We need a discussion-- about how we should proceed in this study. We have some 114 'sayings', apparently arranged in a haphazard way, frequently with little or no relationship between the one before or the one after. Two problems (pardon me, issues) need to be addressed:
1) How long do we expect to work with Thomas? John seemed too long a time for some, so, to give some order to our group effort we need a rough understanding of how long:
2) Then there is how: in the interests of being orderly and thorough there are (at least) two ways to proceed:
a) go through the book in the order it's written: 1,2,3,etc. to 114.
b) select groups of sayings that seem similar. That would require me or someone to make some judgments about that.
I'm very happy to go either (or any other) way. As for 'how long': one person suggested we look at 10-12 'sayings' once a week; a couple suggested that we could do with less. However many we take at a time needs to be correlated with how long between postings of the text.
I'm glad to respect and adhere to whatever decisions we can make about these two matters, but I need direction.
Once again we need a discussion. (I've always loved the idea of a 'leaderless group'. When that happens, we may see the more complete leadership of the H.S.)
5 comments:
I expressed my concerns about length. I'm also willing to with the group on this one.
I will have personal energy issues over the next 2 months -- courses and issues at work. So that also impinges.
A third way -- one that maybe would cover my energy concerns and the other's concerns about length of passage would be for you to post a smaller passage once a week and agree to a check in -- mayb eten weeks away where we check to see if everyone is still being fed and whetehr we waont to move onto something else.
You obviously know Thoams well enough to note parallels and themes. Could you post a set thatw ere related in some way --- four passgaes on fire so we coudl explore teh common theme -- or maybe a passage and juxtapose it with a gospel passage from the bible so we could see similarities and differences. I think there's some real possibilities to be creative in posting the passages for consideration if we trust you a bit with that.
I agree with David...it would be kind of neat to have the sayings grouped together. Not so overwhelming. Plus, for anyone who is reading Thomas for the first time (I'm probably the only one), that would be a fun way to spice it up as I am reading it saying by saying, and very slowly.
I don't have any time issues and will agree with whatever y'all say. After all, I'm the new kid on the block! :)
I haven't read Thomas before, either. Whatever you guys decide to do is ok with me.
So we're all in agreement: we all want to do this in what ever way everybody else wants to. Oops.
I sense that Larry feels about Thomas pretty much how I felt about James. As such my question to Larry is, how do we approach Thomas in such a way that folks who aren't familiar with Thomas (most of us) or who haven't looked at it in a long long time (me) can get the most out from our searchings?
This is my first reading of Thomas. David's suggestion sounds very good to me.
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