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    Slices of Life: The Drama of God’s Grace in Poem and Portrait
    Slices of Life: The Drama of God’s Grace in Poem and Portrait
    Slices of Life: The Drama of God’s Grace in Poem and Portrait
    Ebook122 pages52 minutes

    Slices of Life: The Drama of God’s Grace in Poem and Portrait

    By Albert J.D. Walsh and Patrick Lee Walsh

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    About this ebook

    The poems in this collection are offered along two related lines. In the first part of the book the poems and etchings coalesce to form what the author calls a family portrait of grace and faith, representing the fruit of a process of biblical study and reflection, which will be of interest to both the lay person and pastor in his or her preparations for teaching and preaching. In the second section of the book the author provides a variety of poems disclosing the dynamics of life in its multiplicity of patterns and expressions. Together the two sections seek to express the grace of God in the commonalities of life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherResource Publications
    Release dateFeb 17, 2012
    ISBN9781630879860
    Slices of Life: The Drama of God’s Grace in Poem and Portrait
    Author

    Albert J.D. Walsh

    Albert J. D. Walsh is pastor of Heidelberg United Church of Christ in Hatfield, Pennsylvania. Ordained in 1981, Pastor Walsh has served churches throughout the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference. Pastor Walsh's sermons have been published in The Minister's Manual (1989-2007) and INSIGHTS (1991-2010). He is the author of Reflections on Death and Grief and United and Uniting.

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      Book preview

      Slices of Life - Albert J.D. Walsh

      Slices of Life

      The Drama of God’s Grace in Poem and Portrait

      Rev. Dr. Albert J. D. Walsh

      with Patrick Lee Walsh
      17013.png

      Slices of Life

      The Drama of God’s Grace in Poem and Portrait

      Copyright © 2012 Rev. Dr. Albert J. D. Walsh. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

      Resource Publications

      An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

      199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

      Eugene, OR 97401

      www.wipfandstock.com

      ISBN 13: 978-61097-971-9

      EISBN 13: 978-1-63087-986-0

      Manufactured in the U.S.A.

      All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

      For those who have inspired my life in Christ Soli Deo Gloria

      He shines in all that’s fair.

      Author’s Foreword

      For some twenty-six years I have sensed that the reflective, meditative reading of the Bible produces a harvest of spiritual insights when the imagination is given, freely and in faith, to the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit. I make no claim to this being a novel approach to the Bible, as the writings of Ignatius, Origin, and others offer the same and with far greater eloquence. In fact, this method of biblical reflection resonates with the ancient practice of lectio divina. Because the individual believer cannot extract himself or herself from the bond formed with the body of Christ, and just because that same body was given birth and continues to be sustained by one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, it only stands to reason that this practice of biblical reflection does not promote an individual, private, or relativistic approach to scriptural engagement and comprehension.

      However, I would argue that the so-called historical-critical approach to the Bible, even though providing a substantial body of extremely helpful material for understanding scriptural texts at a number of levels has also, perhaps inadvertently, led to a type of one-sidedness in the approach to biblical engagement. The productive employment of what I once heard another call faithful-imagination in biblical study has been either held in suspicion or denied a reasonable place in the reflective process. I have no desire to discredit the historical-critical approach to engagement with the Bible—whether for the pastor setting about the task of sermon preparation or the lay person preparing a lesson to be taught in a setting of Christian education. I have found that the limitations of this particular method readily become evident when the attempt is to enter a biblical text at a deeper level, seeking spiritual fruit to feed the heart, soul, and mind.

      Over the years I have developed an interest in stories (more formally, narratives) for the way in which they function to provoke imagination—the formation of images, icons—that transform and deepen insight into and comprehension of oneself and one’s world, and can also shape personal and communal identity in profoundly constructive and creative ways. This discovery has fueled my desire to explore the ways in and through which the use of faithful-imagination in biblical study and reflection enhances the process of spiritual comprehension and internalization of this vibrant and vital material—whether in narrative, poetic, prosaic, or didactic form. In the simplest of terms, the variegated faith traditions of both Jewish and Christian communities, while affirming the necessary cautions against an overly subjective, privatized, and self-serving interpretation of the biblical text(s), have also and at the same time advocated—in a variety of ways—that the imagination plays a key (if not central) role in comprehension of the deepest meaning(s) of Scripture and applicability to life. It has been my experience that to the degree I freely and in good faith open heart, mind, soul, and spirit to the guidance of the Spirit, allowing my imagination to be taken captive, new vistas of deeper and more penetrating insight and comprehension are realized.

      The poems offered in the first chapter of this book are the fruit of such a reflective process of biblical study and reflection. I offer them as one model and one step in the whole program of biblical study for the purposes of preaching and teaching in the church. Of course

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