The title (“things hidden”) is from Psalm 78:2, quoted in Matthew 13:35.
The subtitle seems to relate to the other verse (partially) used to preface the
book, 1 John 2:21.
“It is not because you do not know the truth that I write to you, but rather because you know it already.”
The introduction (“connecting the dots”) speaks of “thin-slicing” the
(biblical) texts which refers to sifting, throwing off all that is irrelevant,
focusing on “what really matters”. Once these prime ideas of Scripture are uncovered, others might re-cognise them as truth that had lodged in their own hearts
but not yet risen to consciousness.
“My assumption
throughout this book is that the biblical text also mirrors the nature of human
consciousness itself. It includes within itself passages that develop the prime
ideas and passages that fight and resist those very advances. You might even
call it faith and unfaith – both are locked into the text.”
Faith is associated with “the Unfamiliar” – breakthroughs we may call
“revelations” within the Bible, to be sifted from the familiar (small mind)
terrain of unfaith.
“It might first
feel scary, new or even exciting, but if you stay with the unfolding texts, you
will have the courage to know them also as your own deepest hopes or
intuitions. Such is the dance between outer authority and inner authority, the
Great Tradition and inner experience.”
Rohr stresses the need for both, the external contribution of Sacred
Scripture (“It takes all of the Bible to get beyond the punitiveness and
pettiness that we project onto God and that we harbour within ourselves.”) and
inner awareness (“We have far too long insisted on outer authority alone,
without any teaching of prayer, inner journey and maturing consciousness.”)
My initial response: I sympathise with the observation that we have paid
too little attention to “prayer, inner journey and maturing consciousness” and
that this harms our reading of Scripture and ourselves. The idea of “sifting”
between the wheat and chaff of Scripture, however, sounds very much like old-fashioned
liberal Protestantism. I find the Christian tradition which hoped and even
expected to glean goodies from every little crook and nanny of Sacred Scripture
far more exciting.
