How curious are we about where those who disagree with us are coming from? Mindful of breakdown of dialogue in both Church and society two Dominican friars present an intriguing resource built around 18 Biblical conversations between the Lord and humanity entitled ‘Questioning God’. Biblical Scholar Łukasz Popko from Poland in his 40s and well known UK writer, former head of the Dominican Order, Timothy Radcliffe in his 70s explore scripture together in fruitful conversation. They write how friendly dialogue enriches us and imparts youth in the spirit through its elements of surprise, revelation, discovery, disagreement, self-discovery and the search for common ground. ‘When one meets the Eternal, everyone is objectively in the position of a young person. Talking to God makes us young and ever younger.’ It is so!
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How curious are we about where those who disagree with us are coming from? On the world stage there seems little amicable disagreement as, to give just one example, we continue the greatest conflict in Europe for three generations. In the church universal we are riven by unfriendly disagreements such as those over the remarriage of the divorced, the ordination of women, same sex unions and for Roman Catholics the status of the Tridentine Mass. These divisions seem hampered by incapacity and reluctance to tolerate yet alone understand where the other side is coming from. Mindful of this breakdown of dialogue in both Church and society two Dominican friars present an intriguing resource built around 18 Biblical conversations between the Lord and humanity entitled ‘Questioning God’.
Their introduction reminds readers of the invitation of the Second Vatican Council. ‘God’s Word does not address us through a celestial megaphone, demanding passive acquiescence. Revelation is God’s conversation with His people, through which we become the friends of God. The Second Vatican Council proclaimed that ‘by this revelation, the invisible God, from the fullness of His love, addresses men and women as His friends and lives among them, in order to invite them and receive into His own company’… Words of friendship are more radically transformative than orders which demand submission. Even the commandments in Scripture can only be understood aright if we see them as spoken in friendship, forming us to encounter the one who said to the disciples, ‘I call you friends’ (Jn 15.15)’.
Biblical Scholar Łukasz Popko from Poland in his 40s and well known UK writer, former head of the Dominican Order, Timothy Radcliffe in his 70s jokingly describe themselves as like Samuel and Eli as they explore scripture together in fruitful conversation. The book is hampered to a degree by its being an email exchange but in this exchange they expound richly Biblical conversations from Adam and Cain to Peter and Paul. I liked the way this conversation with scripture weaves in and out of big issues in society and the Church today as in this quotation from the chapter on Jacob’s wrestling with God and seeking his name: ‘Might it be that those who must raise the question of God’s identity are those who have been somehow searching for their own? Rabid nationalistic or fundamentalist religion cements people sure of who they are to a God made in their own image and likeness’. Or from Christ’s dialogue with Pilate: ‘The war against Ukraine is a terrible revelation of what happens when the truth is lost. Today there is a battle within Russia, and it is over the truth… George Orwell foresaw this in his novel 1984, published in 1949. He portrayed a world in which the government declares that war is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength’.
Both writers are allied to the determination of Pope Francis to open up in the Roman Catholic Church what is called the ‘synodal path’ awkward as that is proving to be with existing internal divisions. ‘How can a liberation theologian and a fervent supporter of the Tridentine Mass be at ease in conversation with each other?… painful, challenging conversations must happen if the Church is to be renewed! In our Catholic tradition, a heretic is not someone who has got everything wrong but, usually, someone who has got one thing right at the expense of other truths, like the third-century theologians who so loved the humanity of Christ that they denied his Divinity or the other way around. A heretic is someone who bangs on about something true to the exclusion of other aspects of the mystery’. An illuminating thought on how to both challenge and learn from ‘heresy’!
Each chapter starts with a biblical conversation followed by an exchange between Łukasz and Timothy in which they bring Christian wisdom to bear on the scripture especially in a joint summary at the end of the chapter. In their summary reflection on Jonah’s disconcerting experience of finding the God of Israel reaching out in mercy to Israel’s enemies they quote, via Merton, Allan of Lille’s conviction that God is One whose centre is everywhere and circumference nowhere. ‘When Thomas Merton became a committed Christian, he wrote: ‘Now I had entered into the everlasting movement of that gravitation which is the very life and spirit of God. God’s own gravitation towards the depths of His own infinite nature. His goodness without end. And God, that centre Who is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere, finding me.’
Years back Timothy Radcliffe and I met through our involvement at St John’s College, Oxford across from the Dominicans at Blackfriars Hall. I valued his friendship and youthful enthusiasm, which carried many into the orbit of Christian faith, and attended his First Mass. When my vocation switched from Chemistry research to the priesthood I came to appreciate his writings. Reading ‘Questioning God’ written with Fr Łukasz his young companion and with sad mention of Timothy’s cancer I recall him with thanksgiving. He writes how friendly dialogue enriches us and imparts youth in the spirit through its elements of surprise, revelation, discovery, disagreement, self-discovery and the search for common ground. ‘When one meets the Eternal, everyone is objectively in the position of a young person. And maybe more, such a meeting can restore one’s youth. Talking to God makes us young and ever younger.’ It is so!
Timothy Radcliffe & Lukasz Popko Questioning God Bloomsbury Continuum 2023 £13.99 ISBN 9781399409230 224pp
