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  • Wilder, Amos. Jesus Parables and The War of Myths Sower

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    Parábola del sembrador analizada detalladamente.

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    Wilder, Amos. Jesus Parables and the War of Myths Sower

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    Parábola del sembrador analizada detalladamente.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    11 views8 pages

    Wilder, Amos. Jesus Parables and The War of Myths Sower

    Uploaded by

    danmerc
    Parábola del sembrador analizada detalladamente.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    AMOS N. WILDER Jesus’ Parables and the War of Myths Essays on Imagination in the Scripture Edited, with a Preface, by James Breech PHILADELPHIA FORTRESS PRESS 3 Telling From Depth to Depth: The Parable of the Sower 1. DEEP REGISTERS OF RESPONSE {tis now widely evident that an important new phase of New Testament study is emerging. The initiatives are various, but they all have to do with ‘a deeper inquiry into the nature of language and “how language works.” ‘The focus is well suggested by the title of a recent book by Paul Ricoeur ‘dealing maialy with biblical texts: The Theological Bearings of Contempo- rary Investigations with Respect to Language. ‘The basic concern remains that of meaning and of language 2s com- {import of discourse, the full meaning of a biblical passage, go beyond what ‘our usual methods of exegesis and interpretation convey. Words and phrases, narrations and liturgical poems or other speech modes, require other resources for their understanding than those provided by our usual philological, historical, and theological expertise. There are certain reso- nnances and imponderables in language, whether in folktales or in the high- cst literary art, which are often felt by the layman, but their operations should be brought to light and understood if we are to have any full interpretation of a wi 'A work of art has a life of its own apart from its reporters. It remains itself and goes on testifying or celebrating, independently of its interpreters and their various versions and deformations of its communication.* So it 1. Paul Ricoeur, Let Inidences uhéloglques des rechercheractelles concernant Ue ngage (Pars Tosa Etodes Oscumeniques, n@.). 2, Paul Ricoeut, “Le symbole oe jamals fn de donner & dite” Le Confit des Interpretations (Pati da Soll, 1969), p32 0 90 ‘The Parables of Jesus and the Full Mystery of the Self is with a parable or other literary form in Scripture, Its telling is ever and again to be heard naively and afresh. ‘The deep registers of response in the hhearer should not be disturbed at this level of encounter by other pre- ‘occupations. Bat then comes the phase of wider understanding, of relating this com- munication 10 others and to our whole context of meaning and realty, Since the mystery and operations of language are involved, we find our. selves committed to clarification at this point, s0 that we can give a better account of our “hearing” and the terms of its interpretation. With respect to a parable, this means an understanding of its languege structure, its poetic. But it also means an understanding of how this language dynami- cally evokes response, its semantic, I, EPIPHANIC DISCLOSURES If T may be allowed a personal reminiscence, T adduce the following ex: perience. In a rural Sunday school class taught by a village housewife in ‘ways surely contrary to all the precepts of the religious educator, the ‘Parable of the sower was the theme, no doubt assigned in some long-since- repudiated graded lesson book. I was fourteen atthe time, and my reaction ‘may have been colored by the fact that I was working on a farm that sur ‘mer. Tn any case, I have always recalled with wonder the impact, the {imaginative reverberations, and the psychie dynamics of the six verses of the parable, (I am sure that the allegorizing interpretation of thie parable ‘that follows it in the Gospel did not disturb this prior visionary trans. action.) This revelatory power of the parable was no doubt related to the fresh seasbiliy of childhood, but the experience has always remained with ‘me as one of my earliest memories of the power of Scripture and of lan- {guage generally. Over and above all rules and resources of interpretation later acquired, I had leamed in this instance to respect the naked text itself, to let the word and the words have their own untrammeled course, {0 be open to their deeper signals, to let the naif speak to the nalf and depth to depth, But one need not leave it there, or at this level, We rightly seek to under stand the operations of the imagination and the heart. This is, frst of all, 4 native and proper impulse of our human nature to organize our experi- ‘ence and to relate reason to the prerational, Even the deepest layers of ‘sensibility have their laws and structures, To trace them out and to become ‘ware of them isto enter more fully into possession of our being. Its also to illuminate the processes of new creativity and vision, and to further ‘hem, One could illustrate by the art of music and the interplay here of the Teling om Depth to Depth: The Parable fhe over a conprc’scommand ofits ws” and structs with lite inp Sow ccomb vii hearsctiaagage Tone were to exmply hi dole spot, th ae and he us tual nhc oft pablo the sover we might unis he wo fur Warp pny iagnaton as boy expel an emblems fy wes he neces paling power of the sown se nde creat i oe ep eng he ao he Sith the proving Iwas not fit oa ueon ofthe sover no te vse is opron, aor vse quo the ou so Buta veh conbinton proved he nope te aso fndeteblcconinuly and pede reaton of wich nan at cpa one sich edi esi he ls ei sects teprvsponte, wht cto coy sot ar agige ei ‘What isthe conaon of foo snd commune? What ebseratoos Dou ls etre rng sore woud lp explain Hs power tnd dongs fens? Inadepate ntepans of te pl treet uneced wih inten oi rf Ito weed ca dsice fom orate whole en oom wie Contin he gpa orth ptr ae inode, S ne cad Ie Ateglinateelgriton (rom he suey Mack #138), or no the serch forse ct ching (Mack 414-13) fo Get Hon the esr and hb wrk fhe pase i ot upd a (extended) tapos, he reall en fo for echinacea 2 erlnory ek fing. “Tht na ih cated Yt oh est form of he er anc ad to the epi of the ene, Terre we speak bso te rosie” andthe “eman’ ofthe New Testes es The tv ate ‘Bate A panblorasyng os prayer hve» give fo Bente ey have log ben shaped nha way nang tht snered, wo ae tbowoersdy wo ber emeting in sch anders The dam stat oe thecommnao, fhe pate adsl ae cle wis onary tig er tun ith inatocton ox ade, ten te iat ten ide tl expan. Th oe of othe speaker nul fuer ths exon, Cs ony whe ou parable a Fer fm banal nv tend of pene sry at ed Tegra besa panei) ML, BETWEEN ANGUISH AND TRUST ‘The simplest way to explore the dynamics of our parable isto ask what there is about it as “words” that would make it interesting to the hearer 2 The Parables of Jesus and the Full Mystory of the Self for hold his attention. (We can leave out here the identity of the speaker.) Firs, itis a story; itis narrative with the world-old appeal of “What hap- pened?” “What happened next?” “How did it tum out?" Second, it is a kind of riddle or teaser, with the similar appeal of “What does it mean?” “What is he getting at?” Third, itis a conventional or artistic form, which, arouses expectation of special import, as well as delight in felicitous speech. Fourth, it evokes familiar matters in wholly appropriate locutions and persuasiveness. An initiated audience delights in exact mimetic det ‘cogent actualty, just as ts attention is forfeited by any lack of verisimil ‘ude in this kind of narrative, Fifth, the aesthetic medium or genre form lifts the diurnal level of the action into another context, with new over- tones. (A metaphor is a “transaction between contexts"—LA. Richards— which, therefore, by the tension created, excites a deeper attention.) An aesthetic form dynamizes its raw material, whether ordinary perception or {generalized feeling, converting them into vision, thus acting as a kind of prism, (Contrast the tenor of the parable of the sower with the case where 2 peasant would merely report the equivalent sequence of his operations to a ncighbor as a passing topic of conversation.) t there are other, and deeper, levels in the language of the parable hich need to be accounted for in dealing with its power of communica- tion. There are correspondences between its rhetorical features and human response beyond those cited, Here is where we mect the contemporary

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