Knitted Souls

Elaine:  Your astute observation that there is a marked difference between reading the Bible, studying the Bible and allowing Biblical stories to convict, change and mould you is remarkably well made. If you had asked me even last year, 'have you read the Bible'? I would have said 'yes' and this would, more or less, have been accurate. I have read it all, probably once, 28 years ago without much understanding or guidance. Since then I have studied scripture, even taught scripture, learnt biblical languages, looked at genre, form, structure, authorship, historical context, the theology and philosophical background of a range of biblical texts. It's all useful, but as St Thomas Aquinas said, the understanding it gives is also 'like straw'.  Scripture has only really made a profound impact on me when it has become part of daily prayer. I was fortunate enough to live in religious communities as a lay person, off and on, from when I was 17 until I finally left Ox...