Angels in the Architecture "Te Deum"

Te Deum reads more like a commentary on Beowulf than an essay that fits in this collection; which is why it is one of the best in the book. Wilson, begins with an excellent statement about how limited our language is in describing God or His attributes. This is an excellent point to make, especially in our time. We have begun to assume some of the scientific mindset of our age and falsely believe that if we can name an attribute or doctrine we can fully comprehend that attribute or doctrine. Wilson draws us back to the truth of historical theology, something the medieval theologians and poets had a better grasp of than we moderns, that description is necessarily limited and does no justice to reality in the long run. Even the Westminster Divines understood this. While they took great pains to describe the nature and character of God:

There is but one only, living, and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions; immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute; working all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will, for His own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him; and withal, most just, and terrible in His judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty. (WCF 2.1)

They understood they could not even begin to fully describe Him and that even the Scriptures were unclear in one way or another, being bound by human (created) language:

All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all: yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them. (WCF 1.7)

From this discussion on the limits of language, Wilson suggests that we might understand the character of God and His divine attributes a little better if we listened to the language of poetry. While poetry is often imprecise (a topic we will cover again in the essay on Poetic Knowledge) it expresses the truth in more understandable ways. Consider the language of hymns, which are essentially poetic. Not only poetry, but he suggests the poetry and language of the North Sea region will be helpful in thinking through our own limitations and needs in describing the goodness and glory of God.

It is Wilson’s hope that the language and culture of the Beowulf writer will remind us of the essential medieval qualities that will help us repent of our modernity in the arena of theology. A healthy dose of medieval protestant theology is what is needed in the modern world.