Anglocatholic

what book do keep on your shelf to read over and over again?

I read all my books over and over. I have read the complete works of Dickens about ten times, maybe more. Jane Austen, perhaps the same. If a book is good I read it over and over. If it is not good, it gets passed on via a charity shop.

Three part question/assignment

 

Part 1: Tell us about you first kiss.

Part 2: Tell us about your most embarrasing kiss (or attempt at)

Part 3: Tell us about your most memoriable kiss ..

Too long ago to remember any of those.

Where would you go on holiday if you could go anywhere in the world, and who would you take with you?

 

It has been my position that truth actually exists so it can be understood by man, because, he has been made to reason by a personal and infinite God who created all else.

 

I am reluctant to enter a debate which has been continuing for some time, but I wanted to comment on this one point, where I think you are somewhat mistaken in your interpretation of what being a reasoning creature entails.

The ability to reason does not give the logical conclusion that we can determine all truth, any more than understanding mathematics means that we can determine the conclusive value of pie. We can learn more every day, but we will never learn all that there is to know.

'The truth' is not attainable by man until the day we stand face to face with God. Until then, we see through a glass darkly, just as every other person of every other faith does.

In Christian theology, Christ himself is the Way, the Truth and the Life. To assume that, through Christ, we can attain his level of Truth for ourselves is to go beyond what the Scriptures say, and into rather dubious areas verging on blasphemy (man assuming properties or qualities that belong only to God). Man - even redeemed man - remains fallible and finite. We do not get to understand all that there is to understand, by following Christ. We get a promise that one day we will understand, and one day we will see ourselves and others as God sees. But not yet.

Without having a beginning, how can any talk of the afterlife be relevant?

You are correct. Afterlife is an irrelevant term in relation to eternity. Eternity is outside time, and has no relation to any term such as 'before', 'after', 'during' or whatever. There is no 'before God'; the concept is meaningless.

However, 'afterlife' is a meaningful term when used by mortal creatures, to discuss concepts of immortality.

God is in eternity, not in time. We are in time, not in eternity.

Very wise. The only caveat I would put on Point 6 is this: I am absolutely certain that I am loved by a personal, loving, passionate God. I have no doubt about any of that. What that means in all the chaos of my life and world I'm learning little by little.

 

The above quote from the scholars explains why so many people don't worship a living God, but a straw man, a limited God, a set of characteristics or rules or ideas which can be easily manipulated and controlled. We cannot control God. To the extent that we think we can, what we are controlling can't be God.

 

But the history of religion is of the offer of freedom and love being turned into Law, Rules, Philosophy, Ideology, you name it. We are more comfortable with those things. They fit our expectations, rest easily in our little boxes and don't challenge our categories. But the real Yahweh . . .!

 

"The Spirit blows whither S/He will . . . "

 

And who was it in the Bible who said "It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the Living God!"?

I don't think there is anything wrong with having rules and order in our lives, or in our beliefs. What is perhaps a shade wrong is to think that God is constrained by our rules, and has to answer to them. We all begin by creating God in our own image. Some of us move on from that, some few of us don't.

St Anselm said, 'God is that, greater than which we cannot conceive.' If, for example, our notional God hates, say, thieves, but we can conceive of a God who can understand why some people are driven to steal, even if he does not actually condone theft, then our notional God is not big enough. We must revise our interpretation of God to fit our understanding of acceptance.

Similarly, if our notional God 'hates' a particular lifestyle, but we have met someone who is not only tolerant of people living that lifestyle, but values them as essential members of our society, then our notional God is again too small.

In other words, man cannot outdo God in morality. If even one of us can tolerate, love, accept and embrace our fallen brothers and sisters with our mercy and compassion, then so does God. St Isaac of Syria said that God does not hate anyone; never has, and never will. The moment God hated any one of us; that same moment we would cease to exist, forever. God is love, mercy and compassion. The challenge to us is to find out exactly how much love, mercy and compassion is involved. If we live to be a thousand years old, we will not even begin to come close to knowing the answer to that one.