                           19981016.01

     Thanks for your mail.

     I agree that we should get together sometime in the next two
or three weeks to read something together, or to discuss some
agreed upon text that we have recently read.  Whatever we decide
to read, I should like to do some preliminary homework, since my
mind is not very quick, and judgments that I render on the spot
are often embarrassingly wrong.

     Among my eccentricities is a reluctance to be a visitor.  I
often feel trapped and become restive; so I hope you will indulge
me and again come to Belmont.  There is always something to eat
in the refrigerator.  I should be pleased to provide the
transportation both ways.  I hope your wife will feel free to
come along, "and make herself at home", if she is interested.  My
wife is often asked, on very short notice, to baby-sit next door
with our grandchildren; so she may or may not be here. In any
event, none of us should feel burdened with the need to make
conversation for its own sake.  Would some evening in the week of
October 25, be convenient?

     I have been reading portions of Saint Paul's letter to the
Romans together with Barth's commentary.  I find the text
spiritually very intrusive; I cannot come to terms with it, and
my interpretation is unable to do it justice.  But I suspect that
the agony of comprehension may be indicative of the importance of
what requires to be understood.

     I think moreover that given your (and your wife's)
commitment to a religious tradition, a commitment which I
contemplate with a respect bordering on reverence (Ehrfurcht), we
should be circumspect in broaching issues of faith, considering
that my dialectic (?diabolical) inventiveness knows no
restraints.  ,nf ,sp Ernst Meyer review@netcom.com

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