The way of imagination

     Other people’s mail.   I don’t know about you, but I really enjoy reading other people’s mail.   Just to be clear, I mean to say that I enjoy reading letters that some people (or, more often, their literary executors ) have chosen to publish for public consumption.   Whether it be the correspondence of Henri Nouwen, J.R.R. Tolkien or Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I always find it enriching to read these personal dispatches, which were most probably not composed with their eventual publication in mind.   All this to say that a good part of the New Testament is made up of just this type of communication.   Paul’s letter to Philippi is a brief, personal piece of writing, composed in a buoyant and affectionate spirit and addressed to people whom Paul knew well and whom he obviously loved (cf. Phil. 4.1).      Two letters about gospel-justice.   This letter – dictated in a Roman jail, perhaps located in Ephesus – shares several c...