Christian Pragmatics (CP-1): The Format

Christian Pragmatics is the study of how Christians respond to the revelation of God's presence in their lives.  It will be recalled from the Scriptures that Jesus said words to the effect that "Where there are two or three gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them."  Christians claim to have a close spiritual relationship to God through the Son of God, Jesus Christ.  It is anticipated in the Old Testament by the calling from God for Samuel to become a Jewish prophet.  His response amounted to the words, "Here, I am, Lord."

The paradigm of a typical response is the Eucharistic Service, or "the Mass," performed at Christian churches around the world adhering to Catholic and Episcopal (Protestant) liturgies.

I use the concept of Christian Pragmatics as an inclusive term of Christian worship. This worship is really a response of the parishioner to his calling from God.  It is really a testimony of his or her encounter with God.  And this testimony bears witness that God's power penetrates being--all that is and evermore shall be. For God's power is the eternal creating Force of the universe.

The concept of Christian Pragmatics can be viewed as having properties or component elements; and these are taken up as "Meta-Elements" of the concept in the next CP item in the Didactics series.

In theology, this concept is named "the religious experience" and is applied to religions in general, not simply Christianity.  Paul Tillich used it extensively throughout his theology; and I studied theology at Union Theology, where he had been teaching for many years.  I did my M.A. thesis on Tillich's notion of the religious experience.  He tended to use it as a Kantian thing-in-itself and didn't try to unpack it further.  Through use of a property list for the concept, each property a Meta-Element, I am attempting to analyze it further into components.  I am limiting my analysis to Christianity, simply because I am interested in using the concept of the religious experience in a Christian context, though its property list as I am developing it, i.e., through the Meta-Elements, I believe could apply to the religious experience in other religions. .            .