Friday, December 3, 2010

Subjectivity/Objectivity

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"I believe that the opposite of subjectivity is not objectivity, but otherness...

...It is an openness to the other--as other--that frees us for creativity and originality in our response: the other who is somehow outside my social system or the the Absolute Other who gives me a reference point that relativizes all of my own. It is always an encounter with otherness that changes me. If I am not open to the beyond-me, I'm in trouble....

One could say that the central theme of the biblical revelation is to call people to encounters with otherness: the alien, the sinner, the Samaritan, the Gentile, the hidden and denied self, angels unaware...

The God who speaks to Job out of the whirlwind is not an answer giver or a problem solver. God does more than that. God frees Job and every believer from their hall of mirrors, their prison of self..."

Richard Rohr, JOB AND THE MYSTERY OF SUFFERING

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Richard is a bit of a nutter, but these are good quotes.