Tomorrow's readings and the opening sentence.

[Gordon M.]

I am glad that we are now out of the introductory material. I don't
know about you, but I found some of this rather dry. To be sure, I
found occasional flashes of brilliance; but not the really good stuff.

Tomorrow, we begin the main text of the Institutes. I absolutely love
the first several sections of Book 1. Some of Calvin's most
distinctive and brilliant insights come in these opening chapters.

I am sure that there will be much about which to converse once we hit
things like the opening sentence, "Nearly all the wisdom we possess,
that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the
knowledge of God and of ourselves." The longer I ponder the meaning of
this sentence, the more I find.

[SusanDee...@msn.com]

I was struck by that sentence as well, but from a different
perspective. I'm in a training program for spiritual directors, and
much of our reading has spoken quite explicitly about the inter-
relatedness of knowing God and knowing ourselves. The intertwining of
knowledge of God and knowledge of self is so intimate and thorough
that we often overlook it, I think. That overlooking would be to our
peril!