Sunday, 4 September 2016

The Creative Word: Canon as a Model for Biblical Education, Second Ed.,
Walter Brueggemann, Fortress Press, 2015, page 22

Brueggemann now touches upon the observation by Paul Tournier that the social process of secret always consists of two parts: having a secret which no-one else knows and telling or sharing a secret for the sake of alliance.

The exchange in the form of question and answer is quite unauthoritarian but utterly authoritative.

The occasion of the teaching is open and easily dialogical. It occurs in a context which has been set up to evoke interest, curiosity and wonderment on the part of the childre. Ritual is context-creating in the case of the Passover (Exodus 12-13), in the giving of the commandments (Deuteronomy 6:20-24) and in the crossing of the waters (Joshua 4). The ritual serves to evoke a teachable moment, not contained or coercive but expected in these ceremonies of remembranceand reflection. On these occasions, Israel capitalised on the yearning to belong and to understand, to penetrate these marvellous mysteries of the adult world which seemed to be so precious and satisfying. Authority is evident in the capacity to keep a secret and then, at the right time, to share a secret. Education in Israel begins in the yearning of the children to belong to the secret. eaching is perhaps the shrewd management of that secret, haing an acute sense of wgen and in what ways it is appropriate to conceal and when to reveal.