‘Hymn to Evolving Faith’: A Poem by David Culwell

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Hymn to Evolving Faith

after C.S. Lewis

Lead us, Liberalism, lead us
Past hidebound inerrancy;
Prick us with your needle, bleed us
Of our elders’ certainty
(Mired in knowing they keep sowing
Biblical idolatry).

Culture always is evolving;
Paul is often obsolete.
Who would look to him for solving
Tiffs about how saints should tweet?
Ever changing, rearranging
Values, we’ll keep culture’s beat.

Give us Christ of the red letters;
He’s decidedly left wing,
Tearing down his so-called betters,
Raising up the stones to sing.
Stress his teaching, not his preaching
On Gehenna’s suffering.

Reconstruct us to your vision
Of a faith embracing all:
From this moment let our mission
Be to preach our faith’s not small.
Ever gracious, efficacious,
Help our children heed our call.

See the object of our sharing
Faith’s evolving day by day:
That tomorrow no soul’s blaring
Pluralism must hold sway.
Why restate it to debate it?
None now thinks another way.

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David Culwell holds a bachelor of journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and an MFA in fiction from Bowling Green State University. His fiction and poetry have appeared in, among other journals, Wisconsin Review, The MacGuffin, Think, The Merton Seasonal, Anglican Theological Review, The Road Not Taken, The Carolina Quarterly, and Blue Unicorn. He lives in College Station, Texas, where he works as a senior technical editor.