"True biblical faith expands and deepens as it incorporates mistakes, questions, catastrophes, and changes of mind and heart. Like Moses who "quarreled with God" Jacob embodies the intense interplay of devotion and struggle at the heart of Jewish tradition. I've come to find in Jacob's story a model for grappling honestly and productively with sacred text itself. It is true of the entire Bible - and perhaps of any sacred text for its believers - that if you sit with these bare-bones stories, pick over them, retell them, they begin to grow - take on nuance and possibility - before your eyes. One layer of meaning is lifted and another reveals itself. You sense that the text would respond to every conceivable question. In other words, if I stick with these texts - if I wrestle with them and insist on a blessing - a blessing will come. The only limitation is my time, my powers of imaginative concentration, and my capacity to listen to the interpretations of others."
I can't tell you how much I am enjoying her book, Speaking of Faith.
And she's got me wondering if in a couple of decades, or when I'm retired, I might go to divinity school, just for fun.
1 comments:
Amen!
By the power of the Holy Spirit, God draws us closer to himself, and the understanding of his word.
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