i love that- that the job of the prophet is catechesis, and without catechesis a prophet is a false prophet. (And i think the Hebrew Scriptures bear witness to this as well.)
Prayer is essential to prophecy, and as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel says- prayer is (at its core) knowing Who you are standing before...which is the aim of catechesis. Thanks for sharing these thoughts- i am looking forward to the 'revisiting' of this topic :)
Hi, great talk as always. I have asked a variation of this question before, but I'll give it another go - I think it ties into what you talked about regarding tradition and convention, and also into how to read Scripture. My question is basically this: if Christ is the "key" to reading Scripture, how do we avoid a circularity there? Scripture is where we read about Christ, and if we read Scripture with a certain picture of Christ in mind that "modifies" what we read, are we not in danger of entering a kind of feedback loop where, because we believe we know who Christ is, we tend to read certain passages (I'm thinking especially of the harsh ones that Jesus himself is recorded saying) in a way that enforces our belief about what we already took Christ to be like? I feel like in our culture today we have a strong tendency to have Jesus say therapeutic and healing things, whereas it just seems very difficult for me to avoid the fact that a lot of what he is recorded as saying is quite harsh and not at all therapeutic. I would love to be able to read Scripture like you do, but this thing weighs on my conscience and reading the Gospels always leaves me more bewildered and "scared" than anything else. Do you have any pointers here?
Is there a link to the sermon at the convention of bishops?
Steve, I just posted it.
i love that- that the job of the prophet is catechesis, and without catechesis a prophet is a false prophet. (And i think the Hebrew Scriptures bear witness to this as well.)
Prayer is essential to prophecy, and as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel says- prayer is (at its core) knowing Who you are standing before...which is the aim of catechesis. Thanks for sharing these thoughts- i am looking forward to the 'revisiting' of this topic :)
Hi, great talk as always. I have asked a variation of this question before, but I'll give it another go - I think it ties into what you talked about regarding tradition and convention, and also into how to read Scripture. My question is basically this: if Christ is the "key" to reading Scripture, how do we avoid a circularity there? Scripture is where we read about Christ, and if we read Scripture with a certain picture of Christ in mind that "modifies" what we read, are we not in danger of entering a kind of feedback loop where, because we believe we know who Christ is, we tend to read certain passages (I'm thinking especially of the harsh ones that Jesus himself is recorded saying) in a way that enforces our belief about what we already took Christ to be like? I feel like in our culture today we have a strong tendency to have Jesus say therapeutic and healing things, whereas it just seems very difficult for me to avoid the fact that a lot of what he is recorded as saying is quite harsh and not at all therapeutic. I would love to be able to read Scripture like you do, but this thing weighs on my conscience and reading the Gospels always leaves me more bewildered and "scared" than anything else. Do you have any pointers here?