Thursday, July 11, 2013

More from Timothy Radcliffe, O.P.



“Most people, when they begin to read the Bible, expect to learn facts. Fundamentalist Christians read Genesis to learn facts about the creation of the world. And even if one grows beyond a literal interpretation of the Bible, one may still hope for facts about God. Rather it is entering into conversation with God. What matters is not so much the accuracy of the text as the fidelity of the speaker, who transforms us by engaging us in conversation. Gabriel  Josipovici (in The Book of God: A Response to the Bible)  says ‘We have to trust the book itself and see where it will take us...The Bible guides us if we will only let it, towards the answers it contains but can only show, not tell.’ One surrenders to the narrative, and it carries us onwards, towards a revelation that is always somehow in the future, yet to be fully given.”
TIMOTHY RADCLIFFE, O.P. “The World Shall Come to Walsingham”, in Sacred Space: House of God, Gate of Heaven, ed. John North and Philip North, Continuum Books

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