buck

Hi Jason. Welcome and it's a pleasure to meet you.

Hi searchingmom. It's a pleasure to meet you. A passage from Luke 17:20-21 comes to mind: "... the Kingdom of God is within you." I hope that your mothers day was a beautiful experience.

Hi Jericho, welcome. One of the traits I like most about the overall Progressive Christian movement is that of critical thinking. Nothing necessarily needs to be interpreted as a rule to obey or be condemned to hell, but rather each concept can be discussed as a tool to explore oneself and thereby discover a greater personal connection with God.

Hi Firedragon. Welcome and it's a pleasure to meet you.

Hi SW. I'm aware of linguistic mistranslations, but I don't feel that can necessarily be considered malicious as recognition of those differences, those inaccuracies, resulted in resources such as the online NIV Bible, which also allows a comparative study of translations. Buck

Happy Monday. I was wondering if there was a Link To Us page anywhere on the site. I couldn't find one, but maybe someone else knows for certain if there is or is not one available. Thanks, Buck

Hi Chris. I'm a bit new here myself. Critical thinking is something very important to me, and from what I've seen from the conversations so far, this is a good place for quality discussions. I don't want to go off-topic of your intro, but as far as critical thinking is concerned, I'm currently reading Joseph Atwill's book Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus :Flavian Signature Edition and find it intriguing in many ways (mostly because professional story-analysis is one of the services I offer). I'm only offering that bit of info because I think you will find that the community here is quite well-read, and if you need Socratic discussion on any topic, this will be a good venue. Or at least that's my opinion of the community so far. It's a pleasure to meet you, and I look forward to future discussions. Buck

I've just put the book on hold through my Library. I'm #16 in line, so maybe sometime next week I will get the copy. I read the description of the book on Amazon and it looks intriguing. I like the idea of a history being discussed from civic records rather than records of testimonials.

Hi Patrick, it's a pleasure to meet you. Do you have experience in online communities, either closed to paying members only those that are freely open to the public? Your course sounds interesting and worthwhile, and I will certainly make an effort to contribute. Buck

Hi Norm. I can offer some additional feedback to add to my last comment. It's been a long time since I've looked into Gnostic Christianity -- perhaps over 25 years, so I am not current with its current activities or new developments. A lot of the insights I gained of Gnostic Christianity was through the now defunct magazine Gnosis. My basic understanding of Gnostic Christianity is this: Practitioners do not necessarily believe in Jesus Christ as a physical human being but rather a concept where Christ is discovered within oneself, Practitioners may read texts other than the Bible, Practitioners seem to have a propensity towards intellectualism and enjoy constructive philosophical debates, Practitioners seem to be very liberal, embodying many humanitarian values. And that's about all I know or remember about it. I'm not certain if it has a hocusy-pocusy-spooky-wooky aspect to it or not. Progressive Christianity seems to embody many of the points I mentioned above, and if it doesn't, it seems to be accepting of the practitioner who does. So that's why I liken it to Gnostic Christianity. At least at this time... my opinions change as I discover new information. Buck

Hi Romansh and Dude. I first became aware of Campbell through the Bill Moyers interviews (I was very young at the time). I read The Power of Myth & Myths to Live By a few years ago, and I watched the Power of Myth DVD as well. I hold Campbell with a tremendous amount of respect, and not only for his academics. The Mythos DVD sets are a collection of his lectures to a group of people attending the lecture. He sits himself up onto a chair on the stage and then simply begins to talk. No notes in the hand, no que cards. He just talks, and it's difficult to stop listening to him. I wish my command of the language -- and the stuff I need to talk to others about -- was such that I could speak that well!

Oh My, that is now on my list of books to read sooner-than-later! I just bought the Kindle edition and will get to it soon. Buck

Because of the end-result of personal transformation that it produces.

Because the less a person thinks, the easier they are to control, and the more likely they are to try to control others to think at (below) their level. The individuals who have criticized me have their own followings, and are very likely inspiring people to think (pardon the term) the way they do. Criticizing a fictional story written for entertainment purposes because it is not true, is as you say, ironic, and I also feel it is deeply indicative of a much greater problem that appears to be growing in our society. I hope that the Progressive Christianity movement can help offer solutions to that problem.

I've been giving this question some very deep thought since happening across it the other week... and as an initial disclaimer, I have not read the replies to the opening threat (yet--I will read them later this evening). To me, Progressive Christianity is a reformed and extremely contemporary version of Gnostic Christianity. Buck