C
CelticWarlord
Guest
Raymond Edward Brown (1928 – 1998) was an American Catholic priest, a member of the Sulpician Fathers and a prominent biblical scholar. He was regarded as a specialist concerning the hypothetical “Johannine community”, which he speculated contributed to the authorship of the Gospel of John, and he also wrote influential studies on the birth and death of Jesus. Brown was professor emeritus at Union Theological Seminary (UTS) in New York where he taught for 29 years. He was the first Catholic professor to gain tenure there, where he earned a reputation as a superior lecturer.
“Instead of reading the Bible to assure ourselves that we are right,
we would be better to read it to discover where we have not been
listening."
"If we ever make Christian faith totally dependent on the latest scholarly interpretation of a text, it could change each week."
"…no matter how often we renew our faith, there is the supreme testing by death. Whether the death of a loved one or one’s own death, it is the moment where one realizes that all depends on God. We have been cautious during our life to shield ourselves with bank accounts, credit cards and investments, and to protect our future with health plans, life insurance, social security and retirement plans. Yet there comes a moment when neither cash nor ‘plastic’ works. No human support goes with one to the grave; and human companionship stops at the tomb. One enters alone."
"I find it necessary to be precise here because, on the American Catholic scene in the last two years, fundamentalist newspapers and journals have had a habit of trotting out a polemicist, dubbing him a scholar, and then playing a game of ‘scholars are divided’ in order to propose views that have no serious following in the world of biblical scholarship."
“Indeed by generous estimate, were scholars agreed on a portrait of the ‘historical Jesus,’ it would not cover one hundredth of the actual Jesus. It is equally a mistake to equate ‘the historical (reconstructed) Jesus’ with the real Jesus-- a Jesus who really means something to people, one on whom they can base their lives.”
“In preaching we must stress even for modern audiences that the Johannine Jesus is not engaged in cosmetic improvement of the quality of life on earth, offering more abundant water and food, with sharper vision and a longer span of years. From another world come his gifts, even if confusingly they bear the same names that our language gives to what we so eagerly seek on earth: food, light, and life. In reality, however, his gifts go beyond anything we could hope for, satisfying needs we scarcely knew we had and doing so permanently.”
“The readers/hearers of the Fourth Gospel are not meant simply to learn from such scenes: They must encounter Jesus too and be challenged by him; they will misunderstand by fitting him into their own preconceived needs, and they will have to be led to perceive God’s ways.”
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- - - - - - -we would be better to read it to discover where we have not been
listening."
"If we ever make Christian faith totally dependent on the latest scholarly interpretation of a text, it could change each week."
"…no matter how often we renew our faith, there is the supreme testing by death. Whether the death of a loved one or one’s own death, it is the moment where one realizes that all depends on God. We have been cautious during our life to shield ourselves with bank accounts, credit cards and investments, and to protect our future with health plans, life insurance, social security and retirement plans. Yet there comes a moment when neither cash nor ‘plastic’ works. No human support goes with one to the grave; and human companionship stops at the tomb. One enters alone."
"I find it necessary to be precise here because, on the American Catholic scene in the last two years, fundamentalist newspapers and journals have had a habit of trotting out a polemicist, dubbing him a scholar, and then playing a game of ‘scholars are divided’ in order to propose views that have no serious following in the world of biblical scholarship."
“Indeed by generous estimate, were scholars agreed on a portrait of the ‘historical Jesus,’ it would not cover one hundredth of the actual Jesus. It is equally a mistake to equate ‘the historical (reconstructed) Jesus’ with the real Jesus-- a Jesus who really means something to people, one on whom they can base their lives.”
“In preaching we must stress even for modern audiences that the Johannine Jesus is not engaged in cosmetic improvement of the quality of life on earth, offering more abundant water and food, with sharper vision and a longer span of years. From another world come his gifts, even if confusingly they bear the same names that our language gives to what we so eagerly seek on earth: food, light, and life. In reality, however, his gifts go beyond anything we could hope for, satisfying needs we scarcely knew we had and doing so permanently.”
“The readers/hearers of the Fourth Gospel are not meant simply to learn from such scenes: They must encounter Jesus too and be challenged by him; they will misunderstand by fitting him into their own preconceived needs, and they will have to be led to perceive God’s ways.”
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