A_Wanderer
ONE love, blood, life
Bibliotheism I think.
Dreadsox said:Can focusing on the scripture get in the way of focusing on God?
joyfulgirl said:Or perhaps it is suggesting that following the letter of the word is inferior to following the spirit of the word.
Dreadsox said:In a sense I feel that this was part of the Christ stories. There were so many it seems who at the time wrapped themselves in the law and scripture, yet Jesus appears to have come in direct contradiction to this behavior.
nbcrusader said:
Not when you are picking and choosing which spirit of the Word to follow.
nbcrusader said:
Not when you are picking and choosing which spirit of the Word to follow.
nbcrusader said:Is the suggestion that we all pick and choose, so no one command can be "held against" another person?
Dreadsox said:No the suggestion is not that at all.
The suggestion is that we selectively have shosen the bits and pieces we identify with. We focus on those and ignore others. WE have different denominations that look at the same things and come to different conclusions. We have a book that at times NO LONGER means what the original author intended because the cultural meanings and the influence of them are lost upon us because of our own cultural biases, as well as translations of the text in which words that meant one thing thousands of years ago, are interpreted to mean something different today.
I am suggesting, that when we think we are righteous and sole owners of the truth because of these things, we are missing a key part.
What was the SPIRIT of the original message?
Dreadsox said:I would agree, but IDOLOTRY of the Bible can get in the way of doing exactly what you are saying.
Dreadsox said:Definition #2 sums it up for me.
2 : immoderate attachment or devotion to something
I think that sometimes clinging to the words (immoderate attachment) searching to be more righteous than like Christ fits this.
Dreadsox said:
No the suggestion is not that at all.
The suggestion is that we selectively have shosen the bits and pieces we identify with. We focus on those and ignore others. WE have different denominations that look at the same things and come to different conclusions. We have a book that at times NO LONGER means what the original author intended because the cultural meanings and the influence of them are lost upon us because of our own cultural biases, as well as translations of the text in which words that meant one thing thousands of years ago, are interpreted to mean something different today.
I am suggesting, that when we think we are righteous and sole owners of the truth because of these things, we are missing a key part.
What was the SPIRIT of the original message?
AvsGirl41 said:
Dread, I would swear you were one of my classmates this semester.
nbcrusader said:
How can we be more righteous than Christ-like? Christ is perfect righteousness. I don't think we can ever match that.
from the Boston Globe ...Such ferocity of human arguments over God, whether in affirmation or denial, reflects a terrible forgetfulness. Religion is to God what the clock is to time. Religion participates in the mystery of what it represents but does not embody that mystery. Not even Christianity, with its self-understanding as a religion of the incarnate Word, does more than enshrine that Word in symbol and sacrament. Indeed, "Word" is the clue, since all religion, however infinite the object of its worship, remains bound by the finitude of language -- and language always falls short of its purpose. That truth applies to religion and science both. Words are to what they aim to express as the clock is to time. That is why silence, too, is a mode of worship. And it is why, also, the language of science always leaves room for what is not known.