Aristotle was of course famous of his statement of this doctrine, but it appears in Christianity, too. For my recognizing the Christian version, I am indebted to Father Bob McNull of Christ Episcopal Church, Las Vegas.
In Mathew 17, there's an account of Jesus with some of His disciples going up on a mountain and there appears Moses and Elijah talking with (a transfigured) Jesus. After the event, Jesus told those disciples in attendance to tell no one about what they had seen. True, the event was something marvelous and something to rejoice about and spread abroad. But Jesus told them to shut up about it!
Why? Well, just as Jesus criticized the Jewish Pharisees and others who would parade about, praying before men ostentatiously and commending themselves pompously to the Jewish community in general, so He would not want to share memorable moments when He had something to get excited over. The idea is to maintain a level head--don't get worked up or ecstatic (compare to the Christian mystics of the Middle Ages); remain calm and tranquil.
For we are told by St. Paul that we must maintain a posture of ever-vigilance: beware of emotions that can take us over--hate, lust, even grief. And, above all, "Watch out for false prophets....By their fruit you will recognize them." (Mathew 7:18)
In yet another passage in Mathew, Jesus chides the Christians: "Why do you worry about...?" Don't worry, for God will provide your needs, He claims. "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" (Mathew 6:27) Don't get angry with another person, don't be critical of another; and don't make money your goal in life after which to strive. (Mathew 6:24)
Such a low-keyed individual lives at harmony with his neighbors and can rest assured he is appreciated by his community. I believe it's that person about whom Jesus claims special blessing: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." (Mathew 5:8) Now, in the Epistles, St. Paul also extols the value of the peacemakers in the Christian community since they resolve disputes among its members. I call these peacemakers=mediators, even as the Lord Jesus Christ is our mediator before the Father's Throne. Note that Jesus is God the Son, even as the peacemakers are sons of God.
I don't want to give away the show just yet! I want to tantalize with the notion of a mediator--that all we Christians can be mediators (or, intercessors) one on behalf of another.
Jesus' work on the Cross was just at the beginning of Christianity. He paid it all: His work on the Cross is for all time and final: "It is finished!" Jesus tells us, Thereupon He went to prepare a place for us believers.
Meanwhile, the Church has been sent on its way, to become an everlasting Kingdom of God. God-the Father has given the Holy Spirit to us Christians in order to guide and strengthen us. We, as members of the Kingdom, are never alone, for God-the Holy Spirit is an ever-present power available for counsel, guidance and sustenance. We need but call upon that pervasive Power--as through the Eucharist; and we are delivered for a time from this world's transitory predicament.
In order to know about the position of the mediator in the Christian church, I turn to the social sciences. For it has only been since the rise of Sociology among the respected sciences that the study of group dynamics has been taken up. In the next part of this treatise, I intend to discuss the Christian message's import within the unfolding "New World Order."
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
CP #14: Intricacies: Aspects of the Religious Experience
Central to Christian Pragmatics is the religious experience. One can have the experience simply by realizing the wonder of the world, of the universe--as when, looking over a scenic wonder, one proclaims "How magnificent creation is!" Or, in watching the birth of a newborn; and seeing it as the handiwork of a mighty God. In such moments a person instantaneously recognizes Being itself: "How Great Thou Art!" Our churches reflect our feeling of the majestic God's presence among us humans.
Another sort of experience engenders the presence of wonder and mystery--when cries out for divine succor. We are lowly in the scheme of things, yet we have many needs. Praying to God in our quiet moments, we cast our cares upon the maker of all things and sustainer of all things in the world. During these intimate moments in which we seek out the ruler of all things, we act as supplicants.
Ultimately, the value of the religious experience is the power of God swept upon us singularly through the Holy Spirit. Through the power received, we are able to endure this life's exigencies and recognize the transitory nature of life itself.
It is the way we come to be at one with the universe, so as to the better (and perhaps, to the longer) live by its principles..
In William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience, justification is provided by alluding to the beneficial effects the experience can have. James cites instances where the experiencers have performed yeomen feats to help members of humanity in times of trouble and distress.
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Another sort of experience engenders the presence of wonder and mystery--when cries out for divine succor. We are lowly in the scheme of things, yet we have many needs. Praying to God in our quiet moments, we cast our cares upon the maker of all things and sustainer of all things in the world. During these intimate moments in which we seek out the ruler of all things, we act as supplicants.
Ultimately, the value of the religious experience is the power of God swept upon us singularly through the Holy Spirit. Through the power received, we are able to endure this life's exigencies and recognize the transitory nature of life itself.
It is the way we come to be at one with the universe, so as to the better (and perhaps, to the longer) live by its principles..
In William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience, justification is provided by alluding to the beneficial effects the experience can have. James cites instances where the experiencers have performed yeomen feats to help members of humanity in times of trouble and distress.
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Tuesday, September 9, 2014
CP #13 Intricacies: Dreams and Visions
Here, we are trying to see the role that dreams and visions play in Christian pragmatics whereby individual believers conduct their normal and everyday activities. Because dreams and visions are so ingrained in religion, I will include some ideas in Judaism to do justice to the role that these play in religion over thousands of years.
Personal Story
When I was ten years old, living in Buffalo, NY, my mother and father divorced. In those days, there was a social stigma associated with getting a divorce, so my mother took her money from the settlement and took my sister, 6 years old than I, and me to New York City, where she completed a degree program at New York University, and set out to look for work as a legal secretary. My sister needed to complete high school and I was still in elementary school.
Anyway, while preparing to move to New York City, we kids--there was another sister who was just about to marry and stay behind--would gather around my mother and try to picture life 500 miles away in the Big Apple. One day in this interim period, I recall having a vision. I pictured an apartment building near a park to the right about a block away, a high school, which if you looked out one of the windows in the front of the apartment, you could barely see the top of it on a side street immediately to the left of the block the building was on. I recall duly reporting the vision to my mother and the sister who was going with us. I think I was trying to reassure them that this move would really be great, since we'd have a nice place to live (from what I could tell in the vision).
Mom decided to take my sister Sheila with her to New York to find a place to live. They knew my vision; and so in the back of their minds, they carried the thought with them. After the trip to reconnoiter the city and locate an apartment, they returned full of news. My sister blurted out, "We found your place and leased an apartment just where you said it would be!" (I had mentioned it would be on the first floor and something about the entrance, I said, was strange. As it turned out, the apartment had a private entrance off the main entrance to the complex.)
When I saw the place upon moving, I confirmed that it was indeed very much like what I had envisioned it to be.
How do you explain this vision (as I remember it) that happened some 60 years ago?
I think it explicable as an anticipatory experience that could take place as it did to my mother and sister in their inaugural trip to New York, which, in having it, they forthwith laid claim to, i.e., took possession of. That is to say, once they saw what I said they would see through my vision, Mom immediately signed the lease! Afterward, they--Mom and Sheila--learned from our neighbors in the area that we were paying too much for the apartment, since it was under municipal rental control; and the rent was thereupon drastically reduced (praise God!). But Mom knew nothing about rental ceilings when she signed the lease, because she never had lived in an apartment in her life!
The Metaphysical Status of Dreams and Visions in Christianity
My vision was an experience I had; and I reported it to my mother and my sister. They, not only accepted it at face value, i.e., as something I had, but its contents were parallel what they saw at the location at which there was an apartment for rent, and as part of the vision, became reasons for laying claim to the apartment, i.e., leasing it.
And in general, the elements of visions and dreams become a portrayal of events and objects in the world to whom a community, not just an individual who has had the vision or dream, can lay claim to as their own property. This is the meaning dreams and visions have, once their contents are shared and adopted by some group.
Note that the book of Revelation is filled with visions, but no one but perhaps the early Church used them as motivating. Now the Zionist-Jews, on the other hand, have on more than one occasion laid claim to the Holy Land, that land flowing with milk and honey, as their own land, given by YAHWEH God in perpetuity to them.
Can't you just imagine how thrilling it was for the Mormons who found their way to the lush plains of Utah to claim the land as God's promise to them! This is what we're talking about here--how the power of God directs human beings through the occurrence of dreams and visions--totally physical, ordinary events that perhaps even dogs and lower forms of life experience regularly--to do miraculous things in their lives! And reap their congratulatory reward, signified in their singing praise to God from whom all blessings come!
I have pointed out to the Jews that think the land in the Near East their sacred property that they could have moved from Europe to South Africa or anywhere other on the planet just by simply refusing to claim the vision as their promised land!
Personal Story
When I was ten years old, living in Buffalo, NY, my mother and father divorced. In those days, there was a social stigma associated with getting a divorce, so my mother took her money from the settlement and took my sister, 6 years old than I, and me to New York City, where she completed a degree program at New York University, and set out to look for work as a legal secretary. My sister needed to complete high school and I was still in elementary school.
Anyway, while preparing to move to New York City, we kids--there was another sister who was just about to marry and stay behind--would gather around my mother and try to picture life 500 miles away in the Big Apple. One day in this interim period, I recall having a vision. I pictured an apartment building near a park to the right about a block away, a high school, which if you looked out one of the windows in the front of the apartment, you could barely see the top of it on a side street immediately to the left of the block the building was on. I recall duly reporting the vision to my mother and the sister who was going with us. I think I was trying to reassure them that this move would really be great, since we'd have a nice place to live (from what I could tell in the vision).
Mom decided to take my sister Sheila with her to New York to find a place to live. They knew my vision; and so in the back of their minds, they carried the thought with them. After the trip to reconnoiter the city and locate an apartment, they returned full of news. My sister blurted out, "We found your place and leased an apartment just where you said it would be!" (I had mentioned it would be on the first floor and something about the entrance, I said, was strange. As it turned out, the apartment had a private entrance off the main entrance to the complex.)
When I saw the place upon moving, I confirmed that it was indeed very much like what I had envisioned it to be.
How do you explain this vision (as I remember it) that happened some 60 years ago?
I think it explicable as an anticipatory experience that could take place as it did to my mother and sister in their inaugural trip to New York, which, in having it, they forthwith laid claim to, i.e., took possession of. That is to say, once they saw what I said they would see through my vision, Mom immediately signed the lease! Afterward, they--Mom and Sheila--learned from our neighbors in the area that we were paying too much for the apartment, since it was under municipal rental control; and the rent was thereupon drastically reduced (praise God!). But Mom knew nothing about rental ceilings when she signed the lease, because she never had lived in an apartment in her life!
The Metaphysical Status of Dreams and Visions in Christianity
My vision was an experience I had; and I reported it to my mother and my sister. They, not only accepted it at face value, i.e., as something I had, but its contents were parallel what they saw at the location at which there was an apartment for rent, and as part of the vision, became reasons for laying claim to the apartment, i.e., leasing it.
And in general, the elements of visions and dreams become a portrayal of events and objects in the world to whom a community, not just an individual who has had the vision or dream, can lay claim to as their own property. This is the meaning dreams and visions have, once their contents are shared and adopted by some group.
Note that the book of Revelation is filled with visions, but no one but perhaps the early Church used them as motivating. Now the Zionist-Jews, on the other hand, have on more than one occasion laid claim to the Holy Land, that land flowing with milk and honey, as their own land, given by YAHWEH God in perpetuity to them.
Can't you just imagine how thrilling it was for the Mormons who found their way to the lush plains of Utah to claim the land as God's promise to them! This is what we're talking about here--how the power of God directs human beings through the occurrence of dreams and visions--totally physical, ordinary events that perhaps even dogs and lower forms of life experience regularly--to do miraculous things in their lives! And reap their congratulatory reward, signified in their singing praise to God from whom all blessings come!
I have pointed out to the Jews that think the land in the Near East their sacred property that they could have moved from Europe to South Africa or anywhere other on the planet just by simply refusing to claim the vision as their promised land!
CP #12: Intricacies: Religious Knowledge in depth
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Monday, September 8, 2014
CP #11 Intricacies: Decision Making Items
Here are some intricacies of Christianity, to get us started delving into how the Kingdom of God is structured.
1. decision making: to decide what to do a Christian should weigh the advantages of acting a certain way so as to provide the most good to the community (i.e., the Kingdom of God).
A commonplace example. I needed to buy a meat item for a church picnic. I weighed two alternatives: I could purchase a pound of cooked bar-b-cue beef or I could purchase a party-tray of chicken filet pieces. Now, if I purchased the beef I would be satisfying myself, since the item is something I really like, but it's rather messy to eat, especially with one's fingers. The chicken filet tray is an item that's really not well-known in the area, since the company has only opened its store recently; but I know the item would take-off in sales in the community once people knew about the store just opening. I would also be taking into consideration how more difficult it would be for kids, etc. at the picnic to handle the bar-b-cue beef than it would be the filet of chicken without getting the meat sauce on their clothes.
So, I reasoned, I would be helping the community more by bringing an item to the picnic that would open up new options in chicken selection than by bringing the beef item that, though tasty, is tried and true; and messy.
Moral: the idea is to choose the course of action, in this case bringing a meat item to the picnic, that you think will be more beneficial to the community, who are eat it.
Just as Jesus to do God's will rather than his own, so we should do that which bears greater claim to enriching the social good rather than satisfying the more our taste buds! Perhaps, the example is a bit corny but you get the idea!
2. Having the will to follow through on doing the thing you believe has greater value to the community: In the example above, I could have gone up to the store (by the way, it's Chick-Fil-A) and, yielding to my stronger inclination, turned around and headed for the store that sells the bar-b-cue beef (which is, Famous Dave's). Here, the Christian calls upon the power of God through the Holy Spirit, e.g., through prayer or by contact with God as by means of the Eucharist, to give him the courage to act in accord with what he has decided is the right thing for him to do, given his dedication to promote the Kingdom of God by what he does.
So, though a Christian may act in accord with inclination, he is motivated to act because of his concern to do the right thing, i.e., the act that benefits the Kingdom the more.
Comment:
Sometimes, St. Paul gives the impression of leaving it to an individual's strong self-will to resist evil and temptation: as when he argues that the Christian should put on the whole armor of God so as to fight off the effects of the Devil. (See Ephesians chapter 6.) Yet at other times, he exhorts one to turn to God and through communion with the Holy Spirit obtain courage and strength to do the right thing (as in Galatians 3:3; Tillich's The Courage to Be).
3. Yielding to the community's judgment of what is the right thing for a Christian to do in a particular situation. Particularly in Mathew but also in Paul's writings, knowledge of what is the right thing for a person to do is not ultimately one's own individual's judgment but is entrusted to the enlightenment of members of the community. I speak here of the role of the mediators in God's Kingdom, who are to settle disputes among members and maintain stability and order.
Indeed, one can view the entire Four Gospels as a defense for rightness of Jesus in going to the Cross for the sake of an unsaved and hell-bent world. Wholly magnanimous, Jesus acted for us all, not out of inclination, but out of duty to His Father.
1. decision making: to decide what to do a Christian should weigh the advantages of acting a certain way so as to provide the most good to the community (i.e., the Kingdom of God).
A commonplace example. I needed to buy a meat item for a church picnic. I weighed two alternatives: I could purchase a pound of cooked bar-b-cue beef or I could purchase a party-tray of chicken filet pieces. Now, if I purchased the beef I would be satisfying myself, since the item is something I really like, but it's rather messy to eat, especially with one's fingers. The chicken filet tray is an item that's really not well-known in the area, since the company has only opened its store recently; but I know the item would take-off in sales in the community once people knew about the store just opening. I would also be taking into consideration how more difficult it would be for kids, etc. at the picnic to handle the bar-b-cue beef than it would be the filet of chicken without getting the meat sauce on their clothes.
So, I reasoned, I would be helping the community more by bringing an item to the picnic that would open up new options in chicken selection than by bringing the beef item that, though tasty, is tried and true; and messy.
Moral: the idea is to choose the course of action, in this case bringing a meat item to the picnic, that you think will be more beneficial to the community, who are eat it.
Just as Jesus to do God's will rather than his own, so we should do that which bears greater claim to enriching the social good rather than satisfying the more our taste buds! Perhaps, the example is a bit corny but you get the idea!
2. Having the will to follow through on doing the thing you believe has greater value to the community: In the example above, I could have gone up to the store (by the way, it's Chick-Fil-A) and, yielding to my stronger inclination, turned around and headed for the store that sells the bar-b-cue beef (which is, Famous Dave's). Here, the Christian calls upon the power of God through the Holy Spirit, e.g., through prayer or by contact with God as by means of the Eucharist, to give him the courage to act in accord with what he has decided is the right thing for him to do, given his dedication to promote the Kingdom of God by what he does.
So, though a Christian may act in accord with inclination, he is motivated to act because of his concern to do the right thing, i.e., the act that benefits the Kingdom the more.
Comment:
Sometimes, St. Paul gives the impression of leaving it to an individual's strong self-will to resist evil and temptation: as when he argues that the Christian should put on the whole armor of God so as to fight off the effects of the Devil. (See Ephesians chapter 6.) Yet at other times, he exhorts one to turn to God and through communion with the Holy Spirit obtain courage and strength to do the right thing (as in Galatians 3:3; Tillich's The Courage to Be).
3. Yielding to the community's judgment of what is the right thing for a Christian to do in a particular situation. Particularly in Mathew but also in Paul's writings, knowledge of what is the right thing for a person to do is not ultimately one's own individual's judgment but is entrusted to the enlightenment of members of the community. I speak here of the role of the mediators in God's Kingdom, who are to settle disputes among members and maintain stability and order.
Indeed, one can view the entire Four Gospels as a defense for rightness of Jesus in going to the Cross for the sake of an unsaved and hell-bent world. Wholly magnanimous, Jesus acted for us all, not out of inclination, but out of duty to His Father.
Sunday, September 7, 2014
(GL#1) Globalization Format
The range of topics under the heading Globalization (GL) will offer my overall impression of the movement's current contribution toward establishing some world government (exercising control over a New World Order). And, there is a crying need for world government, given the problems confronting a physical world in dynamic relationship with the forces of nature that go beyond the mere Earth, beyond even the Sun and its planets, to the very upheavals in universal tides and cosmic flows. Specifically, a world government must address itself to a lasting and stable Earth, given the flux of cosmic events impacting it.
Without further ado, I turn to the many topics in this area.
Without further ado, I turn to the many topics in this area.
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