BOOK NOTES: SHAPED BY THE WORD
- Tessa Depuy
- Apr 16, 2023
- 15 min read
Updated: May 3, 2023
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Iconographic Nature of Scripture
Kairotic Existence
Functional-Relational Factors
Being and Doing
Breaking the Crust
Wesley's Guidelines for Reading Scripture
Obstacles to Spiritual Reading
The Practice of Spiritual Reading
Chapter 1: Getting Oriented
"We are all pilgrims on the way toward the wholeness God has for us in Christ" (p. 15).
"When God puts a 'finger' on those things in our lives that are inconsistent with God's will for our wholeness, it is not simply to point them out... That finger has a hand attached that offers us the nurture into wholeness that we need at that point. This concern for our whole being is the essential nature of God's knock upon the closed doors of our lives. The knocks come at those points where God is shut out of our lives; and we are imprisoned within, imprisoned by some bondage that does not allow us to be free in God's love and in God's will for our wholeness in our life with others... These are the points where God chooses to begin a new work of growth toward wholeness in my being" (p. 17).
Chapter 2: How to "Read" Without "Reading"
"Listen for God to speak to you in and through, around and within, over and behind and out front of everything that you read. Keep asking yourself, 'What is God seeking to say to me in all of this?' By adopting this posture toward the text you will begin the process of reversing the learning mode that establishes you as the controlling power who seeks to master a body of information. Instead, you will begin to allow the text to become an instrument of God's grace in your life. You will begin to open yourself to the possibility of God's setting the agenda for your life through the text." (p. 20).
"One of our problems in approaching the scriptures is that we approach them in the cognitive, rational, critical mode. We stand off from them, look at them, evaluate them, and judge them in the light of who we are and our own agenda at that moment. We respond to the scriptures, but often our response is simply that of reading ourselves into the scriptures at some level rather than allowing God to speak to us out of them. We manipulate the scripture to authenticate our 'false self', our pervasive structures of self-referenced being, and to resist God's call to our true self, that self that is actualized through radical abandonment to God" (p. 22).
Questions to ask yourself:
How do I feel about what is being said?
How do I react?
How do I respond deep within?
What is stirring in the depths of my spirit?
Why do I feel that way?
Why am I responding in this manner?
Why do I have these feelings within?
What is going on down inside me?
How is the Spirit of God touching my spirit?
What do your responses tell you about your habits, your attitudes, your perspectives, your reactions to life?
Are you beginning to learn something about yourself? (p. 22).
"Thomas á Kempis said: 'A humble knowledge of ourselves is a surer way to God than is the search for depth of learning.' That humble knowledge of yourself can come through a learning process if, as you read [a] book, you begin to balance your habitually cognitive, rational, intellectual response pattern by risking this affective dynamic of response deep within your being" (p. 22).
Chapter 3: The Nature of Spiritual Formation
Definition: "Christian spiritual formation is the process of being confirmed to the image of Christ for the sake of others" (p. 25).
Process
Spiritual formation is not an instantaneous experience... Spiritual formation is a lifelong process of growth into the image of Christ. This gradual aspect of spiritual formation moves against the grain of our instant gratification culture" (p. 25).
"Human life is, by its very nature, spiritual formation. The question is not whether to undertake spiritual formation. The question is what kind of spiritual formation are we already engaged in? Are we being increasingly conformed to the brokenness and disintegration of the world, or are we being increasingly conformed to the wholeness and integration of the image of Christ" (p. 26).
Being Conformed
'Ours is an objectifying, informational, functional culture. We are largely governed by a materialistic/humanistic worldview that perceives everything 'out there' as something to be grasped, controlled, and manipulated for our own purposes or, even worse, for the purposes of God!" (p. 26).
"'Graspers' powerfully resist being grasped by God. Controllers are inherently incapable of yielding control to God. Manipulators strongly reject being shaped by God. Information gatherers are structurally closed to being addressed by God. Information takers have extreme difficulty being receivers. Frenetically functional activists find it extremely difficult to be still and know God as God (Ps. 46:10)" (p. 27).
"The expectation of instant gratification in our culture is a by-product of our grasping, controlling, manipulative way of living. It is a feedback we require to affirm for ourselves that we are effective persons. It confirms our functional self-identity. If what we do doesn't provide such gratification, it might mean that we are not capable, effective controllers of what is 'out there'" (p. 27).
"Genuine spiritual formation, being conformed, is the great reversal of the negative spiritual formation of our culture. It reverses our role from being the subject who controls the objects of the world, to being the object of the loving purposes of God who seeks to 'control' us for our perfect wholeness" (p. 27).
For Others
"If the spiritual journey is a process of being conformed to the image of Christ, then the journey should bring us to greater and greater Christlikeness in our life with others... Scripture is not only a place where we find ourselves encountered by God, but a place where God probes the nature of our relationships with one another" (p. 30).
Chapter 4: Various Words of God
Our Perpetual Frameworks
"We all have deeply ingrained perceptual frameworks that shape our lives in the world: structures of habit, attitude, perspective, relational dynamics, and response mechanisms. Our perpetual frameworks shape our understanding of God, our understanding of ourselves, and our understanding of others" (p. 33).
"These frameworks can, and most often do, become our prisons. We find ourselves in bondage to them. Our future becomes a replay of our past. One of the roles of the scripture in our spiritual formation is to liberate us from this restrictive bondage" (p. 33).
You Are a "Word" of God
"You are a 'word' of God! Every human being is a word that God speaks into existence... God 'spoke us forth in Christ before the foundation for the world that we should be holy and blameless before God in love' (Eph 1:4)... Your conception was no surprise to God. You were purposed into being in the heart of God's love. God spoke you forth from before the foundation of the world. God 'foreknew' you into being" (p. 34-35).
"God spoke us forth to be holy and blameless before God in love. 'Holy' has to do with the wholeness of our being in the image of God; 'blameless' has to do with actions that flow out of that wholeness of being. You see, God is involved with both the being and doing dynamics of our lives" (p. 35).
"The heart of the matter is that God has spoken us forth. Some saint has said, 'You are the breath of God, and God is right now breathing you.' Something deep within us touches God... The 'word' that God is breathing us forth to be is God's will for our wholeness in Christ's image" (p. 35).
The Incarnation of Our "Word"
"The 'word' we are, this 'word' incarnate in us, is constantly being shaped in us -- in our incarnation. It is being shaped either positively or negatively -- positively when our 'word' is being shaped by the Word of God, negatively when our 'word' is being garbled and distorted and debased by the values and structures of the world. The fact is, our 'word' has become garbled by the intrusion of false and incomplete expressions of being. Our 'word' has become distorted by the infiltration of damaging and destructive dynamics of life. Our 'word' has become debased by the invasion of manipulative models of relationship" (p. 36).
"We need far more wholeness, far more healing, far more cleansing than what we have experienced if we are to become the 'word' God speaks us forth to be in the world" (p. 37).
The Living, Penetrating, Transforming Word of God
"The Word of God goes to the very center of what we are. It cuts through to that which bonds us together as a being; it touches upon that which forms the essence of what we are" (p. 39).
"'But all are naked and laid bare before God's eyes.' The term laid bare comes both from gladiatorial combat in the arena and from the sacrificial altar. In association with the altar, it describes the position of the sacrifice with its head pulled back and its throat exposed for the sacrificial knife. In association with gladiatorial combat, it describes the position of the vanquished gladiator laid across the knee of the victor with the throat exposed for the death blow of the knife. The writer of Hebrews is suggesting this as our posture before the Word of God -- a position of total, absolute, unconditional vulnerability!" (p. 40).
"The Word of God is a living and productive scalpel in the loving hands of One who penetrates to the core of our being in order to cleanse and heal our garbled, distorted, debased word and transform it into the word God speaks us forth to be in the world" (p. 41).
Chapter 5: Information Versus Formation
The Informational-Functional Culture
"Quoting William of St. Thierry: 'The Scriptures need to be read in the same spirit in which they were written, and only in that spirit are they to be understood... In every piece of Scripture, real attention is as different from mere reading as friendship is from entertainment, or the love of a friend from a casual greeting'" (p. 49-50).
The Nature of Informational Reading
Characteristics of Informational Reading:
Informational reading seeks to cover as much as possible as quickly as possible so as to quickly separate the wheat from chaff.
Informational reading is linear.
Informational reading seeks to master the text; we seek to grasp it, to get our minds around it; we bring it under our control.
Informational reading believes the text is an object 'out there' for us to control and/or manipulate according to our own purposes, intentions, or desires; we back off and keep ourselves at a distance from the text.
Informational reading is analytical, critical, and judgmental.
Informational reading is characterized by a problem-solving mentality, which feeds back to the functional mode of existence.
"Where is there a space, a silence, in which God can speak? Where can the Word address the word you are? The informational mode of reading tends to maintain the false self -- a self controlled by those dynamics of the old perceptual framework that garble the word God speaks us forth to be in the world" (p. 53).
The Informational Mode in Reading the Bible
"We all have developed religious or cultural ideas about the Bible that usually entrench us within a set of preconceptions that keep the scripture 'safe,' under our control, non-threatening to our false self -- our distorted 'word'" (p.54).
"The religious false self wants relationship with God on its terms -- not God's... the informational approach facilitates this manipulation of scripture. We often are not looking for a transforming encounter with God" (p. 54).
"Making the false self vulnerable to transforming encounter with God is dangerous" (p. 54).
"To allow the scripture to be the living, productive Word of God, penetrating to the core of our debased 'word,' our false self, is difficult. It is much easier to bring the scripture under the control of our false self, to narrow it down to our definition of the Christian life, and to use it to defend our false self against all challenges, even God's" (p. 55).
The Nature of Formational Reading
Characteristics of Formational Reading:
Formational reading avoids quantifying the amount of reading in any sort of way; you are concerned with quality of reading, not quantity.
Formational reading is in dept; you seek to allow the passage to open to you its deeper dimensions, its multiple layers of meaning.
Formational reading allows the text to master you.
Formational reading believes the text becomes the subject of the reading relationship; we are the object that is shaped by the text.
Formational reading requires a humble, detached, receptive, loving approach.
Formational reading is open to mystery; we come to be open to that mystery we call God; we come to stand before that mystery and to allow that mystery to address us.
"Formational reading... requires time to 'center down,' to use the old Quaker phrase, to become still, to relinquish, to let go of your life in the presence of God. We tend to race through our lives frantically maintaining a precarious control on our fast-moving vehicle of life. We need to slow down, to let go of the controls" (p. 60).
Informational-Formational Interplay and Balance
"Our motive will shape our approach to the scripture. Informational and informational are two different techniques for reading. The real issue is not a matter of which technique is better or even what is the optimum combination of techniques, but rather what posture toward the mystery of God can open us up to informational possibilities" (p. 61).
"A fruitful interplay exists between the informational and informational modes... But the informational mode is only the 'front porch' of the role of scripture in spiritual formation. It is the point of entry into the text. But once we have crossed the porch, we must enter into that deeper encounter with the Word that is the formational approach, if we are to experience our false self being shaped by the Word toward wholeness in the image of Christ" (p. 62).
"Only in the formational mode, where that shift of the inner posture of our being takes place, can we become listeners. Only in that mode can we become receptive and accessible to be addressed by the living Word of God" (p. 62).
"God asks to be loved with all our minds and all our hearts. The informational aspect relates primarily (though not exclusively) to our minds. It must be balanced with the formational aspect, which relates primarily (though not exclusively) to our hearts" (p. 63).
Chapter 6: The Iconographic Nature of Scripture
The Problem of Meaning
"If we adopt this perception of the transfer of understanding at a cognitive level, at an informational level only, then the only parameters we have to evaluate our understanding are our own self-referenced parameters. This is why the Bible tends to be interpreted in the light of modern philosophical presumptions. We simply read back into the text our own worldview in order to maintain our cognitive, rational control of the text" (p. 65).
Deeper Dimensions of Meaning
"The cognitive and the affective dimensions of human existence must be conjoined in mutual interdependence if Christians were to avoid falling into the extremes of sterile intellectualism on the one side or mindless enthusiasm on the other" (p. 66).
"Biblical writers used cognitive images from within their perceptual horizon to express the reality of their experience with God, their encounter with the Word and its intrusion into their lives. Their images are cognitive portraits of an affective involvement with the living Word" (p. 66).
The Nature of Scripture
"In scripture we encounter God coming to us, addressing us, penetrating our degraded word, seeking to speak us forth as God's word into the world. But the Word addresses us in scripture through human communication, human language. So in a sense, scripture is iconographic" (p. 68).
"The writers of scripture participated in a wholly new order of being shaped by the living Word of God. Of necessity, they were constrained to use the language of the old order. of being, the language of their world, to convey to one another the breadth and length and height and depth of their experience with the Word. But in doing this, language becomes iconographic. It becomes a verbal window into the reality of life shaped by the Word" (p. 68).
The Dynamic of Scripture as Icon
"Icons turn our perspective on its head. When you look at an icon, you discover that the point of focus is in you, not 'out there' in the picture. You find yourself drawn into. reality, a mystery, that opens out in front of you... Icons are so vital within the community of believers as windows into reality, drawing them into God's new order of being in Christ" (p. 70).
Chapter 7: Kairotic Existence
The 'World' of the Scripture
"The writers and the events bear witness to the presence of an alternate reality that breaks into the human cultures, disrupts them, and calls people to find their true identity, values, and purpose in this alternate reality. This alternate reality even disrupts the established religious customs and traditions of those who mistakenly thought they were living in that reality. When we come to the scripture, part of our perplexity comes from the fact that we encounter something that takes us beyond ourselves, beyond the prevailing values and perspectives of our culture, even beyond the religious structures and practices of our faith" (p. 74).
"An alternate order of being confronts us. It draws us out of our false self and into a mode of being where our true self is found. The scripture draws us into a community of people across the centuries who have found their true life in this alternative order of being" (p. 74).
"Wisdom is the ordering of life according to God's will and purpose. Wisdom is bringing all the dynamics of your being into harmony with the word God is speaking you forth to be in the world" (p. 75).
Kairos: "the fulfilled time," "the crucial time," "the decisive time," that time when everything flows together an opportunity is there which, perhaps, can never be seized again.
"When Paul says, 'Fully appropriate for yourselves the kairos' (Eph. 5:16; Col. 4:5), he means that we are to immerse ourselves completely in, totally consecrate ourselves to, and unconditionally yield ourselves to this new order of being in Christ that God offers. We are to allow our daily life to be shaped by the dynamics of that new order of being -- by its values. and structures, by its pervading reality of the presence, purpose, and power of God" (p. 77).
"The kairos of God's transforming grace, the kairos of the new order of being that God has provided in Christ, the kairos of an order of being shaped by the living Word of God is the 'world' of scripture" (p. 77).
Some Dynamics of Kairotic Existence
Kairotic existence is:
a life shaped by the will of God in the world.
a life empowered by the indwelling presence of God.
a life in community.
a way of life in the world in which our lives become harmonious for others.
the state of being harmoniously in relationship with God.
The Rhythms of Kairotic Existence
"Genuine spiritual disciplines intrude into our lives at points where we are in bondage to something that diminishes the word God speaks us forth to be. These disciplines occur in our bondage to our own brokenness from which God is seeking to liberate us. At this level, spiritual disciplines are not comfortable. Spiritual disciplines are a grace that comes to us from God. We may not initially see them as coming from God's hand; but once we have submitted ourselves humbly to them, have become responsive to the disciplines, and have begun to experience the growth and wholeness they bring, we begin to realize they are a gift of God. They are God's doing all along -- not our own" (p. 80).
"I know that, in myself, I do not have the strength to maintain the necessary spiritual disciplines I need for growth into wholeness in Christ. I know that when the going gets tough, my desire for my will, my desires, my purposes, and my comfort is going to subvert and pervert those spiritual disciplines unless I have brothers and sisters in Christ who hold me to the task" (p. 80).
"Liturgy is a means of grace in which God more fully speaks forth into being the human community, binds the members more closely to God in love, bonds them more closely to one another in love, and thrusts them into the world as agents of God's love" (p. 81).
"All of these rhythms -- spiritual disciplines, community, liturgy -- thrust us out into the world. They are rhythms by which we bring the world that is in us into the presence of God so it may be transformed. Then, in that experience of God's transforming grace, we as agents of healing, wholeness, reconciliation, and love bring the kairotic existence of grace and love into the world" (p. 81).
Chapter 8: Functional-Relational Factors
The Functional Realities of Our Culture
"Western culture in general, and American culture in particular, is a functionally oriented culture... Our culture establishes the meaning, the value, the purpose, even the self-image of persons on the basis of function" (p. 85).
The Functional Factor in the Church
"Ministry is more than what one does... Ministry is what one is in relationship with God in service to others... What one does may not be as important as who one is with a person" (p. 88).
Functional Factors in Spiritual Formation
"For those of us seriously engaged in spiritual formation, there is a strong temptation to see spiritual formation as a technique that we do. We may even be seeing spiritual formation as something we do to revive a burned-out ministry. We may be seeing spiritual formation as something we do to replace worn-out methods of devotion or worship. How often do we see worship as something we do to get right with God, instead of an offering of ourselves to God in worship through which we can be drawn into the depths of God's loving presence" (p. 88).
"Temptations come at the very heart of our relationship with God; they are the temptations to subvert the relationship for our own purposes... The temptation is for Jesus to find his role-affirmation; his self-identity; his value, meaning, and purpose through a functional approach. He is tempted to do something to prove who he is. This is our primary temptation in a functionally oriented society in a high-tech culture... Jesus responds to the functional temptation by pointing to the relational reality of life. At the center, human life is set within a relationship with God. God's purpose becomes focal. God's action becomes central" (p. 90).
"The Israelites' life and welfare are the result of God's action, not theirs; the result of their relationship with God, not their functional activity... The contrast is between the sustenance of life, which results from obedience to God (relational) and the results of functional self-effort, trying to bring about sustenance of life or presuming that such sustenance is the result of one's own self-effort' (p. 92).
The Functional-Relational Realities of Scripture
"True life and wholeness are the results of being shaped by the Word of God. This shaping, however, is not something we do by our efforts (functional); it is what God does in us when we are in a loving, receptive, responsive relationship with God. The scripture is not something we can use to bring our lives into conformity with the image of God (functional), but something God can use to transform our garbled 'word' into he word God speaks us forth to be in the world (relational)" (p. 92).
"Our culture tends to think that our relational activities flow from our functional activities. But the biblical, the kairotic, perspective is that our functional activities must flow from the relational realities of our lives, especially our relationship with God" (p. 93).
Impact on Our Spiritual Formation
"Transformation occurs when scripture is viewed as. place of encounter with God that is approached by yielding the false self and its agenda, by opening one's self unconditionally to God, and by a hunger to respond in love to whatever God desires" (p. 95).
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