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In the last three weeks I've been attending the seniors' classes at
the university. One of the courses I took was: Faith and Politics:
The Meaning Behind the Public Story. It was excellent. As we left the
classroom for the last time on Friday we were handed the following
passage from Martin Buber's Education and World-View, 100-1:
Let us assume I am discussing a text from our literature. It has been
interpreted countless times and in countless ways. I know that no
interpretation, including my own, coincides with the original meaning
of the text. I know that my interpreting, like everyone else's, is
conditioned through my being. But if I attend as faithfully as I can
to what it contains in word and texture, of sound and rhythmic
structure, of open and hidden connections, my interpretation will not
have been made in vain - I find something, I have found something.
And if I show what I have found, I guide him who lets himself be
guided to the reality of the text ... It is just the same with an
historical manifestation ... The facts are there, the faithfulness to
them is there; the faithfulness is conditioned, like everything
human, and, like everything human, is of essential importance. It is
not granted to us to possess the truth; but he who believes in it and
serves it has a share in building its kingdom.
Cecily
