My reply to you (was) disappeared. But I shall come back to you now. One moment...
Sorry, John, got sidetracked.
Basically, Constantine, a later Caesar, saw in Christ's religion a marvelous tool for the unification of a vast and diverse empire, and while the imposition of political and social unity gave immense power to both Church and Emp…
My reply to you (was) disappeared. But I shall come back to you now. One moment...
Sorry, John, got sidetracked.
Basically, Constantine, a later Caesar, saw in Christ's religion a marvelous tool for the unification of a vast and diverse empire, and while the imposition of political and social unity gave immense power to both Church and Empire and went a long way to creating a great new civilization, it suppressed essential aspects of Christ's teaching and replaced them by compulsory belief in myths that don't hang together and are completely at odds with that teaching—which remains radical, and utterly subversive of the world we have built for ourselves, a world that is now falling apart.
So much so that the term “Christian” seems often to be a misnomer, as what is taught now and has been for centuries is in basic respects deeply opposed to what Jesus taught and often consists of all that he preached against.
The Reformation was an attempt to get back down to basics but, even there, fundamentalism, gross literalist misinterpretation of the metaphors, the parables used by Jesus in his teaching, has tended to paint a dualistic picture of a deity separate from and above his creatures, essentially transcendent, while neglecting the lifeblood of the Gospel message, God’s indwelling presence in and among us. In other words, a living message, buried under a vast heap of doctrinal detritus. One that could hardly be more relevant for Westerners.
How so? Because monotheism and the consequent belief in one truth underlie the growth of our cultures and our power… while our present exclusive focus on appearances and externals and neglect of all that’s inward, the very nature of the mind that perceives phenomena, even the unfathomable complexity of the human brain that mediates our perceptions and tries to understand what it perceives, lies at the root of today’s vast turbulent confusion, the worldwide crisis of civilization, of survival.
My reply to you (was) disappeared. But I shall come back to you now. One moment...
Sorry, John, got sidetracked.
Basically, Constantine, a later Caesar, saw in Christ's religion a marvelous tool for the unification of a vast and diverse empire, and while the imposition of political and social unity gave immense power to both Church and Empire and went a long way to creating a great new civilization, it suppressed essential aspects of Christ's teaching and replaced them by compulsory belief in myths that don't hang together and are completely at odds with that teaching—which remains radical, and utterly subversive of the world we have built for ourselves, a world that is now falling apart.
So much so that the term “Christian” seems often to be a misnomer, as what is taught now and has been for centuries is in basic respects deeply opposed to what Jesus taught and often consists of all that he preached against.
The Reformation was an attempt to get back down to basics but, even there, fundamentalism, gross literalist misinterpretation of the metaphors, the parables used by Jesus in his teaching, has tended to paint a dualistic picture of a deity separate from and above his creatures, essentially transcendent, while neglecting the lifeblood of the Gospel message, God’s indwelling presence in and among us. In other words, a living message, buried under a vast heap of doctrinal detritus. One that could hardly be more relevant for Westerners.
How so? Because monotheism and the consequent belief in one truth underlie the growth of our cultures and our power… while our present exclusive focus on appearances and externals and neglect of all that’s inward, the very nature of the mind that perceives phenomena, even the unfathomable complexity of the human brain that mediates our perceptions and tries to understand what it perceives, lies at the root of today’s vast turbulent confusion, the worldwide crisis of civilization, of survival.