Between Noon and Three: Romance, Law, and the Outrage of Grace
Picture a college town in the mid-1970s. An English professor who has become an expert in extramarital dalliances is smitten by one of his graduate students. They meet for lunch around noon, and before three they make declarations of love. Is it possible that their subsequent affair could ultimately teach us something about true forgiveness and the radical meaning of grace? Only Robert Farrar Capon would have the audacity - and the authorial skill - to fashion such a tale. It has taken well...
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Picture a college town in the mid-1970s. An English professor who has become an expert in extramarital dalliances is smitten by one of his graduate students. They meet for lunch around noon, and before three they make declarations of love. Is it possible that their subsequent affair could ultimately teach us something about true forgiveness and the radical meaning of grace? Only Robert Farrar Capon would have the audacity - and the authorial skill - to fashion such a tale. It has taken well over a decade for Between Noon and Three to appear in this, its original form. First published under two separate titles with significant parts excised and an entire section recast, the real Between Noon and Three is actually a trilogy of intertwined tales, each of which exhibits Capon's persistent insistence on the outrageous nature of grace. The original manuscript is here printed in full, including a new introduction by Capon on the work's unusual history.Publishers WeeklyWith wit, humor and exegesis, Capon evokes a bit of C.S. Lewis as he brushes past centuries of dry theologizing on concepts of grace and freedom, law and sin, and actually makes the questions fun.
Introduction: Back at the BeginningPART I: PARABLE Law, Grace, and the Free Drink The Tyranny of Angels 'Twas Grace that Taught My Heart . . . Interlude with Augustine The Rising Tide Greater Trumps Catharine Death Laura Resurrection Beyond All Liking and Happening From Noon till Three Morality vs. Grace Two Pauls Spirituality vs. Grace Superstition vs. Grace The Picnic PART II: COFFEE HOUR To the Woodshed Sticks, Stones, and Snake Oil An Unacceptable Parable Objections from the Floor And Having Done That, Thou Hast Donne . . . As Pants the Hart for Cooling Streams . . . PART III: THE YOUNGEST DAY Rub-out Afterlife The Four Last Things Tracking the Mystery of Reconciliation Re-membering the Garden The Outrage of Grace Rigged Justice The Hell of It All Heaven in a Nutshell Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
\ Publishers WeeklyWith wit, humor and exegesis, Capon evokes a bit of C.S. Lewis as he brushes past centuries of dry theologizing on concepts of grace and freedom, law and sin, and actually makes the questions fun.\ \ \ \ \ Publishers Weekly\ - Publisher's Weekly\ With wit, humor and exegesis, Capon evokes a bit of C.S. Lewis as he brushes past centuries of dry theologizing on concepts of grace and freedom, law and sin, and actually makes the questions fun. Describing his method as "theology by way of entertainment," he illustrates the radical nature of grace with a "parable" about an illicit affair between a promiscuous English professor and a graduate student, both married. Capon, an Episcopal priest, is determined to "separate the liquor of grace from the mash of mortality," and some may accuse him of excessive haste in setting aside the latter. His justification: "No mistake can hold a candle to the love that draws us home." Chiding the "grace-fearing spoilsport in every one of us," Capon argues that organized religion too often encourages us "to act more like subjects of a police state than fellow citizens of the saints." (Dec.)\ \
