Hierarchy Saves
Hans Boersma on How We Participate in the Eternal Word
I got an interesting email the other day. A dear colleague and friend wrote an article discussing my work on sacramental hermeneutics. He agreed on the need to retrieve patristic and medieval modes of reading Scripture. He loved the quadriga—the traditional fourfold reading of Scripture, which aims not just at the historical meaning but also looks for the allegorical, moral, and eschatological senses of Scripture. And I was thrilled to note his reason for such a recovery: only by treating Scripture as a sacrament—searching for the real presence of the hidden treasure inside the Old Testament—do we truly read it christologically.
"But why not let go of your participatory ontology?" he asked.
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Hans Boersma is the Saint Benedict Servants of Christ Professor in Ascetical Theology at Nashotah House Theological Seminary. He is a senior editor of Touchstone.
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