Posted on by Kurt Bodling

Saint Paul the scholar

“More than this, we may say that Paul was the heir of two civilizations. On the one hand, we have, not only in these distinct references, but in his wonderful mastery of Greek, the scholarship of one who lived in the bright after-glow of Greek civilization. On the other hand, his mind was steeped in the Rabbinical learning of his age. … Thus Paul stands forth as the ideal Christian scholar. Ideal, not only as a man who had received into the compass of his mind the treasures of contemporary culture, but who placed all knowledge and every element of intellectual power into the service of the body of Christ, the Church.”

Graebner, Theodore. The Pastor as Student and Literary Worker: Lectures Delivered at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. Second, revised edition. St. Louis : Concordia Publishing House, 1925, p. 34-35.

Graebner holds up Saint Paul as “the ideal Christian scholar” because of the way he straddles two civilizations, two cultures, serving as a bridge of communication between them for the good of the Church – and thereby helping create a new civilization and culture.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

texts and the student

“The student who fears God earnestly seeks his will in the holy scriptures. Holiness makes him gentle, so that he does not revel in controversy; a knowledge of languages protects him from uncertainty over unfamiliar words or phrases, and a knowledge of certain essential things protects him from ignorance of the significance and detail of what is used by way of imagery. Thus equipped, and with the assistance of reliable texts derived from the manuscripts with careful attention to the need for emendation, he should approach the task of analysing and resolving the ambiguities of scriptures.”

St Augustine of Hippo, On Christian Teaching Book 3, paragraph 1. Translated by R.P.H. Green (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), page 68.

Augustine thought it important for students (especially students of Holy Scripture) to have ready access to good quality texts. This is really a foreshadowing of the Renaissance humanists’ call to return to the sources (ad fontes).

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the Bible in solitude

“The Psalms are the true garden of the solitary and the Scriptures are his Paradise. They reveal their secrets to him because, in his extreme poverty and humility, he has nothing else to live by except their fruits. For the true solitary the reading of Scripture ceases to be an ‘exercise’ among other exercises, a means of ‘cultivating’ the intellect or ‘the spiritual life’ or ‘appreciating the liturgy.’ To those who read Scripture in an academic or aesthetic or merely devotional way the Bible indeed offers pleasant refreshment and profitable thoughts. But to learn the inner secrets of the Scriptures we must make them our true daily bread, find God in them when we are in greatest need–and usually when we can find Him nowhere else and have nowhere else to look!” (Merton, Thomas. Thoughts in Solitude. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1958. (pbk ed 1999), pp. 126-127)

Merton tells us that reading God’s Word changes from a work we do and becomes a refreshment God does for us as we go deeper into solitude. Without other voices telling us “Look, here is Christ” or “There he is” we can become more comfortable and familiar with God through the Bible than before.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

trinitarian root of contemplation

Note: Word and Sacrament are the foundation of the Christian spiritual life. So say the Camaldolese and the Lutherans. Christianity is not a works righteousness religion. And, importantly, the spiritual disciplines are not works righteousness practices.

Quote:
“But who is this Jesus Christ? Our response to this question is the spiritual life, a life animated by the Spirit. Monastic life is ‘spiritual’ not because monks pray so much or perform asceticisms, but only because they seek the Father in Christ through the Holy Spirit. Therein lie the roots of monastic contemplation.” (p. 49)

and this “seeking God”? on p. 48 he explains that “It is Christ who draws near to us, who seeks us out and enters into our lives” (as on the road to Emmaus); that “We are not yet with him, but he is with us. … Only the grace of the Word and the gift of the eucharistic bread open our human eyes to the contemplation of the risen Lord.” So this isn’t us seeking Him before He seeks us.

Source: Barban, Alessandro. “Lectio Divina and Monastic Theology in Camaldolese Life” in Belisle, Peter-Damian, editor. The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002, pages 48-49.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

the truths of lectio are heart truths

Note: Lectio divina takes us to, and uncovers, the spiritual heart of a text, which may well be, and usually is, different from the literal, exegetical center. The latter is head knowledge more than heart knowledge. But does this mean that lectio truths are personal ones and not as applicable to the larger Body? That would mean that the spiritual heart of the text could be different for each of us. Well, why not?

Quote: “All of this spiritual exercise in reading, repetition and hearing makes sense if we discover the center of the text. What is the center? In lectio we do not search for the textually central spot, but that spiritual center that gives the text a contemplative sense. Such a center can be a sentence, a verb or series of verbs, a teaching, etc. In other words, this center is not always the exegetical center. It is the heart of the text for me, right now, in my present spiritual path. That center we discover in our lectio is a gift of the Spirit, a spiritual intuition that comes from God, not from our intellect. In the beginning, it is not always easy to uncover the spiritual center of a text.” (p. 56)

Source: Barban, Alessandro. “Lectio Divina and Monastic Theology in Camaldolese Life” in Belisle, Peter-Damian, editor. The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

understanding Scripture

Note: Augustine says that different people understand the Bible at different depths, and that it’s really best if they get the true meaning in their hearts rather than just the bare words in their heads. On the other hand, if the understanding is weak or lacking, then it is best to have the actual words of the text memorized. A takeaway for Bible teachers would be that they shouldn’t expect the same results for everybody.

Quote: “The wisdom of what a person says is in direct proportion to his progress in learning the holy scriptures — and I am not speaking of intensive reading or memorization, but real understanding and careful investigation of their meaning. Some people read them but neglect them; by their reading they profit in knowledge, by their neglect they forfeit understanding. Those who remember the words less closely but penetrate to the heart of scripture with the eyes of their own heart are much to be preferred, but better than either is the person who not only quotes scripture when he chooses but also understands it as he should. For a person who has to speak wisely on matters which he cannot treat eloquently, close adherence to the words of scripture is particularly necessary. The poorer he sees himself to be in his own resources, the richer he must be in those of scripture, using them to confirm what he says in his own words; so that although once deficient in words of his own he can grow in stature, as it were, by the testimony of something really important.” 

Tags: #scholarship #study #Bible

Source: St Augustine of Hippo, “On Christian Teaching” Book 5, paragraphs 19-21. Translated by R.P.H. Green (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), page 104-105.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

texts and the student

Note: Augustine thought it important for students (especially students of Holy Scripture) to have ready access to good quality texts. This is really a foreshadowing of the Renaissance humanists’ call to return to the sources (ad fontes). Also, note how Christian scholarship leads to holiness, holiness leads to gentleness, and gentleness to avoiding controversy.

Quote: “The student who fears God earnestly seeks his will in the holy scriptures. Holiness makes him gentle, so that he does not revel in controversy; a knowledge of languages protects him from uncertainty over unfamiliar words or phrases, and a knowledge of certain essential things protects him from ignorance of the significance and detail of what is used by way of imagery. Thus equipped, and with the assistance of reliable texts derived from the manuscripts with careful attention to the need for emendation, he should approach the task of analysing and resolving the ambiguities of scriptures.” 

Source:
St Augustine of Hippo, “On Christian Teaching” Book 3, paragraph 1. Translated by R.P.H. Green (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), page 68.