"I Remember . . ."

In an interesting article about science and religion, Rabbi Johnathan Sacks remarks that both modes of knowing are needed for a complete life, and so need to "work together." He boils his recent book The Great Partnership down to the following quote:

Science takes things apart to see how they work; religion puts things together to see what they mean.

Living with an appreciation of science and religion is living in stereo, he says. Without both we hear in monotone, and also miss the symphony of living. Religion is the "linking" agent that allows us to live life with meaning. Without it, life is without meaning, ultimately, because science does not seek meaning for persons, does not ask why.

The same idea appears in Chapter 8 of Benedict's Jesus of Nazareth, the reading assignment for this week's discussion group. The first part of the chapter is given to a discussion of controversies over the authenticity of John's gospel, many raised by so-called "scientific" approaches to bibilical interpretation. Some consider the Gospel of John to be a "Jesus poem," without historical authenticity. Benedict questions this, pointing out that the author(s) of the gospel pointedly brought out the remembered dimension of the facts they experienced. They could think back to an earlier comment of Jesus, which helped them understand a later event. They linked events in Jesus' life to their knowledge of the Torah and Jewish liturgical feasts.

In other words, they sought the meaning of what might otherwise be "banal facts" in their prior experiences with Jesus and in the collective experience of Jewish history and identity. In that light, the extraordinary story of Jesus' life, death and rising, was made meaningful. The authors of John's gospel captured this meaning, and offered it as an authentic witness to the crucial significance of Jesus' life, death and resurrection, for their community, and, of course, for us.

Benedict's point is that a "scientific" approach can get things oh, so wrong. This happened in the case of "scientific" biblical interpretation. The same can happen in our lives. We need a way to find meaning in the facts of our lives. Some do this with a diary or journal (blogging is another form). These activities of recording and remembering help to link the present to our remembered past and the significance it already has for us. So too with religion. Science can tell us "exterior" facts, and religion, as science's partner, can help us find our lives' "interior" meanings, the meanings that relate us to God, and in his love, to our fellow human beings.

So, blog away, and pray!

Listen to Jose Mari Chan sing "Life is a Constant Change"

Listen to Jose Mari Chan sing "Deep In My Heart"