A GOSPEL OF THE SAYINGS OF OUR LORD
WITH REFLECTIONS BY PHYLLIS TICKLE

by Elizabeth Wirls and Linda Marks

View the Entire Reader’s Guide

Some Introductory Thoughts
Since Jesus wrote nothing down, we can never know all that He actually
said. We cannot know with certainty how He said things, nor can we see
His eyes as He said them. What we have are the records of people who
wrote down His words, sometimes many years after He finished his life on earth. Our experience of His words must therefore always be less than concrete. That experience
will be as the spirit: intangible, evanescent, moving and shifting.
Moreover, since Jesus’ words are intended for all people in all walks and
stations of life and in various physical and psychological states, we must accept the
inevitability of, and perhaps the necessity for, multiple, simultaneous meanings—
sometimes apparent contradictions—in the words themselves. We will ever be
pointed to both the capaciousness of Jesus’ words and the limits of our
understanding of them.
In her introductory reflections in The Words of Jesus, Phyllis Tickle weaves these
considerations together, stating, “Whatever Jesus of Nazareth was and is, He is not,
and never has been, a systematic theologian. At least He has not been in ways that
can be engaged from inside the limitations of our human logic and vocabularies…” Read More