For the Love of Text

It is strange to see people speaking of a book like they would of a loved one... To me, the scriptures are intriquing texts that I wish to understand and enjoy the pursuit of such understanding as well as the sharing of it, but not something that I approach a priori with a love, commitment, and devotion in my heart. I hope that enables me to come to conclusions that are based in sound reason, evidence, and history, instead of being pulled by my love to see the text in a way it does not, itself, imagine. (Yet neither do I want to fall into the error of those whose anger, hatred, or suspicions pull the text in a way it does not, itself, imagine) But in some ways, I envy those whose hearts have a passionate love for the text...how someone like Tom Wright BECAUSE OF the passionate devotion in his heart toward the text is fueled in his willingness to reject that which isn't sound reasoning and to go where the text leads him even if it is not where he thought it should go... Perhaps, some day, I will have Tom Wright's heartfelt devotion for scripture as well as his reasoning and understanding. Right now, I have heartfelt devotion to understand, to search, to question, and to know... My words will be less flowerly and more analytic. I will not feel a desire to uphold a text because I do not know yet in many ways how it should be upheld--or, yet, even if a text should be.