Paul writes – A reasonably regular presence in my journey (and therefore this blog) has been UK theologian James Alison. He names well, aspects of my own experience of learning theology – I quote him:
Beginning to learn theology “…was for me… an experience of being pulled out of my own narrow sacred world and discovering a huge, peaceful discipline that preceded me and that had extraordinary depths, contours, melodies and spaciousness. I was being pulled into swimming around in it.
This meant beginning to see how those teachers who it had been so easy for the clever beginner to despise were doing a magnificent job of holding open a great canopy of learning within which I could indeed find things that I didn't control, things that nourished me, things that would help me build something, but also things that I didn't find so helpful and could avoid, ways of talking and thinking which tired the soul rather than giving it zest.
"…. I moved from being someone who had an interest in theology to someone who loved theology and had found himself caught in a bigger, more open world than he could imagine. One where theology was no longer simply a discipline about which one should know for other purposes (and there may be people for whom that is exactly what it should be!) but a gift and a promise of being, and of finding myself on the inside of an act of communication from elsewhere.”
James Alison – slightly adapted from his Taking the Plunge: Immersed in Theology in the February 20th, 2007 issue of Christianity Century.
So beautifully said. Finding myself in someone's words, like this, is both confirming and liberating. Thanks Paul.
Posted by: Simon | Friday, 23 March 2007 at 10:44 AM