65 Matching Annotations
  1. Jan 2024
    1. I was raised Catholic, you know, very, very devoutly Catholic. My family was. I went to eight years of Catholic schooling. I had to step away from the church when I realized I couldn't say all the things 00:21:39 that we were being asked to say. I've, these days I've been studying Buddhism for many years
      • for: Marjorie Kelly - spiritual background in Christianity and Buddhism
  2. Oct 2023
    1. Alter’s avoidance of straightforward translations undermines his credibility when he tackles texts used by Christians for millennia in support of their claims that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah.

      His credibility or theirs?

  3. Sep 2023
  4. Aug 2023
    1. Synod ČCE souhlasí s možností požehnání svazků osob stejného pohlaví, pokud o to požádají. Synod ČCE vnímá, že názory na tuto otázku nejsou v církvi jednotné, podporuje činnost komise pro soužití s LGBTQ lidmi a pokračování diskuze v církvi o tomto tématu. Synod konstatuje, že žádný kazatel není povinen žehnat svazkům osob stejného pohlaví.
  5. Jun 2023
    1. It is the cold and detached warrior that defeats the emotional and prideful one. Yet it is the man who fights on his knees, in faith to the Lord, who trumps them. For no man, nor Satanic curse, can stand against an angelic army.
    2. Therefore, it is written that men should "pray without ceasing." 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (KJV)
    1. People of the last days will be abound:

      1) Selfish - Symptom: Increase in Divorce Rates

      2) Enjoy pleasure > God - Sin has an addictive & deceptive nature, it gives pleasure. (think of porn)

      3) Lukewarmness (have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof)

      They will not be caught up with the Lord during the rapture.

      Be ready for the rapture at all times because it will come like a thief in the night.

    1. In the end times, there will be a lot of lukewarm Christians, who will not be taken in the rapture.

      Faith means crucifying the flesh and feeding the Spirit. Being lukewarm: Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof; Outwardly faithful, but not transforming. Your life after conversion (baptism) is the same as before. OR selective faith. Choose what to obey; define your own religion.

      God (the Truth) sets free, therefore sin will be gone.

      Profession of faith means to CHANGE, GOD may cost you a lot. LOVE is SACRIFICE. Do not just hear, but also do.

      The most godly one is the one who sins the least, not the one who goes to church the most. Church means nothing. Doing the word of God, obeying Him, building a relation with Him means everything.

      Walking the broad (easy) path leads to sin and thus death and hell. Walking the narrow (difficult) path leads to righteousness and Heaven.

    1. it's actually daunting chilling even to see how this 00:51:43 book is which is really about conservative white evangelicals in the United States I'm an American historian how much it is resonating with people around the world right now in ways that 00:51:57 that should be alarming
      • quote

        • "it's actually daunting chilling even
          • to see how this book,
            • which is really about conservative white evangelicals in the United States
            • I'm an American historian
          • how much it is resonating with people around the world right now
            • in ways that that should be alarming"
        • Author
          • Kristin Kobes Du Mez
      • Comment

        • the viral and rapid global spread of evangelical christianity
          • is coupled with an equal spread of corrosive patriarchy and authoritarianism
        • The global spread of authoritarianism is linked to the global spread of Evangelical Christianity
        • This is an important observation which begs a global response
  6. Mar 2023
  7. Dec 2022
    1. In 529, two crucial events tipped the balance even further infavour of Christianity.

      The rise of Christianity over paganism took a stronger turn for Christianity in the year 529 as the result of Justinian's closing the Academy in Athens and Saint Benedict's founding of a monastery.

    2. to the success of Christianity’s victory over paganism, which hadtraditionally championed the pursuit of happiness and denouncedpain as evil. The triumph of suffering over pleasure had its mostextreme expression in the early monasteries.

      People clung to the promise of salvation. The idea that the more you suffered here on earth, the better your time would be in the afterlife was a potent shield against the desperate realities of everyday life in the fifth and sixth centuries. This doctrine was central

      Relationship to Eric Hoffer's thesis in The True Believer and mass movements' "hope for the future" even if the hope is for one's afterlife? This sort of hope can be seen in both Islam and Christianity

  8. Oct 2022
  9. Sep 2022
  10. Jun 2022
    1. Short-lived victories, however, came at a long-term cost. Evangelical leaders set something in motion decades ago that pastors today can no longer control. Not only were Christians conditioned to understand their struggle as one against flesh and blood, fixated on earthly concerns, a fight for a kingdom of this world—all of which runs directly counter to the commands of scripture—they were indoctrinated with a belief that because the stakes were getting so high, any means was justified.
    2. To many evangelicals today, the enemy is no longer secular America, but their fellow Christians, people who hold the same faith but different beliefs.
    1. The monastic practice of Lectio Divina was first established in the 6th century by Benedict of Nursia and was then formalized as a four-step process by the Carthusian monk Guigo II during the 12th century.[3] In the 20th century, the constitution Dei verbum of the Second Vatican Council recommended Lectio Divina to the general public and its importance was affirmed by Pope Benedict XVI at the start of the 21st century.
    2. Traditionally, Lectio Divina has four separate steps: read; meditate; pray; contemplate. First a passage of scripture is read, then its meaning is reflected upon. This is followed by prayer and contemplation on the Word of God.
  11. May 2022
    1. I would love to hear how other Christians are using the antinet for bible studies.

      There's a tremendously long history here. Some related words and areas of intellectual history to study here for examples include "florilegia", "commonplace books", and even "miscellanies".

      Philip Melanchthon wrote several handbooks on the topic and had some useful historical examples including one of the most influential: De locis communibus ratio (Augsberg, 1593). You might appreciate this article on some of the tradition: https://blog.cph.org/study/systematic-theology-and-apologetics/why-are-so-many-great-lutheran-books-called-commonplaces-or-loci

      • Philip Melanchthon, Institutiones rhetoricae. Wittenberg [1536].
      • Philip Melanchthon, Rhetorices elementa. Lyon, 1537.

      Jonathan Edwards had a significant version which he called his Miscellanies though his was written in book form, though it can now also be found digitized online at http://edwards.yale.edu/research/misc-index.

  12. Apr 2022
    1. Every work of art can be read, according to Eco, in three distinct ways: the moral, the allegorical and the anagogical.

      Umberto Eco indicates that every work of art can be read in one of three ways: - moral, - allegorical - anagogical

      Compare this to early Christianities which had various different readings of the scriptures.

      Relate this also to the idea of Heraclitus and the not stepping into the same river twice as a viewer can view a work multiple times in different physical and personal contexts which will change their mood and interpretation of the work.

    1. One of the many reasons my wife and I want to plant a church is because it is the very place to foster such virtues and practices! The church gathers to announce that even in the midst of feeling disoriented, demotivated, discouraged, and disembodied, God has not abandoned us. In a season that is marked by so much death and distance, we confess our need for an in-breaking of the Spirit. My hope for the umms is that our love for and wonder of the triune God will not grow stagnant—and that in years to come, we will yet be able to testify, “Great is Thy faithfulness.”

      This is incredibly beautiful.

  13. Jan 2022
    1. A hundred years from now, I hope there are people who do not know my name or remember me, but nevertheless carry about with them seeds of faithful living that were first planted in the soil of this home.

      Well said.

    1. ‘They consider themselvesbetter than the French: “For,” they say, “you are always fighting andquarrelling among yourselves; we live peaceably. You are enviousand are all the time slandering each other; you are thieves anddeceivers; you are covetous, and are neither generous nor kind; asfor us, if we have a morsel of bread we share it with our neighbour.”

      Fascinating that the Mi'kmaq would level such accusations of non-Christian principles to a Jesuit missionary.

  14. Nov 2021
    1. it isn’t simply the case that much of what is distinctive about American evangelicalism is not essential to Christianity; it is that now, in important respects, much of what is distinctive about American evangelicalism has become antithetical to authentic Christianity. What we’re dealing with—not in all cases, of course, but in far too many— is political identity and cultural anxieties, anti-intellectualism and ethnic nationalism, resentments and grievances, all dressed up as Christianity.
    2. “Evangelical militancy is often depicted as a response to fear,” she told me. “But it’s important to recognize that in many cases evangelical leaders actively stoked fear in the hearts of their followers in order to consolidate their own power and advance their own interests.”

      This sort of power dynamic in smaller individual churches sounds like the problems of power in the centralized Catholic church. In this case it's decentralized into thousands of smaller churches.

    3. Du Mez told me it’s important to recognize that this “rugged warrior Jesus” is not the only Jesus many evangelicals encounter in their faith community. There is also the “Jesus is my friend” popular in many devotionals, for example. These representations might appear to be contradictory, she told me, but in practice they can be mutually reinforcing. Jesus is a friend, protector, savior—but according to one’s own understanding of what needs to be protected and saved, and not necessarily according to core biblical teachings.

      This seems to be getting at the "personal Jesus" and personal faith that Colin Woodard mentions as well.

    4. The root of the discord lies in the fact that many Christians have embraced the worst aspects of our culture and our politics. When the Christian faith is politicized, churches become repositories not of grace but of grievances, places where tribal identities are reinforced, where fears are nurtured, and where aggression and nastiness are sacralized. The result is not only wounding the nation; it’s having a devastating impact on the Christian faith.

      This would seem to indicate that culture and politics are taking precedence over the religion and faith portions of these churches.

  15. Oct 2021
    1. When the Western world accepted Christianity, Caesar conquered; and the received text of Western theology was edited by his lawyers.… The brief Galilean vision of humility flickered throughout the ages, uncertainly.

      On the Homebrewed Christianity podcast, Tripp Fuller quotes Process and Reality by Alfred North Whitehead in a conversation with Brian McLaren (22:20).

      When the Western world accepted Christianity, Caesar conquered; and the received text of Western theology was edited by his lawyers. The code of Justinian and the theology of Justinian are two volumes expressing one movement of the human spirit. The brief Galilean vision of humility flickered throughout the ages, uncertainly. In the official formulation of the religion it has assumed the trivial form of the mere attribution to the Jews that they cherished a misconception about their Messiah. But the deeper idolatry, of the fashioning of God in the image of the Egyptian, Persian, and Roman imperial rulers, was retained. The Church gave unto God the attributes which belonged exclusively to Caesar.

      Whitehead, Alfred North. Process and Reality (Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of Edinburgh During the Session 1927-28) (p. 342). Free Press. Kindle Edition.

  16. Sep 2021
    1. ? We should, perhaps, turn the problem around once again, and place it within the evolution of the Puritan ethic.

      This immediately brings to mind Max Webber, but before thinking about that,

      What about the overall discussion of the relation of time to Christianity in general. Early Christians practiced eschatology and were concerned with the imminent end of the world. How has that affected our relationship with time?

      Even the rise of health care has dramatically extended our lives, thus making time a bit less valuable overall, but have we seen that effect psychologically?

  17. Aug 2021
  18. Jul 2021
    1. However, perhaps not Anaximander, but Thales should be credited with this new idea. Diogenes Laërtius ascribes to Thales the aphorism: “What is the divine? That which has no origin and no end” (DK 11A1 (36)). Similar arguments, within different contexts, are used by Melissus (DK 30B2[9]) and Plato (Phaedrus 245d1-6).

      Compare this with the Christian philosophy of God: the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, etc.

  19. Jun 2021
    1. The poet Christian Wiman, who returned to his faith after having wandered from it, wrote in My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer that “Christ is always being remade in the image of man, which means that his reality is always being deformed to fit human needs, or what humans perceive to be their needs.”

      This seems reminiscent of the reminder to recall that ancient writers actually lived and eventually quit living. C. Matthewes quote perhaps about Augustine?

      What effect does the personal relationship with Christ play in this catastrophe? (the one described in American Nations). I need to return to this thesis and examine it closer.

    2. If so many people who say they have committed their life to Christ live a life that is in many areas so antithetical to the ways of Christ, what are we to make of that?

      Does Christianity still have a space in modern life if it can't be effective in the simplest ways?

      Is it christianity+capitalism and conspicuous consumption that doesn't work?

      What is causing this institutional failure?

    3. I have heard from pastors in different parts of America who describe a “generational catastrophe” that is unfolding because of how disillusioned young people, including many young Christians, are by what they have seen.

      Is it possible that this religion has been forcing itself on it's youth and thus chasing them away, thereby eroding support?

      When will this "apocalypse" happen? What will it look like? What will be the cultural and political fall out look like?

    1. Google’s headquarters, in Mountain View, California—the Googleplex—is the Internet’s high church, and the religion practiced inside its walls is Taylorism.

      The idea of Taylorism as a religion is intriguing.

      However, underlying it is the religion of avarice and greed.

      What if we just had the Taylorism with humanity in mind and took out the root motivation of greed?

      This might be akin to trying to return Christianity to it's Jewish roots and removing the bending of the religion away from its original intention.

      It's definitely the case that the "religion" is only as useful and valuable to it's practitioners as the practitioners allow. In the terms of the McLuhan-esque quote "We shape our tools and thereafter they shape us." we could consider religion (any religion including Taylorism) as a tool. How does that tool shape us? How do we continue to reshape it?

      While I'm thinking about it, what is the root form of resilience that has allowed the Roman Catholic Church to last and have the power and influence it's had for two millennia?

  20. Mar 2021
  21. Oct 2020
    1. If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? 2 Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! 4 Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned in the church? 5 I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? 6 But instead, one brother takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers!

      Interesting that this is interpreted in modern times in the same way as it was in ancient. A lot of this writing had to have been specific to it's political context at a time when keeping things in house was both to the benefit of the individuals as well as the Church which was a minority within a broader Roman protectorate.

      Why can't Christians manage to see any historical context for a 2000 year old document that is far from a living one?

    2. De facto, reputation and appearances become more important than people’s wellbeing, because authoritarian Christians are desperately afraid of the sense that any of their rigid, divinely prescribed rules do not actually work. Spoiler alert: they do not actually work.
    3. We ex-evangelicals and other former fundamentalist Christians were subjected to powerful, often thoroughly internalized disciplinary mechanisms meant to keep us from ever speaking out about what’s wrong in our families, in our churches and other evangelical institutions, and with conservative Christianity in general, but we are now overcoming our socialization and reclaiming our stories as evangelicalism faces a reckoning for the many abuses to which it has given rise.
    4. If you want to understand the Christian extremism that represents the single greatest threat to democracy and human rights in America today, it’s important to understand how authoritarian Christians read the Bible.

      Very likely true.

    1. Early Christians used the ichthys, a symbol of a fish, to represent Jesus,[94][95] because the Greek word for fish, ΙΧΘΥΣ Ichthys, could be used as an acronym for "Ίησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ" (Iesous Christos, Theou Huios, Soter), meaning "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour".
    1. monk’s tomb in 1886

      Apocalypse of Peter was found in the same tomb and manuscript as the Gospel of Peter.

    1. Its roots, though, don’t just lie in explicitly Christian tradition. In fact, it’s possible to trace the origins of the American prosperity gospel to the tradition of New Thought, a nineteenth-century spiritual movement popular with decidedly unorthodox thinkers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and William James. Practitioners of New Thought, not all of whom identified as Christian, generally held the divinity of the individual human being and the priority of mind over matter. In other words, if you could correctly channel your mental energy, you could harness its material results. New Thought, also known as the “mind cure,” took many forms: from interest in the occult to splinter-Christian denominations like Christian Science to the development of the “talking cure” at the root of psychotherapy. The upshot of New Thought, though, was the quintessentially American idea that the individual was responsible for his or her own happiness, health, and situation in life, and that applying mental energy in the appropriate direction was sufficient to cure any ills.
  22. Sep 2020
    1. the fallen nature which we all inherit from Adam

      Miss Clack already seems to be far more religious than Betteredge. I wonder if she is going to cite the Bible similarly to Betteredge with Robinson Crusoe. It also suggests that Clack will be conservative in her views of societal norms and traditions, and may have a strict, judgmental perspective in line with her Christian values.

      The reference to Original sin also brings up the classic dichotomy of good vs evil, innocence vs guilt. Does Clack view knowledge of good and evil as a deficiency in human nature? Does she believe in free will? These factors bring may provide a basis for how her narrative may be skewed or unreliable. Even if she does not ponder these questions herself, Collins certainly posits them to the reader by invoking original sin here. Furthermore, this sets up a tension between western Christianity and eastern Hinduism, reinforcing the previously introduced conflict between domestic and foreign values.

    2. Let your faith be as your stockings, and your stockings as your faith.

      This made me laugh because I feel like Collins is just making fun of self-righteous of Christianity with such a ridiculous statement like this. If someone is concerned with the whole of their stockings being “spotless”, they clearly care a LOT about their appearance (which shows them as somewhat vain and maybe hypocritical in the case of the comparison to Christianity because the stockings are an article of clothing that no one really pays attention to). Also, Miss Clack’s comment about stockings “ready to put on a moment’s notice” suggests that it’s both expected and normal to take off your faith, so faith is just something that you put on to maybe look nice or be presentable in front of others?

    1. In a world where comfort is king, arduous physical activity provides a rare opportunity to practice suffering.

      This is actually a very good insight that can be applied to the spiritual life.

  23. Jul 2020
    1. The dominion of man over animal that this naming manifests thus comes before original sin and the Fall,6

      There's the argument about whether man's dominion over animals signifies man's power over animals to do as he pleases, or whether it means a responsibility to protect & nurture these animals. This is explored within the context of vegetarianism/veganism as a moral quandary for Christians.

  24. Jul 2019
    1. In Christianity it is expressed as, “I and my Father are one.” That is, I, Awareness, and the ultimate reality of the universe are one and the same reality.
  25. Jun 2019
    1. The authors of The Urantia Book seem to have their own versions of the world’s sacred books. Scriptural quotations in The Urantia Book many times differ from all of our versions of the Bible. This fact is enough to invalidate the doctrine of the verbal inspiration of the Bible.

      Conflict with christian religious belief

  26. Jan 2019
    1. Afro-Christianity;

      Yet another Contradiction! Not only was Christianity a system that was used by imperials to shackle black people but it was also a tool that aided literacy and emancipation within the black communities

  27. Feb 2017
    1. After these convictions, in imagination I found myself sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed in my right mind. For I had been like a ship tossed to and fro, in a storm at sea. Then was I glad when I realized the dangers l had escaped; and then I consecrated by soul and body, and all the powers of my mind to his service, and from that time henceforth; yea, even for evermore, amen.

      It's interesting how both Astell and Stewart, two of the oldest female rhetoricians we have studied, were very overt in their expressions of Christian spirituality, something that their male counterparts were less keen to do in comparison.

      I wonder if this may have had something to do with their (relative) success as rhetoricians? Being female, especially one of color, is challenging enough, but bringing Christianity into it may have granted them an avenue to be discussed hundreds of years after their words first graced paper...

  28. Aug 2016
    1. life is full of enough difficult things that we do not need to make life more difficult on purpose.
    2. We don’t have to turn every choice into an object lesson. Nor do we need to make childhood as joyless as adulthood can be.
  29. Aug 2015
    1. To commit a crime against the natural world is a sin. For human beings to cause species to become extinct and to destroy the biological diversity of God's creation; for human beings to degrade the integrity of the earth by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the earth of its natural forests, or by destroying its wetlands; for human beings to injure other human beings with disease by contaminating the earth's waters, its land, its air, and its life, with poisonous substances – all of these are sins.