I have always appreciated the work of Eugene Peterson, and was recently re-reading Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, first published in 2005 and in my opinion, one of his finest works. Here are some insights from the book…
- Endings take precedence over beginnings. We begin a journey by first deciding on a destination. Eugene Peterson, p1
- Story is the most natural way of enlarging and deepening our sense of reality, and then enlisting us as participants in it. Stories open doors to areas or aspects of life we didn’t know were there, or had quit noticing out of over-familiarity, or supposed were out of bounds to us. They then welcome us in. Stories are verbal acts of hospitality. Eugene Peterson, p13
- Jesus is the name that keeps us attentive to the God-defined, God-revealed life. The amorphous limpness so often associated with “spirituality” is given skeleton, sinews, definition, shape, and energy by the term “Jesus.” Eugene Peterson, p31
- Because Jesus was born in Bethlehem, grew up in Nazareth, gathered disciples in Galilee, worshiped in synagogues, ate meals in Bethany, went to a wedding in Cana, told stories in Jericho, prayed in Gethsemane, led a parade down the Mount of Olives, taught in the Jerusalem temple, was killed on the hill Golgotha, and three days later had supper with Cleopas and his friend in Emmaus, we are not free to make up our private spiritualities; we know too much about his life, his spirituality. Eugene Peterson, p33
As always, nice chatting…
And a bonus quote (from page 37):
In our current culture, “soul” has given way to “self” as the term of choice to designate who and what we are. Self is the soul minus God. Self is what is left of soul with all the transcendence and intimacy squeezed out, the self with little or no reference to God (transcendence) or others (intimacy).
A very valuable bonus. Thanks Allen.
I agree: a great book!