Wednesday,
March 14, 2012
What to read for
today.
Chapter 18:Faith
Questions for your
personal reflection.
Return to your thoughts about “faith” in Chapter 15. Did this chapter impact or alter those
thoughts in any way?
Sharing with others:
What caught your attention or provoked your thinking today?
I had to read this chapter
several times before I understood what Merton might be saying, and even then I
needed help from an outside source that explained Merton as a “traditionalist”. I think he’s saying that conventional religious
propositions like the Trinity or spiritual texts that are supposed to contain
divine revelations are really just gateways or means to an end. Their end is actually an opening, i.e.
a contemplative experience, as opposed to the acceptance of a literal truth. If I got this right, then this line
of thinking is entirely compatible with Merton’s thoughts about mature
Christianity.
so this said to me that faith was like throwing a ball up in the air- it stops going up and just stays there
ReplyDeleteFaith , belief- not intellectual, not opinion, not acceptance
hmmm
it's not knowing, it's not the forms-ie the order we worship in etc. it just is.
I'm not sure I can say more that that- except I 'm not sure I've experienced the way he describes it
post by william
Posted by Second Thoughts
ReplyDeleteI am never sure what Merton is trying to say but I still got something out of the chapter today. It has to do with the word faith, as today's question suggests.
Merton says that often the word faith means statements "about" God whereas it should really refer to an experience of God. When that sank in, I finally understood something about myself.
I do not care to learn statements "about" God, no matter who or where they come from. I do not care to read or hear about revealed truths pronounced on the strength of anybody's authority.
Merton would probably say that I am lacking in humility. No doubt this is true. All the same, I would rather skip the statement part and go right to the experience. Frankly, statements "about" God bore me.
Anyway, Merton has said over and over again that the only person that can have my experience is me.