The denial of the crucifixion – in a metaphoric sense – is behind our problems in a very central way.
One can deny Christianity as a dogma, all day long. It will not matter.
But one cannot deny the truths of Christianity – in so far as they are truths.
The truth of the crucifixion is the truth of justice or karma, the truth that not one tittle of the law can be done away with.
The law exists side by side with grace, which supplants it, in the New Testament.
But the law itself cannot be done away with.
The law (judgment, justice) forms one pillar of the divine. The other pillar is formed by mercy.
Neither exists by itself.
Our age has convinced itself that mercy can exist without judgment or justice. Indeed, we dislike judgment altogether and confuse it with judgmentalism. But that is better termed condemnation.
This denial is part of what I see as a fundamental problem of economics today. The separation of risk and reward, of consequences (judgment) from actions.
Jesus Christ, however you conceive him, could not escape them – that is the truth of the crucifixion.
An uncomfortable truth for moderns.
This has nothing to do with dogma…or priests….or orthodox belief. This is a practical truth.
Judgment (cause and effect) and mercy (chance, the serendipitous, the whole-that-is-more-than-the-parts)
can be seen in quite non-religious terms.
But I, for one, have no quarrel with couching them in religious terms.
And on Good Friday, why not?
Why should I be so unseated from tradition?
My history and my tradition are as much a part of the ecology of my soul as the sky or ocean or rainwater is part of the ecology of the physical world.
My first impression was that this utterance is quite profound. But then it occured to me that much christian thought is improved if we liberate it from the burden of divinity and just let mankind be good for goodness sake. I suspect the Baha’i’s are right that god is inherently unknowable.
Did we create priests to free us from kings, or is the other way around?
It had nothing to do with dogma…or priests.
I was talking practice.
Judgement (cause and effect) and mercy (chance, the serendipitous, the whole more than the parts)
can be seen in quite non-religious terms.
But I, for one, have no quarrel with couching them in religious terms.
And on Good Friday, why not?
Why should I be so unseated from tradition?
My history and my tradition is as much a part of the ecology of my soul as the sky or ocean is of the world.
“My history and my tradition is as much a part of the ecology of my soul as the sky or ocean is of the world.”
That’s a beautiful turn of phrase, but it marks you as a foreigner. America is more idea than place, and while in that context you are far more American than the vast majority of native born, part of that idea is the aspect of self-creation. We do not have to be molded by tradition but are inspired to create our own.
However you are right, it’s an important religious holiday and there is nothing to be gained by disrespecting it. Thanks for the reminder.
No tradition prevents you from creating.
My Christianity is always my own. It has to be.
Nothing and no one is a complete self-creation. Some people just don’t remember.
It’s not either or not, is it?
There is a tradition (which isn’t any fixed thing anyway – it’s always changing) and then each of us brings our own changing being into it and interacts with it.
It’s very fluid.
Tradition – self-creation. They aren’t opposites unless you want them to be.
I was talking to a priest the other day and he related how before he was born, his mother determined that he would be a priest and his sister a nun. The priest was a philippino, I think (I didn’t ask). This is common to traditional cultures and this attitude even exists in our own. Catholics raise their kids to be Catholics; muslims to be Muslims. I have taken another route with mine and simply ask that they discover who they are and go with it.
I come from a very liberal background. Hinduism is a very tolerant religion and Christianity in India is so too.
I wouldn’t say I’m religious in the dogmatic sense but I like the symbolism, I’m at home with it, adapt it to my use and feel it offers as profound a language as anything.
Lila, I’ll take your word for it. The only Indian I’ve known well(he’s deceased)was a very brilliant engineer named C.K. Vencatachalam, aka. “vencat.” He was quite an authoritarian which we debated to no end after hours while working on projects. I learned from him that hindu’s (at least his variety), though vegetarian, drank beer. 🙂
I love Hinduism, love Ganesh, love Shiva, who is a dying god just like Christ or Dionysus, those who have to die so Nature is reborn with them.
Justice is the most difficult thing to achieve in life. Mercy only requires goodness.
Goodness requires justice to be good, no? Otherwise it becomes sentimentality.
That’s what the imagery of burning coal in the prophetic literature is about..
Of course. Justice is one of the best parts of the good.What I meant is that there’s no mercy wothout goodness. I mean real mercy, not a game of make believe with hidden intentions. As for justice alone, it’s separated from goodness and mercy, it can be very hard and it’s very difficult to have it perfect, because it deals with parts in conflict.
By the way, I wish you a happy Easter.
I’ll let you have the last word on justice as part of my practice of mercy (smile)
And Happy Easter to you too…