April 9th, 2008 – The New Man Book Discussion
Tonight there were searching questions and insights. Will started us off asking Nicholl’s definition of Good, Truth and Knowledge.
Once again these questions cut to the heart of the material we were reading. Nicholl writes about a reversal that must take place where truth comes first to help us know what is Good and then Good must come first because truth without Good misses the “mark” (this is the Greek word for sin as translated by Nicholl).
Greg talked about this passage and how much of church history, when the focus is on Truth rather than Good not only misses the mark but misses the point of what the church is here to do.
Debi brought up the devaluation of the word “good” now. When college students use “good” to describe something it is frowned upon as a mediocre description. This was also something we talked about last week when using the word “good” felt boring.
The next chapter we discussed brought this into focus. The author described two types of righteousness, the righteousness of the Pharisees and the righteousness Jesus extolled. The righteousness of the Pharisees was an external righteousness; playing by all the rules, getting to heaven by good works.
The righteousness Jesus extolled is completely different. Rules may need to be broken, healing on the Sabbath, breaking the purity rules of Leviticus to help the half-dead victim in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. This was tough talk and a tough concept because probably something inside all of us longs for simple answers and to follow a rule book without questioning.
We moved into interesting “side” conversations that were more about the book in general. We had a long discussion where we compared ourselves to ancient people because of a remark Nicholl had made about the ancient language modern man is no longer acquainted with now.. Greg and Mary talked about how this did not mean they were smarter than we were but there were connections we no longer explore and explanations we no longer accept.
Myth and metaphor are discounted as knowledge in favor of scientific knowledge and the what can be proved in the physical world.
This book group continues to be impressive week after week. Everyone reads the material and everyone participates in the discussion and it is lively. Marvis talked about how she needs silent time to think about the ideas this book presents and I believe she was speaking for us all. Janet and Eileen agreed that this is a different level of material than they have read in a while.
Unfortunately there was work I needed to do prevented me from attending choir practice tonight.
Tonight there were searching questions and insights. Will started us off asking Nicholl’s definition of Good, Truth and Knowledge.
Once again these questions cut to the heart of the material we were reading. Nicholl writes about a reversal that must take place where truth comes first to help us know what is Good and then Good must come first because truth without Good misses the “mark” (this is the Greek word for sin as translated by Nicholl).
Greg talked about this passage and how much of church history, when the focus is on Truth rather than Good not only misses the mark but misses the point of what the church is here to do.
Debi brought up the devaluation of the word “good” now. When college students use “good” to describe something it is frowned upon as a mediocre description. This was also something we talked about last week when using the word “good” felt boring.
The next chapter we discussed brought this into focus. The author described two types of righteousness, the righteousness of the Pharisees and the righteousness Jesus extolled. The righteousness of the Pharisees was an external righteousness; playing by all the rules, getting to heaven by good works.
The righteousness Jesus extolled is completely different. Rules may need to be broken, healing on the Sabbath, breaking the purity rules of Leviticus to help the half-dead victim in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. This was tough talk and a tough concept because probably something inside all of us longs for simple answers and to follow a rule book without questioning.
We moved into interesting “side” conversations that were more about the book in general. We had a long discussion where we compared ourselves to ancient people because of a remark Nicholl had made about the ancient language modern man is no longer acquainted with now.. Greg and Mary talked about how this did not mean they were smarter than we were but there were connections we no longer explore and explanations we no longer accept.
Myth and metaphor are discounted as knowledge in favor of scientific knowledge and the what can be proved in the physical world.
This book group continues to be impressive week after week. Everyone reads the material and everyone participates in the discussion and it is lively. Marvis talked about how she needs silent time to think about the ideas this book presents and I believe she was speaking for us all. Janet and Eileen agreed that this is a different level of material than they have read in a while.
Unfortunately there was work I needed to do prevented me from attending choir practice tonight.
posted by Gary at
9:50 PM
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