C
Crumpy
Guest
Wow, Wakeup! A protestant gave me a copy of Nee’s The Normal Christian life. Apparently the whole book is a meditation on Romans 5-8.
I got less than 40 pages into the book, because I got so interested in St. Paul in general and the letter to the Romans in particular. I discovered a very good overview of St Paul in Section 82 of The New Jerome Biblical Commentary.
I’ve also started Fr. Pacwa’s study guide of St. Paul’s writings on the sacraments, and I’m just a little way into that.
Nee (who’s name is something like Nee Te-Song) is a non-Catholic Chinese Christian. My ACR is on (anti-Catholic radar) as I start reading the book again. This time, I’m digressing to re-read Chapters 1 to 8 of Romans, and Nee has an interesting observation on those chapters. He notes that Paul is talking about sins (mentioning many specific types of sins) and he talks about these in parallel to the effect of the shedding of the blood of Christ for our salvation. In the later part of those chapters of Romans, Nee points out that Paul switches to talking about “sin” in general and in parallel to the sufferings of Christ on the cross.
It takes a lot of meditation to see this, but I think Nee’s correct in his observation.
At least I can say this, that by looking at what Nee was pointing to, I have read those chapters of Romans with more insight than I have ever done before.
I’m just back at a point a few pages into the book, but Nee is heading into a generalization that Paul is teaching that our sins are washed by the blood of Christ and that we deal with the sinfulness in our life by clinging to the cross of Christ.
Despite anything else that it may be, it’s very insightful and inspirational.
Reading these chapters of Romans a few times, I am reminded of a book on bible study by the guy who wrote all those “left behind” books. He said that before anybody tries to draw any conclusions and interpret scripture, they should read it at least 50 times, carefully. I can agree with him at least partially, that I’ve got a lot out of reading these chapters of Romans a few times, and I’m looking forward to reading them some more.
The Catholic view is, of course, that we should consider the full context of any scripture, which is the entire Bible, and that we should heed the teachings of the Church.
Fr. Fitzmeyer who wrote a couple parts of The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that Paul’s writings do not admit much knowledge of the details fo the life of Christ. Paul concentrates on the kerygma (the central events of Jesus’ passion death and resurrection). That’s a good explanation of why we need to look beyond even St. Paul.
I got less than 40 pages into the book, because I got so interested in St. Paul in general and the letter to the Romans in particular. I discovered a very good overview of St Paul in Section 82 of The New Jerome Biblical Commentary.
I’ve also started Fr. Pacwa’s study guide of St. Paul’s writings on the sacraments, and I’m just a little way into that.
Nee (who’s name is something like Nee Te-Song) is a non-Catholic Chinese Christian. My ACR is on (anti-Catholic radar) as I start reading the book again. This time, I’m digressing to re-read Chapters 1 to 8 of Romans, and Nee has an interesting observation on those chapters. He notes that Paul is talking about sins (mentioning many specific types of sins) and he talks about these in parallel to the effect of the shedding of the blood of Christ for our salvation. In the later part of those chapters of Romans, Nee points out that Paul switches to talking about “sin” in general and in parallel to the sufferings of Christ on the cross.
It takes a lot of meditation to see this, but I think Nee’s correct in his observation.
At least I can say this, that by looking at what Nee was pointing to, I have read those chapters of Romans with more insight than I have ever done before.
I’m just back at a point a few pages into the book, but Nee is heading into a generalization that Paul is teaching that our sins are washed by the blood of Christ and that we deal with the sinfulness in our life by clinging to the cross of Christ.
Despite anything else that it may be, it’s very insightful and inspirational.
Reading these chapters of Romans a few times, I am reminded of a book on bible study by the guy who wrote all those “left behind” books. He said that before anybody tries to draw any conclusions and interpret scripture, they should read it at least 50 times, carefully. I can agree with him at least partially, that I’ve got a lot out of reading these chapters of Romans a few times, and I’m looking forward to reading them some more.
The Catholic view is, of course, that we should consider the full context of any scripture, which is the entire Bible, and that we should heed the teachings of the Church.
Fr. Fitzmeyer who wrote a couple parts of The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that Paul’s writings do not admit much knowledge of the details fo the life of Christ. Paul concentrates on the kerygma (the central events of Jesus’ passion death and resurrection). That’s a good explanation of why we need to look beyond even St. Paul.