Posted on by Kurt Bodling

study as a spiritual discipline

“Before all else, our study should aim principally and ardently at this that we might be able to be useful to the souls of our neighbors. By study the brethren consider in their heart the manifold wisdom of God and prepare themselves for the doctrinal service of the Church and of all mankind. It is all the more fitting that they should devote themselves to study, because from the tradition of the Order they are called to cultivate mankind’s inclination toward truth.

“The brethren should contemplate and study divine revelation of which Sacred Scripture and Tradition constitute a single sacred deposit, and from the perennial instructional value of its overall plan, they should learn to discover the many paths of gospel truth, even in created things, in human works and institutions, as well as in different religions.

“The brethren should study attentively the writings of the Fathers of the Church and distinguished witnesses of Christian thought who, with the help of different cultures and the wisdom of the philosophers, labored to understand the word of God more fully. Following their thinking, the brethren should respectfully listen to the living tradition of the Church, seek dialogue with the learned, and open their mind to contemporary discoveries and problems.

“Continuous study nourishes contemplation, encourages fulfillment of the counsels with shining fidelity, constitutes a form of asceticism by its own perseverance and difficulty, and, as an essential element of our whole life, it is an excellent religious observance.”

extracted from: “Study as an Essential Part of Religious Life for Friars” from a web page published by the Dominicans of the Province of Saint Joseph, one of four provinces in the United States. Viewed online at https://opeast.org/about/our-way-of-life/study/ on 6 December 2022.

Note: The Dominicans in many ways seem to embody the spiritual discipline of study. They dig into the sources. They serve the fruit of their study to the Church and the world. These days I’m especially resonating to the thought that “Continuous study nourishes contemplation, [and] constitutes a form of asceticism by its own perseverance and difficulty….”

What are you studying these days? Is it for the good of those around you as well as for your own good?

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

Books as Sources

“I have few of the aptitudes of the scholar, and fewer yet of the methodical habits and industry of the man of business. I live in books a certain part of each day, but less as a student of books than as a student of life. I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey. My memory for the facts and the arguments of books is poor, but my absorptive power is great. What I meet in life, in my walks, or in my travels, which is akin to me, or in the line of my interest and sympathies, that sticks to me like a bur, or, better than that, like the food I eat. So with books: what I get from them I do not carry in my memory, but it is absorbed as the air I breathe or the water I drink. It is rarely ready on my tongue or my pen, but makes itself felt in a much more subtle and indirect way.”

(Burroughs, John. “The Summit of Years” in “The Summit of Years” Volume 15 of The Writings of John Burroughs. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1913; pages 5-6)

Burroughs recognizes his limitations. And in his use of books he notes that he gets inspiration from them but so transforms the content that it really does become his. This is what I hope happens with the books from which these “Commonplaces” come.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

Vocation in the Church

“I sometimes had to stand up against the simplistic equation of ‘vocation’ with the parish ministry of the Church. Therefore, I was repeatedly obliged to explain how scholarship, too, could be a sacred vocation, and one that was needed by the Church — even though, as it happened, I had to leave the employ of the Church thirty-one years ago in order to carry out this church vocation.” 

(Pelikan, Jaroslav. “The Vocation of Scholarship in the Church,” Academy: Lutherans in Profession. 45:3-4, pages 10-17.)

I’ve felt like I always had to stand against that simplistic equation. The Missouri Synod I came up in was hurting for parish pastors (even moreso now) and, even though my personal path did not but bump up against parish ministry except on Sunday mornings, I felt I was an outsider and either ignored or looked down upon because I had no full-time parish experience. I certainly did not know ordained peers whose vocation in the Church was not parish-focused.

And, so, around 20 years ago I, too, left the employ of the Church. Not that anyone anywhere would ever suggest that I’m a scholar in any way like Pelikan was.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

what we should study

Note:
Connected to yesterday’s post, French Dominican Antonin Sertillanges is clear that pretty much any field of study can be consecrated in the Christian scholar. There is freedom and responsibility in choosing.

Quote:
“It is not possible to give any exact advice as to what should be studied, and still less as to the proportion of the different elements to be included in a plan of work. St. Thomas makes no mention of these things in his Sixteen Precepts. In reality, this is a matter of personal vocation, closely dependent on the object in view.” (p. 101)

Source: Sertillanges, Antonin G., O.P. The Intellectual Life: its Spirit, Conditions, Methods. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1987.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

Christian scholarship

Note:
Christian scholarship could mean scholarship of Christian topics. Or it could mean scholarship carried out by Christians. Theodore Graebner here first means study of Christian subjects (Bible, church history, doctrine, etc.) as carried out by pastors — he was writing at a seminary to pastors and to future pastors — but he also means their scholarship of any subjects OR that by any other faithful people.

Quote:
“Christian scholarship is but organized and well-proportioned knowledge, imbued with lofty purpose and spiritual ideals. And to treat it as if a contrast existed between its acquisition and practical usefulness is in itself an indication of undisciplined thinking.” (p. 42)

“So comprehensive are the labors of the ministerial calling, and at so many points do they touch human life, that there is hardly conceivable a domain of human knowledge which may not contribute its quota to the efficiency of pastoral labor. This is, indeed, a wonderful thing.” (p. 44)

Source: 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.

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precision talk about God

Note:
A former Lutheran pastor now converted to Catholicism writes about a similarity between the two traditions: they “do theology alike.” Particularly, both bodies put a high premium on the words they use in official documents. The theological task – thinking, writing, speaking about God – needs to be done with care and precision.

Quote:
“What impressed me was how close Lutherans and Catholics really are in basic doctrines and in the respective theological formulations. We ― Romans and Lutherans ― do theology alike, and possibly in a way nobody else does. We pay close attention to our words. Each word is weighed and compared to alternative words that might be used but pose less precision. Precision in wording, it seems, will keep us out of theological hell, and if the exact words aren’t the exactly proper words placed in the exact proper order, well, do not doubt it, we are all certainly doomed.

“When you think about it, it’s actually a pretty charming approach. It also means that when Lutherans and Catholics do sit down together, they have a common language and speaking it together often results in surprising outcomes, as in 1999 with the doctrine of justification.”

Source:

Russell E. Saltzman,”Former Lutheran Pastor: ‘Why I Am Becoming Catholic …’.” viewed online on the Aleteia website < viewed 18 March 2016 > at:
http://aleteia.org/2016/03/18/former-lutheran-pastor-why-i-am-becoming-catholic/

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.

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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.

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Breadth and variety in study

“There is no more effective means of keeping the mind fresh and its faculties at the height of their performance than the occupation, within proper limitations, with some side-line of study. When we inquire how it is that some men maintain even into old age a peculiar freshness of mind and true balance of mental faculties, here is the answer.”

From: 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, page 68.

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Cluttered Mental Attic

“Before long it occurred to me to do what historians are professionally equipped to do. Live with a cluttered mental attic; run a spiritual antique shop; resist the impulse to throw anything away. Hang on after the avant-garde rejects. Save, shuffle, classify, enjoy the relics. Eventually shapes emerge. One learns to live with contradictions and paradoxes, but what is new about that in theology?”  

Martin Marty in “Theology Today,” January 1972, p. 472.