[March 1999 journal entry]
Premise: The ‘scrapheap’ Job is ‘troubled’ (beyond the sheer pain of his condition) because his expectations are rooted in the ‘religious’ Traditional/Orthodox (T/O) paradigm. He cannot say, “I’ve been dealt a bad hand”. He cannot refer to luck or misfortune or chance or randomness. Instead, he expects to be dealt a good hand and cannot (with integrity) avoid challenging/questioning the dealer. (Note both a personal factor – i.e., the dealer – and a random factor – i.e., the shuffle – limit this analogy for understanding the ‘religious’ T/O paradigm.)
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Reflections on the Search for a Very Healthy Center
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December
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- Fragment -- #87
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- Fragment -- #84
- The ‘scrapheap’ Job -- #57
- The ‘scrapheap’ Job -- #56
- The ‘scrapheap’ Job -- #55
- The ‘scrapheap’ Job -- #54
- Seeing 'Jesus' From Below #23
- Seeing 'Jesus' From Below #22
- A ‘non-religious’ view of Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- #19
- ‘the ethical dimensions of patient care’ -- #28
- The ‘scrapheap’ Job -- #53
- The ‘scrapheap’ Job -- #52
- The ‘scrapheap’ Job -- #51
- Seeing 'Jesus' from Below #21
- Seeing 'Jesus' from Below #20
- Fragment -- #83
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About the Title of This Blog
[December 1942, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote an essay for his parents, his siblings (and their children), his closest friend (Eberhard Bethge), and his fellow covert resisters imbedded in the Abwehr. I have been privileged to have the assistance of Renate Bethge -- Eberhard’s wife and Dietrich’s favored niece by his older sister Ursala -- as I revised and finalized my translation. Words/phrases in parentheses offer additional nuances, add implied ideas, or indicate alternative translations. ]
The View from Below
"It remains an experience of unparalleled (incomparable) value that we have learned to see for once the great events of world history from below – through the perspective of the barred (put out, cut out, blocked), the suspects, the badly treated, the powerless, the oppressed (restrained), the scoffed (derided, mocked), in short the perspective of those who suffer. (It is) only in this time when neither bitterness nor envy (jealousy) has cauterized (corroded, gnawed away) the heart that we see with new eyes great and small, fortunate and unfortunate, strong and weak; that our view of greatness, humaneness, justice, and compassion has become clearer, more free, more incorruptible (not subject to bribes); indeed, (that we see) that personal suffering is a more suitable (qualified) key (code, cipher), a more fruitful principle, than is personal good fortune for exploring the world by observation and action. It follows that this perspective from below will not be the partisan claim of those forever discontent, but that we are just in all life’s dimensions out of a higher contentment that is grounded properly beyond ‘from below’ and ‘from above’. And so it is affirmed." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Ten Years Later"