Prayer and Temperament I - Lectio Divina

I've started a book group at church with the book Prayer and Temperament: Different Prayer Forms for Different Personality Types, by Chester P. Michael and Marie C. Norrisey. It is a good book looking at different personality preferences/types and different types of prayers. For all of those who want to read the book on their own and follow along, I'm posting my notes (Hi Fred!).

Here are the following notes:

Class 1 – Intro and Lectio Divina –

Part I - Temperment• Temperament:
o The division of human personalities into four basic temperaments (Jung, Briggs, Myers)
• Four Pairs of Preferences
o E-I (attitude)
 Relationship with the world
 E – relies primarily on the outer world of people and things to receive the needed psychic energy and enthusiasm for living
 I – relies primarily upon the inner world of ideas, concepts, and spirit in order to find the needed energy to live
o S-N (function)
 Perceiving function
 S – makes use of the five bodily senses of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling – gathering data of the physical world
• By means of symbols can make contact with the “inner world”
 I – perceives the great potential and new possibilities in both the external physical world and the inner world of spirit and ideas
• Creative, visionary function
• Primarily concerned with the inner world and only secondarily concerned with the outer world.
o T-F (function)
 Judging functions
 T – uses the mind and intellect to arrive at a judgment or decision by following a logical, methodical method
• Objective and impersonal
 F – uses the heart and inner experiences of personal relationship and love to arrive at its judgment and decision
• Subjective and personal
o J-P (attitude)
 J – give their main attention and concern to making judgments and decisions about how things and persons in the world should act.
• Structured and decisive
 P – primarily concerned with getting more data and information without coming to closure
• Flexible and open-ended
• Types of prayer:
o SJ – Ignatian
o SP – Franciscan
o NT – Thomistic
o NF – Augustinian
• Dominate and Auxiliary Functions
o We tend to favor our dominate functions in prayer, but still use our auxiliary functions
o “By practicing all five of the methods of prayer described, one will discover the particular method or methods that best fit one’s temperament and personality.”
• Temperament and Spirituality in Christianity
o Paul – NF
 Continually peeking around the corner to envision new insights about the Kingdom of God
o James – SJ
 Exhorted the Christians to the duty of implementing their faith into action in every part of their lives
o John – NT
 Gave a fresh synthesis of existing ideas which formed Christian theology during the first century
o Peter – SP
 A man of action, had the responsibility for maintaining peace among the opposing theological schools
• In the Gospels
o Matthew – SJ
 Emphasizes continuity with the past
o Mark – SP
 Action-oriented, giving only a minimum of the teachings of Jesus
o Luke – NF
 Person-oriented, shows Jesus’ great compassion for sinners
o John – NT
 Emphasis on the importance of truth and knowledge and is the most mystical and contemplative
• Prayer –
o Find the time that works the best for you
o Find a place that is comfortable
o Try to avoid distractions
o Journal

Part II – Benedictine Prayer – Lectio Divina

• Prayer that is suitable to all four basic temperaments
• Goes back to the fourth and fifth centuries (sacred reading)
• Lectio
o The eager seeking after the Word of God and divine truth
o The way by which God’s truth is imparted to us
o Read the text a number of times, aloud at times.
o Do study beforehand of the text if possible
• Meditatio
o Welcome the Word of God into our lives and name it as the living word and presence of God.
o Reflect on the text – take notes
• Oratio
o Our response – decide whether we will incorporate the Word of God into our heart, our life, and our work
o Dialogue
o Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving and Supplication
o Listen, listen, listen
• Contemplatio
o Seek to effect the union of love that should result from our dialogue with God
o Give God ample opportunity for revelation

For next week –
1. Reflect on your “temperament” and how that may influence your prayers
2. Pray the Lectio Divna daily, using either the texts suggested on pages 38-45 or use John 10:11-18 (the sermon text for 5-3-09) or a text(s) of your choosing.
3. Keep a journal of your prayers, experiences and discoveries
4. Read chapter 4, Ignatian Prayer and Spirituality, the SJ Temperament; review the previous chapters in your spare time

"Sacramental" Preaching or... boy did I nail the sermon yesterday!

Yesterday was Easter and naturally I preached. The Easter sermon is one of those difficult sermons that many pastors would love to avoid if they could, but it is a big one so we don’t. As I worked on the sermon I had a good amount of time thinking about it. Some sermons are exegetical – they really engage the text of the scripture, go deep into words, social-historical context and the like. Some sermons are moral, they take an issue that the text seems to be dancing around and consider the current, modern day implications. Some are narrative, considering the journey of the characters in the Bible and the journey we currently find ourselves in. I think every sermon has a combination of these aspects, but tend to focus on one aspect or another. Of course homiletics is not my area of expertise (like I have an area of expertise), so I may be missing something (let the comments fly).
The Easter sermon seemed to move towards something different, something theological, but more. I could preach on the theological implications of the resurrection but that wouldn’t quite cover what Easter is about. I could focus on the narrative, and for the most I did, but not completely. What I did was more of an experiential sermon. Granted this is based on the narrative, but focusing on the experience of the narrative, an experience that goes beyond Mary at the tomb to the essence of life. Schleiermacher would be proud.
Here is what I mean. There is power in the resurrection, power that I do not believe can be captured with just the spoken word but needs the depth of the arts. Poetry, fine arts, music, these things can connect with the depth of the despair and the power of the resurrection. Yesterday I employed a deep symbolisms in the narrative (it was more storytelling then preaching with) interwoven with music. “Were you there,” “Amazing Grace” and “Victory in Jesus” were key illustrations to the sermon. Some may say that the use of such “tricks” is a cheap way to get out of preaching, yet I would argue that they connected people with the experience of the cross and the empty grave. In reality, the Easter story is not something that can be preached but something that should be experienced.
Here is a theory behind the madness – Sacramental Consciousness. I’m sure I’ve blogged about this before so I wont get into the details, but through the experiential focus of the sermon people became in touch with the deeper experience of the despair and hope. They connected with the experience of the crucifixion in their own lives and in the lives of others as well as the experience of the resurrection in their lives and in the world. The sermon was a sacramental moment because the grace of God transcended the preacher and the congregation.
You may be looking for a copy of the sermon I preached, but I won’t post it here – that is just a cheap trick to fill up space on the blog. Go find it on the church website.

If you can understand this then you should question your sobriety; i.e. more language stuff

Still working on language, grammar and everything else. I’ve read Monk’s book How to read Wittgenstein, which was very informative and have looked again at Lindbeck. I was hoping I could bounce some more thoughts off of you to make sure I am still on the right track.
McClendon speaks of “convictions” and Lindbeck speaks of doctrines. So far it is clear that the two are not the same; doctrines are second order rules and convictions are felicitous statements. I am wondering if Lindbeck’s understanding of doctrine is similar to Wittgenstein’s description of “language games,” specifically that a language game points towards “übersicht” (the understanding which consists in “seeing connections”). If this is the case, than perhaps Lindbeck’s regulative principles is the übersicht towards which all Christian doctrines point. Yet on further reflection it seems to me that this is not what Lindbeck is doing. Instead it seems that Lindbeck is diverging from Wittgenstien’s leading with his articulation of regulative principles and second-order rules. From Monk I was given the impression that Wittgentsein’s description of language games are more amorphous then Lindbeck’s approach. Lindbeck seems to agree with Wittgenstien’s understanding that language shows, and yet Lindbeck still seems to want to explain what language is showing rather than describe what language is showing (hence the regulative principles and the following taximony of doctrines) Yet on the other hand this may be an in-depth (or “thick) description of language within a religious community. Hence a doctrine shows the way in which a community is holding meaning, and the regulative principles are the understandings which consists in seeing the connections.
Lindbeck’s understanding of doctrine seem to have an interconnectivity within the community. Does McClendon’s convictions also have an interconnectivity, or do they stand on their own? Is there a “rule-order” of convictions? Perhaps based upon deeper felicitous statements.
With all of this, what am I trying to say? Within the Baptist community one can find statements with point to something deeper be it a conviction or a doctrine. Doctrines are rules while convictions are agreed upon statements in the community. This is a big difference. A conviction does not need to have an ontological or an intrasystematic truth, they more need to have agreed upon realities. I think the idea of convictions make more sense then doctrines. Yet a doctrine seems to show more how the conviction exists/acts in the community than a conviction. The conviction should have implications. If this is the case then perhaps the conviction is similar to the übersicht and the doctrines are the language games that point to the conviction. This makes sense to me so far.