Monday, March 22, 2010

Zombie Poets

I was at a meeting the other week, and people started discussing the interestingly-titled book "If you see George Herbert on the road, kill him." George Herbert died in 1633.

[Apparently it's a book about ministry and the fact that the "vicar does everything" model doesn't work any more, if it ever did. Of course, being an evangelical, I was reared far more on Baxter than Herbert in terms of writing on ministry, and we've ditched the vicar does everything model years ago. In fact, I've come across Herbert a lot as a poet (he's a very good poet), but hardly at all as a writer on ministry...]

Anyway, my initial reaction to the title of the book was to imagine a new squad of highly trained vicars being sent out to rid the world of the new menace of zombie poets. I shared this picture with other ministers in the room, but they didn't seem in the least amused. I'm not sure what this says about my suitability or otherwise for the ordained ministry!

Picture on right: George Herbert pre-zombification

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