The Castle on the Hill: Week 3

Post-Modernism, Faith, Hope & Music

The Castle on the Hill by Elizabeth Goudge

“It was hard to believe in invasion in this small, deep lane running downhill to the church. There was a riot of summer flowers in it, brilliant with the sun shining on their wet petals, marjoram and valerian, irises, wild yellow snapdragons and meadowsweet, and the butterflies were flitting joyously over them. These deep sheltered west-country lanes were always a treasure-house of flowers...

To many people now war meant a sort of imprisonment. They could not go about and see their friends as they used to do. But our prison here, thought Prunella, where it's so old and beautiful… we can laugh at gilded butterflies and tell old tales.”

🌿 Elizabeth Goudge, The Castle on the Hill

Elizabeth Goudge was a working writer during a period known for its “post-modern” sensibilities. The post-modern period officially began in 1945, just three years after The Castle on the Hill was published, and was characterized by “the tendency for Postmodernists to have a skeptical approach to culture, literature, and art, often leading the movement to be associated with deconstructionism.”¹

Instead of hiding her faith in a time of skepticism, Goudge rushed in to encourage her own readers that though skepticism was understandable, they could still dare to believe that there was something else beyond it, something worth holding on to.

Join us for discussion from The Castle on the Hill on growing faith, hanging on to hope, and finding joy and transcendence in music:

“A little footpath through a meadow near Berry Pomeroy Castle.” Photo and caption by Stand and Deliver Photography

"Did you ever read Queen Elizabeth's prayer before the Armada?" asked Stephen. "She prayed that England might be a help to the oppressed and a defense to the persecuted.”

"I always say there's no harm in prayer," said Mr Isaacson kindly. "No sense in it, but no harm, and often a bit of good. What a man jabbers to is himself, of course, the conscious to the subconscious. 'Give me courage, give me light,' he says, and up it comes from somewhere below…"

🌿 Elizabeth Goudge, The Castle on the Hill

Growing Faith