O Taste and See: A Biblical Reflection on Experiencing God

by Bonnie Thurston

Overview

If you have always been troubled by the image of God as a punitive judge, this book will show you why this view is so mistaken. Psalm 34:8's "O taste and see how good the Lord is" contains in miniature the whole process of coming to and growing in faith. It gives us insight into God and into how we experience God. We come to know this good and gracious God by means of the body: seeing (a metaphor for understanding) and tasting (shorthand for what the body knows). In fact, it is precisely engrafted hunger that turns us God-ward—only to find God waiting on the road for our return and ready to host a feast for us. 
"If you think you might be hungry for God, but haven't experienced God directly, or if you are a believer who still feels malnourished, I hope this little book might be for you a kind of manna.Taste. See." —from the Introduction

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781612614878
Publisher:	Paraclete Press
Publication date:	11/01/2013
Sold by:	INDEPENDENT PUB GROUP - EPUB - EBKS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Formerly a professor of New Testament, Bonnie Thurston is a poet and spiritual director who lives quietly in her home state of West Virginia. She also writes theological works and travels to lecture and give retreats.

Editorial Reviews

This is small, readable, well-produced book, with a particularly attractive cover, which invites you to open it and look inside. To have a whole book devoted to a profound reflection on a single phrase from a psalm is an example at its best of how lectio divina can lead us to new and unexpected insights about God and our faith.
Bonnie Thurston is an author of several books of theology and spirituality. Also a poet and retreat leader, she now lives as a solitary in the hills of West Virginia. Therefore, she brings the understanding of both a theologian and a deeply prayerful Christian to exploring the depths of meaning in this short phrase, verse 8a from Psalm 34, ‘O taste and see how gracious the Lord is’. She is particularly concerned that we should experience God not only intellectually, but primarily through our bodily experience.
She is aware that it can be dangerous to take a biblical phrase out of context, so her book begins with a brief discussion of the use of the psalter, especially this psalm, in the Church. I was interested to read that the Orthodox Church regards verse 8 as describing the act of receiving the Body and Blood of Christ; the psalm is often used at the reception of Communion...She considers ‘tasting’, which in Greek implies not only to eat but also to perceive. It is another metaphor for experience, suggesting a deeper, bodily kind of knowing. We can absorb and savor the word pf God through scripture (cf. Psalm 119:103 and Jeremiah 15:16)...The invitation to ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’ is offered to everyone; for Christians it is offered especially at the Eucharist, where it is also an invitation to a lifelong journey with our gracious Lord.” —Carol Simmons, Fairacres Chronicle 

“Bonnie Thurston is noted for her biblical scholarship on New Testament topics, particularly her recent book on the Gospel of Mark (Liturgical Press, 2013) and her Sacra Pagina commentary on Philippians and Philemon (Liturgical Press, 2003), In O Taste and See: A Biblical Reflection on Experiencing God, Thurston uses both her academic skills and her pastoral sensibilities to ponder the deeper spiritual meaning of Psalm 34, especially verse 8. Because she is a poet and a solitary, living the life of a hermit in West Virginia, her writing is personal and meditative. The thin volume contains two parts, which are prefaced by a translation of Psalm 34 (NRSV) and an introduction. In the first section, she explores the context of the psalms both in canon and in the life of the Church, and addresses the concepts that God exists (‘The Lord is’) and how God exists (‘The Lord is good’). The second section attends to the experience of God by reflection on the commands to ‘taste and see.’ “‘Taste and see that the Lord is good’ is an invitation—indeed, a command—to experience God, not in some rarefied, sacred environment, but as potentially discernible in everything, everywhere,” Thurston concludes (97). This volume may be of interest to seminary and university libraries that specialize in Spirituality and Scripture.” —Laurie Brink, OP, Catholic Library World

From the Publisher