Video: John Piper on Poetry, Music, and Affections

How does poetry fit into the Christian life? John Piper defines poetry as an effort to awaken or intensify (and usually to share) a moving experience by using language that's chosen and structured differently than ordinary prose. In the video below, Piper encourages the Crossway staff (and you) to cherish language as the sacred gift that it is.

A few highlights:

• 4:30 – Why does poetry hold such a prominent place in John Piper's life?
• 6:28 – How has Piper's bent toward poetry given a rise to his theology of Christian hedonism?
• 9:00 – Musicians and worship leaders tune in here. Why do we sing?
• 16:40 – Humans have the privilege of putting words to God's beauty...to be "the secretary of God's praise."
• 20:45 – Piper reads a recent poem he wrote called "Slow Dying."

Check out some of Piper's poetry, published by Crossway:

• Esther
• Ruth: Under the Wings of God
• Velvet Steel: The Joy of Being Married to You: Selections from the Poems of John Piper