Feb 12, 2009

Christocentric Reading of the Psalms

I'm nearing the end of my class on ecclesiology and working on the final paper, which looks at models of the church using Avery Dulles' comparative approach. In so doing, I've spent a little time peering into Dietrich Bonhoeffer's works, albeit not as much as I'd like. Bonhoeffer is an enigma as he is both loved and hated by a wide array of traditions.

I have not read enough of his own writings to have an informed opinion, but my curiosity has certainly been piqued by Eric Andrae's article, Pro Deo et Patria: Themes of the Cruciform Life in Dietrich Bonhoeffer. (highly recommend reading it if you have the time).




Here is a quote on how Bonhoeffer's hermeneutical approach the Psalsms. I like to call this an Emmaus Road Hermeneutic as Jesus told his disciples in Luke 24 that the entire canon was all about him:
If we want to read and to pray the prayers of the Bible and especially the
Psalms, therefore, we must not ask first what they have do uith us, but what
they have to do with Jesus Christ. We must ask how we can understand the Psalms
as God's Word,and then we shall be able to pray them. It does not depend,
therefore, on whether the Psalms express adequately that which we feel at a
given moment in our heart. If we are to pray aright, perhaps it is quite
necessary that we pray contrary to our own heart. Not what we want to pray, but
what God wants us to pray. If we were dependent entirely on ourselves, we would
probably pray only the fourth petition of the Lord's Prayer. But God wants it
otherwise. The richness of the Word of God ought to determine our prayer, not
the poverty of our heart.

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