“Scriptural interpretation is properly an ecclesial activity whose goal is to participate in the reality of which the text speaks by bending the knee to worship the God revealed in Jesus Christ. Through Scripture the church receives the good news… — Ellen F. Davis Copy Share Image
“The Song [of Solomon] captures the ecstatic aspect of love that is the main subject of the whole Bible.” — Ellen F. Davis Copy Share Image
“That the Old Testament represents God chiefly as angry Judge and vicious Warrior is a false stereotype. While these images are not absent, they are more than balanced by striking portrayals of God as Lover or Husband, infatuated with Israel beyond all reason or deserving. God is not too proud to grieve terribly over Israel's unfaithfulness, nor to be giddy… — Ellen F. Davis Copy Share
“...our role as comforters is not to solve the problem of pain; even less is it to stick up for God. Trying to vindicate… — Ellen F. Davis Copy Share Image
“The very idea of wisdom, as the Bible understands it, challenges the mind-set of our society and the view of knowledge that all of… — Ellen F. Davis Copy Share Image
“And there we recognize that our frailty is not meant to cause us anxiety and sorrow. Rather, God means it to be a source of confidence, and even, as it was for Etty [the Dutch Jew previously mentioned that died in Auschwitz], a source of joy. For it is exactly that frailty--the strict limits to our powers, their inevitable failure,… — Ellen F. Davis Copy Share
“The Garden of Eden was the place where the first human creatures might have acquired wisdom: Eden was the place for total intimacy with God, and that is the sole condition fur becoming wise. Day by day they might have grown in wisdom and stature, taking those strolls with God in 'the breezy time of day (Genesis 3:8). But they… — Ellen F. Davis Copy Share
“What gives a liturgy its plot? A liturgy is always a sort of drama, that is, an intentional sequence of events, however simple or… — Ellen F. Davis Copy Share Image
“Contrition means finding the courage to let your heart break over sin. Willfully letting your heart break and then offering the pieces to God… — Ellen F. Davis Copy Share Image
“The fourth-century Greek theologian St. John Chrysostom said that Job's greatest trial was that his wife was not taken.” — Ellen F. Davis Copy Share Image
“God accommodates [Moses'] complaints and makes in-course corrections. God does not take a human being so fully into the divine confidence--you might say, God… — Ellen F. Davis Copy Share Image
“The problem was acutely described in 1909 in a penetrating essay by Adolf Schlatter: According to the sceptical position, it is true that the… — Ellen F. Davis Copy Share Image
“...Job rails against God, not as a skeptic, not as a stranger to God's justice, but precisely as a believer. It is the very… — Ellen F. Davis Copy Share Image