From: Elizaphanian (elizaphanian@tiscali.co.uk)
Date: Mon Apr 07 2003 - 11:55:21 BST
Hi David,
> If I could offer an alternative to Sam's formulation, that DQ is an aspect
> of God, I'd say that DQ and God are two metaphors that refer to the same
> mystery.
I'm very comfortable with that.
> I don't mean to suggest that Christianity fails to express this same core,
> mystical version of the divine, its just tough to see it. Its been
obscured
> by the literalisms and such that we've been discussing. Its been covered
> over and buried, but as is the case with all religions, it too reflects
the
> DQ that created it. Stripped of any doctrines, statements like "I and the
> Father are one" are transformed from meaning two thirds of the trinity, to
a
> declaration the reality is undivided. "My kingdom is not of this world"
> becomes a rejection of the belief that the sundered world of things is
> reality. Atonement looses its moralistic overtones and also says the world
> is undivided; At-One-ment. The five piercings of the Christ are not just
> wounds for us to pity, but symbols of the five senses the keep us attached
> to the static, sundered world, which is death.
Putting quibbles to one side, I'm comfortable with that too. (John's gospel
is a mystical text).
> HUMORIST MARK TWAIN
> FAITH is believing what you know ain't so.
Wittgenstein (yes, him again):
"Christianity is not based on a historical truth; rather, it offers us a
(historical) narrative and says: now believe! But not, believe this
narrative with the belief appropriate to a historical narrative, rather:
believe, through thick and thin, which you can do only as the result of a
life. _Here you have a narrative, don't take the same attitude to it as you
take to other historical narratives!_ Make a _quite different_ place in
your life for it. - There is nothing _paradoxical_ about that!"
BTW, in case I'm giving a misleading impression with all these quotations,
Wittgenstein was (probably) not a Christian himself. I just think he
understood it well, and he had a philosophically sophisticated perspective.
Sam
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