Lectio Divina April 5, 2007
Posted by yuling in Reading, Spiritual Formation, University.trackback
Many Christians have increasingly discovered the wonder of Lectio Divina. From the fundamental Bible Belt, to the Emerging/Missional camp, all are increasingly aware of this ancient spiritual discipline. Lectio Divina is “often translated as ’spiritual reading,’ reading that enters our souls as food enters our stomachs, spreads through our blood, and becomes holiness and love and wisdom” (p, 4, Peterson, Eat this Book).
Today being the last Bible Study of the term for Ryerson CCF, I thought it would be great to introduce this ancient-future form of reading the scripture. The whole idea in reading scripture in this way is to approach the Bible devotionally, with total belief that God speaks through the written word in order for us to live out part of His Story. In preparation for this Bible Study, I had finished Eat This Book by Eugene Peterson.
Some interesting quotes:
We are in the odd and embarrassing position of being a church in which many among us believe ardently in the authority of the Bible but, instead of submitting to it, use it, apply it, take charge of it endlessly, using our own experience as the authority for how and where and when we will use it (p. 59)
We enter this text to meet God as he reveals himself, not to look for truth or history or morals that we can use for ourselves…. We do not read the Bible in order to find out how to get God into our lives, get him to participate in our lives. That’s getting it backward (p. 67).
Print technology – a wonderful thing, in itself – has put millions and millions of Bibles in our hands, but unless these Bibles are embedded in the context of a personally speaking God and a prayerfully listening community, we who handle these Bibles are at special risk. If we reduce the Bible to a tool to be used, the tool builds up calluses on our hearts (p. 92).
Translation is interpretation. Always. It is interpretation because words always convey far more meaning than the dictionary assigns them (p. 173).
So having done this kind of reading in my spiritual formation class, and in other group contexts, I was excited to do it with our Ryerson CCF group. To be honest, it was kind of disappointing. I’m not sure if it was my lack of instructions, the distractions of the program (the room has constant/various buzzings), starting very late, or just our inability to be serious. In any case, I found it tough to immerse myself in The Story. Also found it distracting that many people had the need to talk about issues aside from the biblical story.
Maybe the side talk is part of Lectio Divina. Maybe I just need more practice. I wonder if the Desert Fathers took a while to develop this kind of scripture reading.
Thanks for the quotes… even with the distractions, i usually find it better in a group than on my own… maybe it’s the a.d.d. but somehow there’s a bit more structure when i’m not on my own.
lectio’s good, inductive’s good sometimes too.. i think we need a whole range of different practices specifically to reading scripture to continually work through… ie. through a missional template, or social, or deeply personal, etc…
Peterson has a great understanding of exegesis and how it contributes to this ‘bible reading us’ perspective.
“Just as they have the ability to reveal, to draw us into a larger world, words also have the ability to conceal, to falsify and mislead. And words change: meanings and nuances are always in flux. This makes exegesis essential – but not easy. The difficulty of it tempts us to abandon it, to rely on our own intuitions and insights.”
oh and here’s a follow up comment from him:
“Exegesis is loving God enough to stop and listen carefully to what he says. This listening involves submitting to the text, not mastering it. In this way, exegesis is an act of sustained humility” (p. 57)