Session 7: Three Virtues,
Nine Varieties of Fruit, and One Body (pp. 181-218)
1. Why does Wright claim that love (as understood by Paul)
is a virtue?
2. What does Wright mean by this: “Love is not a ‘duty,’
even our highest duty. It is our destiny” (pg. 188)?
3. How does Wright interpret “If you are led by the Spirit
you are not under the Law” (Galatians 5:18)?
4. What is the “fruit of the Spirit” that Paul lists in
Galatians 5:22-23? What insights does Wright offer about the fruit of the
Spirit? Does anything here strike you as interesting, surprising or important?
What?
5. What does Paul mean (or what does Wright think that Paul
means) by the notion that the three virtues of faith, hope and love abide? What are the implications for how
we live our lives?
6. How do you respond to this: “Personal morality is
enormously important, but overconcentration on it can function as a
displacement activity when we don’t want to address the larger, equally
important issues” (pg. 209)?
7. What is Wright’s understanding and vision of Christian
unity? Why does he think it is essential?
In this chapter, Wright mentions "perfection" several times in reference to what it means to be fully/new human. It reminds me of Bee Season and the term "perfectamundo". I won't go into detail about "perfectamundo" (those who haven't read it should read the book, it's great!) but it has to do with Jewish mystic creation myth. When God created the world, God had to make some room and, uh, sort of put some of Godself into vessels. These shattered pieces have corrupted creation and we have to now pick up the pieces to repair the world.
ReplyDeleteI didn't do the explanation justice, so here's a link which explains the process of "tikkun olam" or picking up the pieces to make the world perfect. Tikkum Olam Repairing the World
Thoughts?
Here is a summary of our discussion on Wednesday evening:
ReplyDelete- Some of us found it difficult to focus on this chapter
- We thought these two chapters on Paul could serve as a short book on Paul
- We thought Wright got a little off his main topic of Christian virtue.
- We continued to wonder what the pagan world in the First Century was really like. Was the Christian message really radically different from what people heard from pagan philosophers or from other religions?
- We reflected on the importance of rules as "guard rails" to keep us out of disastrous trouble and also as providing limits in which creativity can flourish.
- We liked many of the illustrations used by Wright in this chapter: the law as guard rail, the nurturing of the garden.
- We spent a good deal of time talking about how the fruit of the Spirit requires community - it would be meaningless to achieve perfection alone; the virtues don't exist without the "other."
- We batted around different ideas about community. Is it possible for us to think about the whole world as a community? How small can a community be and still be a community?