helpful reflective material for personal and group retreats. slow reading recommended. ( )

Nouwen focuses his attention on contemporary teaching methods as "violent" in the sense of being competitive, unilateral, and alienating rather than redemptive in the sense of being evocative, bilateral and actualizing (p. 3-20). He is, in my opinion, exactly on target. My favorite seminary class, much to the horror of most to whom I speak, was a 700-level class in Aramaic. A group of us sat around a conference table and we translated together, discussed the things we understood and those we didn't, and sought to see what the Aramaic texts of the Hebrew Bible had to say to us. The faculty member guided the group and always seemed willing to answer the questions that we were asking, rather than doggedly answering questions that we had not raised. For example, we encountered a text in the Book of Daniel where Daniel asks his guard to be allowed not to eat the food of the king but instead to eat only vegetables. The group wondered why that might be because it makes no appeal to Levitical dietary laws as one might have expected. We came up with a host of ideas (mine was that Daniel was desperate and so sought to reclaim his roots by looking all the way back to the very start of Genesis where humankind is given only the "green things" to eat). The faculty member took each of the suggestions seriously and everyone felt that they had both learned and helped others to learn. I've heard all of the reasons why classes can't be that way (too many students, too much information to pass along to take the time, too disruptive, too many silly ideas get raised, and so on) and I don't buy any of them. Nouwen writes of the contract - covenant and role definition - contemplation dichotomies in education and, in so doing, clarifies much of the faulty reasoning that lies behind the "violent approach" to teaching used these days.

In his chapter on preaching, Nouwen writes, "Every time real preaching occurs the crucifixion is realized again: for no preacher can bring anyone to the light without having entered the darkness of the Cross himself" (p. 40). Clearly, this is an appeal to the fundamental relational character of preaching and Nouwen sees that to establish a relationship between one in the light and one in darkness, someone has to make a move and the responsibility for that lies with the one in the light. Too often I hear preachers (and meet seminary students) who seem to have no clue about darkness and no idea that it is the place where many live their lives. They seem to think that by preaching inside a church somehow the people outside will hear. Indeed, Nouwen calls for pastors to "move beyond professionalism" in order to become faithful witnesses (p. 64). Listen to his understanding of ordination, "Ordination means the recognition and affirmation of the fact that a man has gone beyond the walls of fear, lives in intimate contact with the God of the living, and has a burning desire to show others the way to Him" (p. 108). What a powerful definition of ordained ministry! ( )