21 October 2024
Wherever the message is preached and brought in whatever language it
comes from, the language it comes to and the culture into which it penetrates
must, as some stage of its maturation, learn to answer yet again the question:
“Who do you say that I am?” Because the “you say” in that question is the
culture in which we live. He’s not asking, “Who does the fourth century say
that I am?” when it was writing in Greek. That’s important, because without
that we wouldn’t be where we are. But, at some point, you have to be who and
what you are in the only culture in which you’re ever going to live, the only
century in which you’re going to live and die, and, in that century, you have
to answer with whatever linguistic and philosophical equipment you have, you
have to answer the question: “Who do you say that I am?”
Jaroslav Pelikan
No comments:
Post a Comment