Place

Place is space that has historical meanings, where some things have happened that are now remembered and that provide continuity and identity across generations. Place is space in which important words have been spoken that have established identity, defined vocation, and envisioned destiny. Place is space in which vows have been exchanged, promises have been made, and demands have been issued. Place is indeed a protest against the unpromising pursuit of space. It is a declaration that our humanness cannot be found in escape, detachment, absence of commitment, and undefined freedom.

Walter BrueggemannThe Land

The particular identity

God's love cannot be understood, in the first place, somewhat counter to a certain tendency of ours, as a series of passionate heart throbs or the pouring forth of a general sweetness.  It consisted, and consists, in making available a rather particular human living out.  Perhaps this is not what we want....  It is not as though he is consoling us in our small, timorous identities; rather he is furnishing the means for us to take part in a different show, something which calls us to be something different from what we thought we were.

James Alison
Raising Abel