lost on the way...
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
"There are two kinds of spiritual journeys or two ways to "be on the way" as Caputo would put it, the first (which is all too familiar to many of us evangelicals) is to know the way ahead of time and then just try your hardest to get there, the second is to be on a trek to find the way but all the while being a bit lost. The postmodern person understands that being lost and at the same time being "on the way" are entirely compatible. Far from falling into the black abyss of relativity that some critics might fear, this kind of a spiritual journey boasts a healthy Christian understanding of the via negativa."The above quote, which I find really helpful, comes from a post by Charlie Lyons Pardue engaging with John Caputo's What Would Jesus Deconstruct? Read the whole post 'here'.
Labels: post-modernity, spirituality, theology
1 Comments:
Fantastic quote Malcolm. It resonates (for me, anyway) with his which I've just put up on my blog:
“…The Bible, as I will continue to say, is a “text in travail,” struggling toward its conclusions, and only getting the point step by step, and frequently stepping backward. The important thing is to stay in the process, stay with the unfolding text and allow it to lead you forward…”
I hear resonances:
"...being lost [and in travail] and at the same time being "on the way" are entirely compatible..."
Caputo's is yet another book in my big pile of books to read...
Thanks for the post and link. Nice also to see you on Anglimergent. It'll be interesting to see how things unfold in the course of time.
“…The Bible, as I will continue to say, is a “text in travail,” struggling toward its conclusions, and only getting the point step by step, and frequently stepping backward. The important thing is to stay in the process, stay with the unfolding text and allow it to lead you forward…”
I hear resonances:
"...being lost [and in travail] and at the same time being "on the way" are entirely compatible..."
Caputo's is yet another book in my big pile of books to read...
Thanks for the post and link. Nice also to see you on Anglimergent. It'll be interesting to see how things unfold in the course of time.
I'm Malcolm Chamberlain
from Liverpool, United Kingdom
. I'm married with two young children and, in addition to Liverpool, have lived in Leicester (for the first 18 years of my life), York, Peshawar (Pakistan), Oxford and Walsall. I've been actively involved in the emerging church since 2001, as a founding member of Dream in Liverpool City, and coordinator of the Dream network. I'm currently engaged in research into emerging missional communities, and work as a parish priest and pioneer minister.
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