A Toast to the Visible World: Remembering John Updike By David Updike
“Christianity isn’t looking for a rainbow. If it were … we’d pass out opium at services. We’re trying to serve God, not be God” .
– John Updike
And in fact there is a color, a quiet but tireless goodness that things at rest, like a brick wall or a small stone, seem to affirm.”
– John Updike
We “skate upon an intense radiance we do not see because we see nothing else” – John Updike
Mary, June 10, 74 John Updikes first wife Mary had Chicago roots
“Cosmically, I seem to be of two minds. The power of materialist science to explain everything — from the behavior of the galaxies to that of molecules, atoms and their sub-microscopic components — seems to be inarguable and the principal glory of the modern mind. On the other hand, the reality of subjective sensations, desires and — may we even say — illusions, composes the basic substance of our existence, and religion alone, in its many forms, attempts to address, organize and placate these. I believe, then, that religious faith will continue to be an essential part of being human, as it has been for me.” John Updike