Ideology

Here is an insightful essay by Fr. Dwight Longnecker about the distinction between faith and ideology. "Faith Walks on the waves--Ideology stays in the boat."

I think his analogy about the relationship of sheet music to a musical perforance is very good. It makes me think of those composing software programs. If you enter a piece into one of them, it always plays it back exactly as written and very mechanically (although you can still appreciate the beauty). But there is a world of difference between a computer playback and a live performance of the same piece. Personal interpretation is the key--on the part of the composer and, to a certain extent, the players. Like when my son plays one of his compositions on the computer. You know that when you hear it life it will make all the difference. It is like one of my favorite analogies: the first few minutes of The Wizard of Oz vs the rest of the movie in color.