In that process I stumbled across and article that was pretty fascinating.
Gerald Mcdermott, in this Christianity Today Magazine, seems to talk about the use of the theologies of other religions as supplementing and helping us with our understanding of our Jesus and His doctrine. The author says that the idea of other religions informing ours and having shades of Christianity is an old idea and very much valid, with he discerning mind of someone who won't be sucked into the occult and more extreme followers of the faith..
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"CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY OF THE RELIGIONS IS at a crossroads. Its dominant paradigm for understanding salvation (exclusivist/inclusivist/pluralist) is widely challenged, and its understanding of God's revelation in Jesus Christ is confused. Heim claims that "the Trinity teaches us that Jesus Christ cannot be an exhaustive or exclusive source for knowledge of God nor the exhaustive and exclusive act of God to save us." Barnes asserts that the Logos (Christ as Word) "does not exhaust the meaning" of God because the Spirit "blows where it will" (John 3:8) and goes ahead of the disciples in Acts of the Apostles."
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I really liked that thought //
"...the Spirit "blows where it will"
I really believe that. God cannot cannot be put in a box and He, of all people and all creation, will "blow where he will". That is a beautiful thought. No one is left out. God's wisdom is left in the traces and beauty of other religions as well. And while I am rooted in Jesus Christ, that same Christianity allows me to be a more liberal thinker, because I am able to accept all the beliefs and religions of the world as having some truth, .. versus an atheist who has to throw out and distance himself from all the religions of the world and the people that believe them.
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"Griffiths' proposal echoes the observations made by Lesslie Newbigin several deeades ago. Newbigin noted that
Jesus told the disciples there was still much to learn (John 16:13) and that the learning would come through the church's mission to the nations.
Therefore the mission of the church always involves change for the church, just as it changed when it learned new things from the experiences of Cornelius the convert. Newbigin concluded that the church will continue to be challenged by the gospel as it hears from people who have read the Bible with minds shaped by other cultures, which in turn are rooted in religious visions."
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That is so true!
The church in other nations will see their beliefs through the lens of their culture and as a church we must not CHANGE per say but we must CHANGE our perspective and our limited viewpoints to walk closer to the Christ that they see! Our understanding of Jesus Christ must deepen. Don't leave your brains at the door, but elevate our thinking to a bigger picture. I feel like one way to do that is be diverse in our thinking. Don't see {God//love} through the blinders of one culture, but through all, .. and through that culmination, see God clearer, and bigger and more amazingly than we ever have.
QUOTES FROM::
Mcdermott, Gerald R. "Jesus and the religions. " Books & Culture. 10.1 (Jan-Feb 2004): 9(3). General OneFile. Gale. King County Library System. 3 Mar. 2010
after thought song:: ha like an after dinner mint. instead of for the pallet, for the contemplation of the mind : ) ---->
Paul Griffiths, Problems of Religious Diversity (Blackwell, 2001).
Michael Barnes, SJ, Theology and the Dialogue of Religions (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2002).
S. Mark Heim, The Depth of the Riches: A Trinitarian Theology of Religious Ends (Eerdmans, 2001).
3 comments:
"And while I am rooted in Jesus Christ, that same Christianity allows me to be a more liberal thinker, because I am able to accept all the beliefs and religions of the world as having some truth, .. versus an atheist who has to throw out and distance himself from all the religions of the world and the people that believe them."
If I am reading your ideas correctly, you propose that Jesus Christ gives you a unique framework to relate other religions to. Because you have a divinely inspired framework to relate other attempts at human-divine interaction, this gives you a deeper understanding of all human-divine interaction. You then assume that someone who doesn't have the same pattern cannot relate to any of those patterns. Not only can they not relate, they can't even take good parts from other's philosophies. This is classic Christian hubris, but with a new twist. Now, being Christian not only entitles you to a better life and afterlife, it also allows you to be more open-minded, precisely because it is close-minded! Why do you think that people other than Christians can't also see truth in philosophies they see as flawed? Does Christianity give you a mental acuity that is unobtainable by others?
Also, how would your Christianity help you not distance yourself from people of other religions? The main reason that Christianity had any significant contact with the religions mentioned in the essay, was to try and convert them. Through the process of converting other cultures to Christianity, Christianity then had to incorporate outside ideals that didn't fit with the more close-minded view of God that it held recently dear. The very process of conversion distances people until they can come together under one philosophical tent. Believing that someone else has to come to your point of view is one really great way to make friends.
Don't worry, you are making the same mistakes as famous theologians! "Perhaps the religions really do get their devotees to their respective salvations, and these diverse salvations represent different dimensions of the triune God of Jesus Christ. For example, Heim wonders whether Theravada Buddhism's impersonal nirvana might be the impersonal dimension of the personal God" Why should Theravada Buddism's version of God have to fit within Christian version of God? Remember the Christian hubris I spoke of?
To quote from the article, "there is the possibility that from 'dialogue' with religious others, Christians can learn more about the meaning of the blinding revelation of Jesus Christ." Blinding indeed.
anger! wow. well you are entitled to your point of view. it is interesting that some people can see Christ as shackles and others can see him as the ultimate freedom, and some can see him as blindness and others the light. but because I believe that there has to be some measuring stick of truth.. I'll stick to the one full of love. Just as Christian theologians can make mistakes in thinking from one point of view, so the logic of every other philosophy eventually breaks down. Logic has its limits, and there is a measure of faith in everything...
P.S. I emailed that article to you because I knew you would have something interesting to say haha
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