I too found ‘At work in the ruins’ resonated, curiously because it suggested not only where Modernity was, but also the Church. His way forward spoke as much to those pondering ‘where to now?’ as congregations dwindle etc.
Writing this I’m ‘at the end of the world’ geographically speaking wrt Central London, sat in a small hut overlooking the wild Southern Ocean at the extreme South of New Zealand. Over and again I hear ‘the journey into that which you do not know is the encounter with the Living God’
UNLESS WE LEARN how to appreciate and distinguish moments of time as we do things of space, unless we become sensitive to the uniqueness of individual events, the meaning of revelation will remain obscure. Indeed, uniqueness is a category that belongs more to the realm of time than to the realm of space. Two stones, two things in space may be alike; two hours in a person’s life or two ages in human history are never alike. What happened once will never happen again in the same sense. The age of Pericles or the period of the Renaissance were never duplicated. It is ignorance of time, unawareness of the depth of events that leads to the claim that history repeats itself.
It is because of his profound sense of time that the biblical man was able to comprehend that at Sinai* he witnessed an event without parallel in human history…. The lack of realism, the insistence upon generalizations at the price of a total disregard of the particular and the concrete is something which would be alien to prophetic thinking. Prophetic words are never detached from the concrete, historic situation. Theirs is not a timeless, abstract message; it always refers to an actual situation. The general is given in the particular, and the verification of the abstract is in the concrete.
Lovely piece
I too found ‘At work in the ruins’ resonated, curiously because it suggested not only where Modernity was, but also the Church. His way forward spoke as much to those pondering ‘where to now?’ as congregations dwindle etc.
Writing this I’m ‘at the end of the world’ geographically speaking wrt Central London, sat in a small hut overlooking the wild Southern Ocean at the extreme South of New Zealand. Over and again I hear ‘the journey into that which you do not know is the encounter with the Living God’
Wow. That is so profound
Such a refreshing read, thank you!
“When I surrender what I cannot change and pay attention to what is front of me, paths of fruitful action begin to emerge.”--what a quote!!
Really glad it was helpful Ben
I love this, Elizabeth! Thank you for moving us beyond anxiety to a place of quiet acceptance and work. There is peace in this place.
I’m so glad to hear that Heather
UNLESS WE LEARN how to appreciate and distinguish moments of time as we do things of space, unless we become sensitive to the uniqueness of individual events, the meaning of revelation will remain obscure. Indeed, uniqueness is a category that belongs more to the realm of time than to the realm of space. Two stones, two things in space may be alike; two hours in a person’s life or two ages in human history are never alike. What happened once will never happen again in the same sense. The age of Pericles or the period of the Renaissance were never duplicated. It is ignorance of time, unawareness of the depth of events that leads to the claim that history repeats itself.
It is because of his profound sense of time that the biblical man was able to comprehend that at Sinai* he witnessed an event without parallel in human history…. The lack of realism, the insistence upon generalizations at the price of a total disregard of the particular and the concrete is something which would be alien to prophetic thinking. Prophetic words are never detached from the concrete, historic situation. Theirs is not a timeless, abstract message; it always refers to an actual situation. The general is given in the particular, and the verification of the abstract is in the concrete.
Thank you
Denial or despair? Thanks for your musings upon these topics of life...
You should name the tree Wendell and it’ll be forever blessed.