Songs of Soteria: Christianity Through the Eyes of Poetry

Our God is an amazing artist and His most beautiful creation is us. As well, His word is a masterful drama full of poetry, irony and filled with constant foreshadowing of a coming hero. The Bible is a triumphant tragedy more Shakespearian than any play ever written by the man himself. To not soak in the art of our creator’s story is to miss His essence, but through His written word we are given incredible insight into the very heart of Yahweh, our God.
God did not choose to teach us about Himself by publishing an encyclopedia written by scholars from a distance of time, no, God’s word was written by flesh and blood characters as the scenes unfolded. And these characters did not simply record verbatim dictation from on high—they were inspired by The Holy Spirit to write from passion and emotion, each from their own point of view. God commissioned His masterpiece to be written not by one of these characters but by forty—each presenting the inspired truth from their distinctive human perspective.
Often times the only thing standing between us and a deeper understanding is perspective. We are all the same in this regard—we have our patterns of processing based in our experiences and unique characteristics, and these cause us to understand the world in our own way. When we break out of these patterns and view from a different perspective then we gain a new understanding that the old outlook could not see. This is where poetry enters the picture. Poetry is much more than emotion, philosophy and rhyme—it’s a new angle resulting in an “ah ha” moment that allows for a truth to be known in a different way. Such is the purpose of these Songs of Soteria.
To better understand the purpose and direction of this collection we must know what the word Sōtēria means. It’s a Greek word used in the New Testament and it means “salvation”. Not just salvation in the eternal sense but also salvation for the here and now. This word embodies the all encompassing work of Christ. It is a revelation to us that Jesus is the remedy for all of our issues and that He is our hero and champion. The more that we understand the completeness of what Jesus did, the more abundant our lives will be.