Archive

Archive for the ‘Faith’ Category

4 WAYS TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE BIBLE….

December 6th, 2009
No comments
Christians interpret the Bible in one or more of the following ways.  Generally, this leads to a better understanding of what it all means. -mackie
 
1. LITERALLY WRITTEN AS THE WORD OF GOD:
 
That most biblical passages, from Genesis to Revelation, should be interpreted literally, unless some other method is clearly obvious.

Examples: some passages are written as poetry, others in parables (which may or not be fictional), and others as figuratively: 

John 15:1 “I am the vine, ye are the branches…” Jesus is obviously not a vine, and his followers are obviously not branches. He was speaking metaphorically (like the brain is a computer).
 
2. WRITTEN AS A HISTORICAL DOCUMENT:
 
Christians who use this approach to biblical interpretation view the Bible as having been written by very human, fallible authors. The writers were motivated by a desire to promote their own religious, spiritual, and political beliefs and/or those of their faith group. The Hebrew Scriptures (a.k.a. the Old Testament) and the Christian Scriptures (a.k.a. New Testament) thus reflect the evolution of religious and cultural thought over about a ten century time span.

Some beliefs which are common to those using this interpretive technique include:

bullet The authors of the Bible were very human and often made mistakes in their writing.
bullet Biblical writers attempted to explain their beliefs about God and his will for humanity. Being fallible, they sometimes wrote material that was contrary to the will of God.
bullet Parts of the Hebrew Scriptures represent the beliefs of Hebrews during the Bronze Age (circa 2000 to 1200 BCE). This was a pre-scientific age whose rules of behavior are from a pre-scientific age and not particularly applicable to 21st century culture.
bullet Some parts of the Bible should be ignored and are not suitable as a guide to modern living. Typical examples are: laws regulating slavery, restricting the roles of women, ordering genocide, torturing prisoners, allowing the rape of female prisoners of war, requiring the murder of religious and sexual minorities, requiring the burning of some prostitutes alive, and many other activities considered profoundly immoral by today’s ethical standards. 
 
3. WRITTEN IN THE FORM OF THE MIDRASH (Jewish sayings):
  
“Midrash is the Jewish way of saying that everything to be venerated in the present must somehow be connected with a sacred moment in the past…It is the means whereby the experience of the present can be affirmed and asserted as true inside the symbols of yesterday.“

Bishop Spong illustrates Midrash by citing four stories in the Hebrew Scriptures which involved a common miraculous theme: the parting of waters in a sea or river:

bullet The first story is found in Exodus 14:5-28. The Hebrew people were trapped between the Red or Reed Sea and the approaching Egyptian army. Moses cried out to God who parted the sea so that the Israelites could pass in safety.
bullet The second story is found in Joshua 3:14-17. Joshua was the successor to Moses. He commanded that the ark of the covenant be carried to the Jordan River. As the priests carrying the ark reached the river, God stopped the water and caused it to pile “up in a heap a great distance away.” (NIV) The priests found themselves standing on a dry river bed.(for the rest of the stories click on the link at the bottom)

It is not useful to ask whether the partings of the waters actually occurred. A proper question is:

“What was the experience that led, or even compelled, the compilers of sacred tradition to include this moment, this life or this event inside the interpretive framework of their sacred past?“
4. WRITTEN AS FOLKLORE:

Ancient stories were circulated for decades or centuries via an oral tradition before being fixed in written form. Some were legends and myths; others were accounts of real events. Various groups within a religion or culture passed on different versions of the story. By the time that multiple versions of the same story were written down, many discrepancies had developed.  There are different writings of the stories of the creation, the flood, the ten commandments, the Lord’s prayer, the sermon on the mount, etc.  Compare the parables and other passages in the Gospels.

For much greater detail click on: http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_inte.htm

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I would like to add one more method of interpretation called the  MYSTICAL:

1 a : having a spiritual meaning or reality that is neither apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence <the mystical food of the sacrament> b : involving or having the nature of an individual’s direct subjective communion with God or ultimate reality <the mystical experience of the Inner Light>
2 : mysterious, unintelligible
3 a : mystic 2 b : mystic 3 for more click on: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/MYSTICAL

THE ULTIMATE REALITY COMES TO US IN MANY WAYS IF ONLY WE OPEN OUR TOTAL BEINGS AND EMPTY OURSELVES AND LET HIM CONTINUALLY FILL US WITH HIS LOVE, POWER, GRACE, MERCY AND WONDER.  IT IS A MOMENT BY MOMENT PROCESS. -mackie

For other religious texts used in 1281-1400 AD (Late Medieval Period) click on: 

Bible, Faith

JESUS: A Story of Enlightenment by Deepak Chopra

October 1st, 2009
No comments

New Realities with Alan Steinfeld interviews Deepak Chopra about his most recent book – JESUS: A Story of Enlightenment. In this book Chopra tells the amazing story of how this spiritual Jesus emerged and why it speaks to all of humanity. By revealing the spiritual evolution of Christ, Chopra provides a fresh and unexpected understanding of a story readers thought they already knew.


As Chopra writes, The Jesus who is left out of the New Testament turns out to be in many ways the most important Jesus for modern times. His aspiration to find salvation vibrates in every heart. If it didnt, the brief career of a controversial, largely despised rabbi wouldnt mean much. Yet that obscure rabbi became imbedded forever in myth and symbol.” The Jesus that emerges in these pages is, like so many of us, a seeker in search of a calling. With JESUS: A Story of Enlightenment, Chopra has created a classic tale that will forever change the way we understand God and the soul.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Faith , , , , , , ,

KAREN ARMSTRONG STATES A ‘CASE FOR GOD’

September 29th, 2009
No comments

A former nun, Karen Armstrong left her convent in the late 1960s, and for 13 years she distanced herself from organized religion. She ended up working in television, and on an assignment in Jerusalemshe had a kind of epiphany about the similarities among the major world religions. It was the study of those religions that allowed her to revisit her own faith.

Armstrong published her first book, Through the Narrow Gate, in 1982. Twenty-seven years and more than 20 books later — including the best-selling A History of God — Armstrong releases her latest book, The Case for God. In it, she argues that religion is a practical discipline that teaches us to discover new capacities of the mind and heart.

To listen click on:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112968197

and click on Listen to the Story.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Faith, Spiritual Imperfection , , , , , , ,

UNDERSTANDING HUMANITY AND THE UNIVERSE…

September 21st, 2009
No comments
“Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience.

We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

In the final analysis, the questions of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it happened.

The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of one’s self to others.

Love alone can unite living beings so as to complete and fulfill them… for it alone joins them by what is deepest in themselves. All we need is to imagine our ability to love developing until it embraces the totality of men and the earth.

We are one, after all, you and I. Together we suffer, together exist, and forever will recreate each other.”

For more of his quotes click on:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/pierreteil156692.html

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (French pronunciation: [pj?? teja? d? ?a?d??]; 1 May 1881, Orcines, France – 10 April 1955, New York City) was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of Peking Man. Teilhard conceived the idea of the Omega Point and developed Vladimir Vernadsky’s concept of Noosphere.

Teilhard’s primary book, The Phenomenon of Man, set forth a sweeping account of the unfolding of the cosmos. He abandoned traditional interpretations of creation in the Book of Genesis in favor of a less strict interpretation. This displeased certain officials in the Roman Curia, who thought that it undermined the doctrine of original sin developed by Saint Augustine. Teilhard’s position was opposed by his church superiors, and his work was denied publication during his lifetime by the Roman Holy Office. The 1950 encyclical Humani generis condemned several of Teilhard’s opinions, while leaving other questions open.

For more about his life and works click on:
“Search to know the Truth
And the Truth will set You Free.”
(my aim is not to convince, but to share what I have found for your consideration. – mackie)
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Faith , , , , , , ,

A broader view of the ultimate, supreme, eternal, creating Being

September 12th, 2009
No comments
“In Sailing Home, renowned teacher Norman Fischer deftly incorporates

Buddhist, Judaic, Christian, and popular thought,

as well as his own unique and sympathetic understanding of life,

We see how to resist the seduction of the Sirens‘ song to stop sailing and give up;

how to bide our time in a situation and wait for the right opportunity; and how to reassess our story and rediscover our purpose and identity if, like the Lotus-Eaters, we have forgotten the past. With meditations that yield personal revelations, illuminating anecdotes from Fischer’s and his students’ lives, and stories from many wisdom traditions, Sailing Home shows the way to greater purpose in your own life.”
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Faith, Spiritual Imperfection , , , , , ,