Omega, a serious religious question -- Adilbrand Noblesword's Hall of Warriors

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [6], 7, 8, 9, 10 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 14:51:13 02/22/03 Sat
Author: mvd
Subject: Omega, a serious religious question

Dawn and I were talking last night and it began to occur to me that Christianity has been adopted and altered considerably for the western pallet. This is fairly obvious and not really my question, yet as I thought about it, taking into consideration that Christ's philosophy was fundamentally Eastern in nature, I began to wonder what cultural factors led to the changes.

This is a difficult question, for in some sense it presupposes that most Eastern cultures understand Eastern teachings. Whether or not the present day Chinese and Indians truly grasp their own philosophies is difficult for me to answer, as I have never been there. Yet, it seems to me that a fundamental lack of understanding occurred when these Eastern thoughts were carried into the West. What I am driving at is:

What social, economic, or cutural differences led to the misinterpretation of these thoughts? For instance, how did the thought "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you," come to be misunderstood and this kingdom placed in some metaphorical "sky" or "promised land in the stars"?

My first thought was that perhaps the west was searching for a more practical, or utilitarian doctrine rather than a truly spiritual one. After all, the kingdom being within you is exceedingly spiritual, while the kingdom being outside of you as some sort of reward for good behaviour is fairly utilitarian and pragmatic.

What are your thoughts? Have I made myself clear? :) Thanks in advance for the thoughtful response I am sure to receive.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

A brief response -- Omega, 09:09:38 02/25/03 Tue
As I suspected -- mvd, 20:16:18 02/25/03 Tue
Problems with the Jesus Seminar -- Abba's Son, 10:38:38 04/04/03 Fri
Re: Problems with the Jesus Seminar -- Abba's Son, 11:10:28 04/04/03 Fri
Re: Problems with the Jesus Seminar -- Abba's Son, 11:10:54 04/04/03 Fri
Re: Problems with the Jesus Seminar -- Adilbrand, 14:09:12 04/05/03 Sat
My thoughts exactly -- mvd, 12:13:39 04/07/03 Mon
Re: Problems with the Jesus Seminar -- Abba's Son, 16:19:29 04/11/03 Fri
I would die for Vince, but that doesn't make him the freakin' Messiah (NT) -- mvd, 11:38:17 04/12/03 Sat
I don't understand -- mvd, 11:48:14 04/12/03 Sat
Re: I really don't understand, but I do get a kick out of it! -- mt. healthy mountaineer, 21:13:42 04/14/03 Mon
I guess -- mvd, 12:29:12 04/15/03 Tue
No - I was not trying to burst your bubble then... -- mt. healthy mountaineer, 20:41:11 04/15/03 Tue
Very well -- mvd, 11:16:16 04/16/03 Wed
The Jesus Seminar -- Mt. Healthy Mountaineer, 23:42:27 04/07/03 Mon

Post a message:
This forum requires an account to post.
[ Create Account ]
[ Login ]

Forum timezone: GMT-5
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums^(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.