lead to repentance or apocalypse? 

Gil Bailie examines Herman Melville’s last novel as a case study of how the Christian Gospel is gradually undermining the legitimacy of the scapegoating mechanisms upon which cultures depend. The race between the message of the Gospel and the effects of the Gospel has begun. Will it lead to repentance or apocalypse? 

Gil Bailie examines Herman Melville’s last novel as a case study of how the Christian Gospel is gradually undermining the legitimacy of the scapegoating mechanisms upon which cultures depend. The race between the message of the Gospel and the effects of the Gospel has begun. Will it lead to repentance or apocalypse? 

Is there a main theme, a discernable underlying story, perhaps a real story that informs the myriad biblical narratives? Gil Bailie believes there is and leads the listener on a voyage of discovery into the biblical texts.

This eight part series explores the biblical themes of creation, fall, and sacrifice as depicted in various stories related in the biblical texts using the interpretive tools made available in René Girard's mimetic theory.