Third, Tracy emphasizes the need for dialogical conversation with the text.^173
Originally Gadamer and Tracy conceptualized this as a “back-and-forth movement”
between the horizon of the text and the horizon of the reader.^174 However, in recent
years the imagery of an interactive game has been replaced by the more engaging
imagery of performing a musical composition.^175 This is suggestive of the
performative nature of the dynamic conversation that can be created between reader
and text. It requires sensitivity to the text that is able to both welcome and respond to
the themes that are elicited. Charles Cohen reminds readers that the best approach for
studying the Puritans is to allow them to speak for themselves.^176 This requires
awareness to the clues embedded within the text. Therefore, in following Ambrose’s
embedded guidance, he reveals the motivation for writing Media was to address the
decreased interest in spiritual duties due to the antinomian backlash. Further, Looking
Unto Jesus was penned out of gratitude to Jesus for his recovery from a severe illness.
Both of these themes will figure prominently in chapter 3 and 4. Further, Sheldrake
comments upon the importance of a text’s structure as a guide to the dynamic at work
within a text.^177 In Media Ambrose quotes Bernard of Clairvaux’s teaching that
contemplation is of two kinds, the intellect and affect. Significantly, this two-fold
structure becomes the foundation upon which Looking Unto Jesus is built. These
examples illustrate that inherent within a classic text are questions that the reader
needs to notice and negotiate. Mary Frohlich recognizes the importance of questions
in Bernard Lonergan and comments that the “proper question” stimulates insight and
“Lonergan’s almost childlike yet incredibly productive question was, ‘what are we
(^173) For an expansion on the dynamic nature of conversation in Tracy see (^) Plurality and
Ambiguity 174 , 18-27.
175 Tracy, Analogical Imagination, 120. cf. Tracy, “Theological Method,” 41.^
176 See for example Lash, Theology on Way to Emmaus, 40-46.^
177 Cohen, Sheldrake, God’s CaressSpirituality & History, 20.^ , 178.