to clarify: you're more Christian than most (including...migo), but no one's Christian all the time, especially...'Mericans.
Re role models, the previous pope, JP II, generally impressed me with his moral vision (one reason I began to question my innate distrust of catholic tradition). But I still find much to object to in...cat. tradition, sir (tho' not nearly as much as I find in the evangelical-baptist sorts). One might be a Fideo Defensor whilst in a gothic cathedral in the rhineland --but a RC parish in LA is a bit different
Consider these WASP demons. Nada mas que basura, con el pedazo de m. aka Dawkins.
El problemos comienzo con Tyndall, una pinche anglais, y...tarde, Luther, Calvin. Matad el heretic!
After pondering your question, I believe that the authentic Christian perceives something like the...reality of Evil (as well as possible spiritual blessings, or gifts of a sort).
Modern theologians (including catholics) tend to shy away from the discussion of evil (sin, atonement, perdition etc)--fire and brimstone does not please people as much as the uplifting, quasi-counseling-speak and affirmations does.
And honestly, I'm opposed to the fundamentalist chanting from the Book of Rev--nonetheless, I believe something like Evil exists, and takes various forms (though evil, fallenness, sin, and so forth could also be read as pathology, psychosis, deviancy etc).
Reading the New Testament it's obvious the Apostles (and...JC) had an awareness of depravity of various sorts. I don't think they were horrified merely at sexual sins, or prostitutes, etc (that was probably as common then as now)--but at, one might say, the pervasiveness of ..a dark force, violent and sadistic as well as lewd. Read say accounts of the Claudian emperors (the usual +HBO hack villains, tiberius, nero, caligula,etc) and one gets a sense of what the martyrs were combatting.
I believe the Book of Revelation itself has some relation to the corrupt emperors (a few revisionists read it as written during Nero's reign, with one of his harlots as ...La Gran Puta).
And not to sound overly manichean, but it's not like humans have steadily progressed toward the Good. (to be continued...)
catholic praxis reveals a constant awareness of evil and insists on the personal responsibility to come to terms with it and choose otherwise
the penitential rite is a way of enunciating the reality of evil it reflects the renewal of baptismal promises of the easter vigil
calvinists tend to hold that evil is all you get in this world
followers of luther tend to say yes plenty of evil around but we will find ways to manage it
have you ever come across the print out sort of popular a few years ago which was the delineations of the various faiths look at the expression !shit happens!
the queston is always is there an intelligence behind evil? or is it simply our collective ignorance of god's love and mercy?
Luther--sort of the Sergeant Schultz to Calvin's Colonel Klink (though admittedly some catholic boys were counted among the n*zi brass--as were...misschling).
The Reform. was the proverbial "throwing out the babe with the bathwater" situation--while Sarge Luther may have had legitimate grievances (including the selling of indulgences--still offered, are they not), he also had a rabid fundamentalist aspect--ie, Reason is a whore, the the insistence that greek/latin influences must be purged, Sola Fide, original sin, papal authority is evil so forth. Calvin does not differ very much from that (regardless of what some say), tho' probably a bit more dictatorial...
Out in Calif. there aren't many lutheran farm boy types--maybe a few in central valley. Some of the old-school lutherans--germans and swedes--were stoical, hard-working folk--as they were as german/prussian infantry . It's a rural thing,really...
It's mostly bapticks (sort of dyslexic okie-lutherans, perhaps), presbyterians (some may be nice people, but ...well, the code is calvinist...), non-denom., and other evangelicals like the episcopalian clown posse, and then those stylish peeps in the...RCC aka the Mafia. And jews and muslims around Ellay --cousins, really
7 comments:
Yr not a Christian, jh.
But you're a good actor .
in your mind
what would a christian be
there are times when i am aware that i hardly
deserve the affiliation
lord i am not worthy
jh
to clarify: you're more Christian than most (including...migo), but no one's Christian all the time, especially...'Mericans.
Re role models, the previous pope, JP II, generally impressed me with his moral vision (one reason I began to question my innate distrust of catholic tradition). But I still find much to object to in...cat. tradition, sir (tho' not nearly as much as I find in the evangelical-baptist sorts). One might be a Fideo Defensor whilst in a gothic cathedral in the rhineland --but a RC parish in LA is a bit different
Consider these WASP demons. Nada mas que basura, con el pedazo de m. aka Dawkins.
El problemos comienzo con Tyndall, una pinche anglais, y...tarde, Luther, Calvin. Matad el heretic!
what would a christian be
After pondering your question, I believe that the authentic Christian perceives something like the...reality of Evil (as well as possible spiritual blessings, or gifts of a sort).
Modern theologians (including catholics) tend to shy away from the discussion of evil (sin, atonement, perdition etc)--fire and brimstone does not please people as much as the uplifting, quasi-counseling-speak and affirmations does.
And honestly, I'm opposed to the fundamentalist chanting from the Book of Rev--nonetheless, I believe something like Evil exists, and takes various forms (though evil, fallenness, sin, and so forth could also be read as pathology, psychosis, deviancy etc).
Reading the New Testament it's obvious the Apostles (and...JC) had an awareness of depravity of various sorts. I don't think they were horrified merely at sexual sins, or prostitutes, etc (that was probably as common then as now)--but at, one might say, the pervasiveness of ..a dark force, violent and sadistic as well as lewd. Read say accounts of the Claudian emperors (the usual +HBO hack villains, tiberius, nero, caligula,etc) and one gets a sense of what the martyrs were combatting.
I believe the Book of Revelation itself has some relation to the corrupt emperors (a few revisionists read it as written during Nero's reign, with one of his harlots as ...La Gran Puta).
And not to sound overly manichean, but it's not like humans have steadily progressed toward the Good. (to be continued...)
catholic praxis
reveals a constant awareness of evil and insists on the personal responsibility to come to terms with it and choose otherwise
the penitential rite
is a way of enunciating the
reality of evil
it reflects the renewal of baptismal promises of the easter vigil
calvinists tend to hold that evil is all you get in this world
followers of luther tend to say
yes plenty of evil around but
we will find ways to manage it
have you ever come across the
print out sort of popular a few years ago which was the delineations of
the various faiths look at the expression
!shit happens!
the queston is always
is there an intelligence behind evil?
or is it simply our collective ignorance of god's love and mercy?
hannah arendt spoke of the banality of evil
jh
Luther--sort of the Sergeant Schultz to Calvin's Colonel Klink (though admittedly some catholic boys were counted among the n*zi brass--as were...misschling).
The Reform. was the proverbial "throwing out the babe with the bathwater" situation--while Sarge Luther may have had legitimate grievances (including the selling of indulgences--still offered, are they not), he also had a rabid fundamentalist aspect--ie, Reason is a whore, the the insistence that greek/latin influences must be purged, Sola Fide, original sin, papal authority is evil so forth. Calvin does not differ very much from that (regardless of what some say), tho' probably a bit more dictatorial...
Out in Calif. there aren't many lutheran farm boy types--maybe a few in central valley. Some of the old-school lutherans--germans and swedes--were stoical, hard-working folk--as they were as german/prussian infantry . It's a rural thing,really...
It's mostly bapticks (sort of dyslexic okie-lutherans, perhaps), presbyterians (some may be nice people, but ...well, the code is calvinist...), non-denom., and other evangelicals like the episcopalian clown posse, and then those stylish peeps in the...RCC aka the Mafia. And jews and muslims around Ellay --cousins, really
Post a Comment