“Slowing Down And Immersing Ourselves in the Biblical Story”

A Review of

Lectio Divina, The Sacred Art: Transforming Words and Images into Heart-Centered Prayer
Christine Valters Paintner.
Paperback: Skylight Paths, 2011.

Review by Chris Smith.
<p style="text-align: left;">[ Read <a href="http://erb.kingdomnow.org/excerpt-lectio-divina-the-sacred-art-christine-valters-paintner-vol-4-24/" target="_blank">an excerpt from this book</a>... ]<strong>
</strong></p>
<strong><em><img class="alignleft" src="http://erb.kingdomnow.org/images/Paintner-Lectio.jpg" alt="" width="180" height="277" /></em></strong>How do we read the Bible in this age when – as Christian Smith has persuasively argued in his recent book <em>The Bible Made Impossible</em> – some traditional approaches to scriptures are on the verge of dying off?  Is it possible for us to engage and immerse ourselves in scripture in ways other than taking it as cold, static textbook?  The ancient practice of <em>lectio divina</em> (holy reading) is surprisingly relevant for our times, and Christine Valters Paintner’s new book <em>Lectio Divina, The Sacred Art: Transforming Words and Images into Heart-Centered Prayer</em> is an elegant and useful introduction to this approach to reading the Bible (or other texts) in today’s world. Over the last five centuries, the modernity of the Western world has served to streamline life, eliminating or minimizing practices that seem to be labor-intensive or extraneous.  The result is today’s globalized, fast-food world that is rapidly losing the capacity for attentiveness as it continually accelerates into the future.  And indeed our practices of Bible reading have followed suit with the larger culture.  Scripture is no longer a grand drama about God reconciling all creation by gathering a faithful people, but rather it has been reduced – in the most egregious cases – to a sort of self-help guide that unequivocally shows me how to be saved and make a good life for myself.  What we need in our times is a decidedly slow way of reading scripture, a way of immersing ourselves and abiding in God’s story that fits the incarnational and attentive way of Jesus.  <em>Lectio divina</em>, as Paintner describes it in this new book, offers us exactly the sort of slow and careful approach to scripture that we desperately need amidst the velocity of our times.

<em>Lectio Divina, The Sacred Art</em> begins with a historical introduction to the practice, which emphasizes that it was rooted in the Judaic tradition of Haggadah, an “interactive interpretation of the Scriptures by means of the free use of the text to explore its inner meaning.” Paintner also notes the monastic origins of <em>lectio divina</em>; many centuries before the invention of the printing press, when scripture was nowhere near as accessible as it is today, monks would memorize and ruminate on scripture, praying over it throughout the day and continually submitting themselves to the words of the text.  It was out of this context that the four-fold practice of <em>lectio divina</em> would be formalized among the Benedictines in the twelfth century.

The heart of Paintner’s book, the middle of its three parts, focuses on exploring each of the four steps of <em>lectio divina</em>:
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong><em>Lectio</em></strong><strong>: Settling and Shimmering</strong>
Let go of distractions, assume a posture of prayer, and do an initial reading of the text paying attention for a particular phrase that stands out – i.e., that shimmers, “beckons you, addresses you, unnerves you, disturbs you, stirs you, or seems especially ripe with meaning” (10).</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong><em>Meditatio</em>: Savoring and Stirring</strong>
Slowly read through the text again, using the phrase that stands out as a lens to guide your reading and stir your imagination</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"> <strong><em>Oratio</em>: Summoning and Serving</strong>
Allow the text to speak into your own life (and the life of your church community).  What light does it shine on the present situation? What are we being compelled to do?  How is the text drawing us deeper into the life and way of Jesus?</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong><em>Contemplatio</em>: Slowing and Stilling</strong>
It is striking that following the <em>Oratio</em> stage, we do not jump up immediately and go follow the Spirit’s leading through the text, but rather, “[this] movement is about slowing yourself down and resting into the still presence of God. The idea is to simply <em>be</em>, rather than trying to <em>do </em>anything. This is a time for offering gratitude for God’s presence in this time of prayer and stilling yourself in silence” (11).</p>
In the third and final part of the book, Paintner strives to broaden our imaginations about how <em>lectio divina</em> can be a practice that pervades our lives.  She introduces the lesser known practices of <em>visio divina</em> and <em>audio divina</em> – in which we reflect on images and sounds respectively, opening our hearts and minds and being attentive to what God might be saying to us.  She also offers the idea of nature as sacred text that can be read through its own sort of <em>lectio</em>.  This chapter on nature was one of my favorites, and it resonates with a number of nature-study books that I have reviewed here over the last few years (If this chapter also resonates with you, I would recommend in particular <strong><a href="http://erb.kingdomnow.org/featured-seeing-trees-ross-llewellyn-vol-4-22/" target="_blank">Kathy Ross Hugo’s <em>Seeing Trees</em></a>,</strong> which, although it does not use the language of <em>lectio</em>, does utilize trees to immerse us in a <em>lectio</em>-like conversation with all God’s creation that surrounds us wherever we are.)  The final chapter focuses on using other facets of our lives as the opportunity for <em>lectio</em>-like reflection, including dreams, our bodies and the newspaper.

What distinguishes Paintner’s work from a host of other recent books on <em>lectio divina</em> is its focus on beauty.  Paintner is an artist and has reflected at length on the role of the arts in spiritual formation (for instance in her book <strong><em>Awakening the Creative Spirit</em></strong>, co-written with Betsey Beckman, which was <a href="http://erb.kingdomnow.org/featured-awakening-the-creative-spirit-by-painter-and-beckman-vol-3-26/" target="_blank">reviewed in The Englewood Review of Books here</a>).  Part of what is lost in the ever-increasing pace of Western culture, is the joy of the beautiful, and Paintner, deeply aware of this loss, presents <em>lectio divina</em> in a way that draws the reader in and compels her to immerse herself in the beauty of engaging slowly, intentionally and personally with the biblical text. <em>Lectio divina</em> is presented here in language that clearly explains what it is and how it could be practiced in a variety of contexts, but so in a way that is full of life and joy.

In the past, I have often recommended <strong>Tony Jones</strong>’s book on <em>lectio divina</em>, <strong><em>Divine Intervention</em></strong>, which also is a simple and thoughtful introduction to the practice.  Paintner’s treatment here, however, although it covers roughly similar ground, does so more eloquently, and takes a broader view that spurs our imaginations to consider <em>lectio divina</em> as a way of being, a practice that helps us slow our lives in a world that is speeding out of control.  Tony’s book was written for younger readers, and probably is preferable for younger audiences, and his work does better at imagining the place of <em>lectio</em> as a social practice within the church community, Paintner’s reticence on the place of <em>lectio</em> in the faith community is one of the few shortcomings of her book.  To be fair, she makes the general statement early in the book that “many people can read the same scriptures and each person will have a unique experience that rises up out of his or her own life context in that moment” (9), but she never develops this superb thought in the direction of what it might mean as we practice <em>lectio </em>together in the church community.

I have been excited in recent years to see a rising tide of interest in slower, more attentive expressions of Christian faith.  Christine Paintner’s <em>Lectio Divina, The Sacred Art</em> is a lovely apologetic for recovering an historical practice of reading scripture that is not only a way of appreciating and engaging scripture that befits our times, but also a practical way of orienting our lives toward becoming a slower people, a contrast community that proclaims in our life together the good news of a caring and more meaning-full life!