The September “Winter Living Theology 2023” held at Lumko Institute and Conference Centre under the theme “Our Bible: where does it come from and why do we need it?” saw the participation of the ecumenical fraternity. Among those in attendance during the three-day workshop facilitated by Jesuit Fr David Neuhaus, was the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue Coordinator Fr Bonaventure Mashata, MAfr.

When the Ecumenical Church enthusiastically studies the Bible together…

From the 5^th to the 7^th of September 2023, we had a “Winter Living Theology 2023”- “Our Bible: where does it come from and why do we need it?” given by Fr David Neuhaus, SJ at Lumko. The Assembly was made up of Christians from various denominations. There were a Bishop, priests, deacons, sisters, and lay people. We all studied with enthusiasm.

1.    The Word Enthusiasm

The etymology of this word reveals the movements in us as we were studying the Bible. For the word “enthusiasm” comes from the Greek word ενθουσιασμός enthousiasmos, from “entheos” ένθεος meaning “the God within, possessed by God, God in us, inspired.” This did excite us indeed.

2.    Studying the Bible Ecumenically is Enthusiastic

While listening to Fr David, we were full of new life, we were excited, God was indeed in us; it was as if we were hearing those words for the first time. We focused on:

1. Needing the Bible: even if Christianity is not a religion of the Book but a religion of the Incarnate Word, we still need to read the Bible so that we could understand the event of Christ crucified and Christ resurrected. This event can only be understood and proclaimed reflecting on the experience of Israel (OT) and the experience of Jesus (NT).
2. Making the Bible: we looked at the making of the Old Testament; the New Testament organization follows the Old Testament Structure: Law(Gospel), History (Acts of the Apostles), Wisdom (Epistles) and Prophets (Revelation); the canon and the authority, the book binding…
3. Organization of the Bible: we went through its content and order, the reformation content versus the counter-reformation content, the TaNaKh…,
4. The different ways of Reading the Bible (The literal reading emphasis on understanding the words, the grammar, the syntax; The Church Fathers’ Reading focus on understanding the words and what is behind them; the Historical critical reading concentrates on understanding where the words came from and the world in which the text was produced; Literary-theological reading pays attention to understand what the words evoke and the relationships among them; Jewish readings help understand same words that have different meaning in Christianity; Muslim readings – different words saying some of the same things; Fundamentalist readings (confusing those words and ours, their world and ours). Fr David emphasized that “The fundamentalist approach is dangerous, for it is attractive to people who look to the Bible for ready answers to the problems of life. It can deceive these people, offering them interpretations that are pious but illusory, instead of telling them that the Bible does not necessarily contain an immediate answer to each and every problem. (…) Fundamentalism actually invites people to a kind of intellectual suicide. It injects into life a false certitude, for it unwittingly confuses the divine substance of the biblical message with what are in fact its human limitations.”
5. Appreciating the distance: While reading ancient literature in a modern world one should look closely at the original meaning of the words, their plurality of interpretations…

In the questions section, I loved the desire of many people wanting to know the meaning of the word prophet. Fr David stated that: “The prophet is a person in intimate relationship with God. This intimacy with the divine life enables a profound understanding of the past and an astute analysis of the present that plots out the possibilities of the future.”

At the end of the three days, unanimously, we all felt the need to continue reading the Bible together as an ecumenical church. Thus, the whole studying process was enthusiastic.

3.    The creation is Enthusiastic

But this was not the only point that touched me during those three days. Since we are talking about listening with enthusiasm and currently, we are in the Season of Creation, I could still see the enthusiasm of the assembly when we read Matthieu 2, 1-15:  The visit of the three wise men to baby Jesus. These people came from the East. This implies that they were not Jews nor Christians. They were people who had developed an emotional bond with the entire creation. They felt interconnected to it in such a way that creation could communicate with them. They could read the sign of the time by looking at creation. This emotional bond with the entire universe could be the thing that we are missing out in our relationship with what God is creating. We are failing to see the “enthusiasm” of creation. Often, we call what surround us environment or nature.

The ecotheologian Michel Maxime Egger points out that “the term “environment” itself is symptomatic of this distance that man – at least Western – has maintained from his planet. Indeed, to speak of “environment” is already to establish a boundary between us and what surrounds us, between what belongs to humans and what belongs to nature. In addition to placing himself outside his environment, man has also placed himself above it, building ever higher towers to contemplate these “seas of clouds” and push as far as possible everything that connects us to nature. Today, technology, and even more so the developments of virtual reality, continue to dissociate us a little more from these natural spaces, yet very real.” In fact, we are creation and belong to it!

These three wisemen realized that creation was enthusiastic because God was in it. Keeping the bond with the created world brought them to Christ. This is a call to us today: to increase our general awareness of the sacredness of the entire creation because God is ever present in it. We are encouraged to become involved in conservation work so that none of God created being should be extinguished. Everything is enthusiastic and has something to tell us about God.

Conclusion

When the Ecumenical Church enthusiastically studies the Bible together, we commit ourselves to taking care of the enthusiastic creation and at the same time we deepen our oneness because we see God with and in us, Emmanuel. God is our bond. We are interconnected because everything is enthusiastic, God is ever present in everything he creates. This opens us, as the ecumenical church, to embrace people of other religions and those of good will. The entire creation is enthusiastic.

Bonaventure MASHATA, MAfr