I'm hoping folks have been thinking a bit about where we might grow next. Thus far two options are on the plate:
I suspect there are more possibilities out there. In particular I would like to have a general consideration of what we find helpful here and what we don't so we might incorporate changes in how we do things.
11 comments:
I would like to join the blog....Would that be OK? And if so what do I do?
And a thought about a potential study might be the Book of Tobit. Maybe a chapter at a time? A really gentle intro to the New Year.
Jeff :O)
David, the friendly skripture study has been a bright spot in my life for the last year. I value highly the exchanges we've had with one another. I hope we can go on as before.
If you feel the need for a "break", I would suggest you ask someone else (certainly not me, I've done my stint), maybe one of our treasured fellow students to step up and make the assignments for a while. I'm cool with whatever the group decides, and David, it's your blog.
Hello Jeff.
Membership is on acclamation by the membership so I will atke the elad of otehrs hear on the decision. I will need your email address so I can email you an invite once everyone agrees. You then respond to the invite.
Tobit? Its been a while -- but "gentle" isn't what comes to mind. Asmodeus is defeated by sympathetic magic if I recall. Or am I remembering something else?
Larry, the scripture study stopped being my blog about a year ago. I'm following sense of the meeting here. And rest is just one option proposed.
I do worry sometimes taht it (I) get overy analytical at tiems and it may be intimidating to some whose faith is more emotion or intuition based than cognitive/analytic. If I'm wrong about this -- fine -- we continue as before. If I'm right about thsi (or even half-right) -- I would like to know how we can make it so folks with either an emotional or mystical approach can feel fully participant.
David - I love it that we have both the analytical and the intuitive represented here. We need both, I think. And we especially need the unique points of view and insight that each brings to the table.
This has been a real blessing to me. I hope we don't stop, or if we "rest", that it will be a short one.
I'm cool with a NT book. I love Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, I John, oh heck...any old book would be good! /smile
David,
I would like to continue the study. As for what book is next - I am totally open. I unfortunately cannot volunteer to be the host as I am already overcomitted and occasionally get heck for this at home.
Re: another new member, Jeff. I am always delighted to invite new members to join this study. However, with the exception of dear Twyla, most do not end up becoming full participants, or even partial participants. Thus it means just another name on the side bar of folks I don't have any connection with.
Jeff, if you are really interested, I welcome you. If you're not sure, why not just hang out for a while and comment, and if you find yourself a regular, then by all means, I would warmly welcome you to join us!
Hello all
I am happy to wait....no worries....
I guess my thought about Tobit was that it alludes to all kinds of stuff...such as...
the power of narrative/myth/folk tales...
healing...
spiritual journey...
divine guidance...
angels...
'evil'...
human love...
and yes there is 'magic'...but I have always seen Tobit as a kind of 'fairy tale'...and there has to be some magic in one of those....
And some of Jesus' miracles have a 'magical' quality e.g. anointing the blind man's eyes with mud and spittle....which is not dissimilar to the 'cure' for Tobit's blindness...
But hey I am very very new here...and it is an off the wall thought which popped into my head and even surprised me somewhat...It isn't the most obvious of books...
Jeff :O)
Tobit. By my count is 14 chapters. We've been hitting 2 pericopes a week which comes out at 30 pericopes or 15 weeks (give or take).
My bible software does have Tobit installed (I had to go in and change settings to find it) -- so I can take on the postings. Folks whow ant to read at home will need to get copies of bibles with Catholic (or deuterocanonical or Apocryphal) books. This is NOT a part of the Preotestant canon.
I am not commiting to this yet. I'm just mapping out possibilities. It the first concrete suggestion this far.
My vote would likely be for one of the epistles. But I'm still wide open. We could all read the Velveten Rabbit together for that matter. Its been a long time since I read anything with anywhere nears its spiritual depth.
Jeff - welcome to the blog :-). Feel free to join in and post whatever you wish.
David - I really appreciate the scripture study and I hope we don't have a break. As to what is next, I'm open to suggestion. For those looking for Tobit, it is part of the online New American Bible - here
Paul has a very underserved poor reputation among some women, due largely to a couple of unfortunate passages about women should not speak in the church.
Actually IMO he was about as partial to women as Jesus was.
Those are some of the reasons I would vote for an epistle (of course others beside Paul wrote in that genre). The premier of them all for my money is Romans, and a real handful to study.
We chose something simpler at Gainesville last month, the little book of Philippians, a lovely short book, with lots of interesting historical facets.
David, re the analytical, forge on friend. We need that badly here.
Romans. Whew! Heavily christological. And soteriological. Interesting (to me). But even longer run than Tobit. 41 pericopes (subsections in NRSV) -- at two a week that's 21 weeks.
We've got a mix of catholics, protestants quakers and unalignned -- discussions could be interesting.
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