11 - Stammering in Praise of the Useless Triune God

Summary

Praise of the Triune God, which is the third reference of “the glory of God,” in the form of pastoral consolation of the anguished, must stammer.As response to the glory of God expressed in three strands of the economy, it is the form of speech to which initial silence gives way, shifting back and forth among different vocabularies for characterizing how God relate to us that suite each strand of the economy. The feeling that our experience of horrific suffering makes no sense, lacks any norms (anomie), has been movingly expressed in a number of accounts of deep suffering by otherwise quite different people of faith. Stammering opens space for expression in praise of God of an anomie that is part of faithful response to “negative mystery” experienced in the midst of “positive mystery.” Reflection on such stammering suggests some suggestions about how to talk and not to talk pastorally to those who anguish.