Abstract
The Circle Dance of Time
John S. Dunne
Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame, 2010. 163 pp. $25.00
In this remarkable book, John Dunne, the John A. O’Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, garners the fruits of his lifelong search for ever-deeper insights into the great images and metaphors found in Christian faith, particularly in the Gospel of John. The organizing metaphor of the circle dance in time intimates the whence and wither of our journey of life as not only being from God and towards God, but also of God. As in most spiritual journeys, there comes a time or a “far point” on the circle, as Dunne would say, “where love must pass through loneliness, light must pass through darkness, life must pass through death” (ix). Courage and guidance for passing through loneliness, darkness, and death is found though entering into one’s heart, the “center of stillness surrounded by silence,” and there, in the stillness, waiting for the silent Presence to kindle the heart and illuminate the mind (22). “It is at this far point of loneliness,” says Dunne, “that you become aware not just of a kindling of the heart but of God kindling the heart” (28).
Dunne invites the reader to join him on the circle, to listen in, as he engages powerful recurring images and thoughts drawn from multiple dance partners (philosophers, rabbis, theologians, poets, musicians, and artists) and distills them into profound spiritual insights for the journey. Images, and claims such as “heart as a center of stillness surrounded by silence,” and “we can know more than we can tell” (Polanyi’s principle), and “eternal life belongs to those who live in the Presence” (23), circle around with new images in successive chapters to challenge, elucidate, and connect with one another. Later Dunne uses Polanyi’s principle to explore Christ’s I and Thou relationship with God. “We can tell the story of Christ, but we can know more, namely his relationship with God” (28). When we are invited to make Christ’s “My Father, your Father, and, My God, Your God,” as he said to Mary Magdalene, then we enter into his unconditional relation with God by which he is constituted Son, and we, in and through Christ dwelling in our hearts, by faith also participate in Christ’s unconditional relation of love with his Abba (25). Dunne moves from exploring how God is sensible to the heart, to the vision of our origins as coming from God from the perspectives of emanation, evolution, and creation. Then he probes the vision of return through the images of restlessness and rest in the One who fulfills the deep desires of our longing. Next he moves through the “far point” on the circle, a time of purification and learning to love with our whole mind, heart, soul, and body as we pass through loneliness, darkness, and death. Finally, Dunne explores the vision of God with us and the different relationship of God with time in the images of the circle dance of time and a journey in time. “God stands still and timeless in the circle dance, but God is in time in the journey, and that no doubt is the meaning of Emmanuel, ‘God with us’” (117). Yet, the two images intersect, as moments of timelessness and eternity penetrate our journey in time. The image of the circle dance also suggests wholeness or completion when one has made peace with the whole of one’s life journey. We do so, Dunne suggests, when we are able to recollect all aspects of the journey lived thus far with prayerful gratitude “before self” and “before God” and wholeheartedly embrace what is yet to come. The book concludes with a series of Circle Songs composed by Dunne himself. In uniting words and music, Dunne reclaims and integrates the earlier road not taken (music). The use of repetitive circling of images within the larger metaphor of the circle dance of time illuminates Dunne’s methodology, originality of thought, and depth of wisdom. This is not a book to read quickly. Rather, it requires a more reflective pondering and relishing of those images and ideas that connect one more deeply to one’s own circle dance in time, and lead one to think of and thank God for this dance of life that is from Love, of Love, and towards Love.