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Hi Thomas. I thought I should briefly revisit this, since what you're saying here would be news to most everyday Christians, would it not? What I have trouble grasping is the relation between the apophatic and cataphatic in your mind. Again, it reminds me of some dualistic Hindu theology, which...

Your framing here runs in parallel for me with the Hindu distinction between saguna and nirguna Brahman and the way that some Hindu thinkers also manage to square the circle of a God that is simultaneously utterly intimate and utterly remote. You may know that Vedanta in India includes not only...

Again, my position is that these kinds of rational arguments, while they may be of intellectual interest, only carry weight for believers; they act as starch in the laundry of monotheism, if that’s not too weird an image. At the base is the persistent mental/emotional disposition to the effect...

(continued from above) Further consider the history of Christianity. Thank Jesus the gospel of love survived. But if the gospel of love had truly overturned the old authoritarian ideology of the rulership of God someone should have told the Christians! I won’t go through the usual list. But the...

The idea of Christianity as the hub of the wheel of religion goes too far for me, and would go too far for many other people who don’t see their traditions as somehow incomplete or falling short. Is that resentment? Well, there might be some of that among the formally colonized. But in the main...

To the extent I understand you I would probably put it all in different words. But that would be a waste of breath, since I have nothing to say against the ideas you're expressing here. Cheers, Vimalakirti

Hi Amergin. I agree that the origins of nearly every word in the New Testament are uncertain, but as I suggested above I'm very skeptical of the possibility of recovering an historical Jesus behind the text. Beyond that, the only Jesus that really counts is the Jesus of the texts, however...

(continued from above) Let me set up what I think is a common sense division of religion into three spheres of concern: The ritual, rational, quotidian, the sphere of pre-scientific and the root of scientific thought, the sphere of conventional ideology. Examples: the ritual portions of the...

Hi Thomas. Thanks very much for your interesting comments & explications. I’d like to respond with several related points. First, I’m very sympathetic to your interpretation of the gospel message. Some of the language you use is fairly indistinguishable from that of non-duality, though...

Hi y’all. Recently I started reading the New Testament in Spanish as part of my continuing sporadic efforts to improve myself in that language. And it worked well for a while. Being in a second language allowed me a certain distance from the text. But eventually I couldn’t help but be drawn...

Deva, Deva, Deva. You’re back to your old bad behavior. Don’t you think this a rather biased way of putting things? Be cool.

Hi Ahanu. I like the idea too, but again I question how realistic it is given the fundamental focus of Abrahamic religion. I've expressed this focus as "ideology", which many believers find unacceptable or even offensive. They may prefer such phrases as "God's sovereignty and power", “the...

That's reassuring. BTW, I should note a typo: in point #4 above it should read AGAINST taking this question seriously...

Hi Devadatta. I have indeed noticed that we share very similar points of view. It’s almost like we’re the same person. But to answer your objections: 1. You’re right that I may have left the impression of a certain kind of politics. But I think the real point is not the relative terms of “left”...

Okay, this is going to sound like being harsh to a nice lady with good intentions. The problem is that such good intentions have always been there and been expressed, but their effectiveness has always been limited since they don’t face the problem head-on. I’m familiar with Armstrong’s work. I...

The original names of the four cousins were Fred, George, Dave & Leo and they hailed from the four intermediate points of the compass, northeast, northwest, southeast & southwest. But in advanced age each converted to a strictly southern discipline and each made such rapid progress that they...

they chanted God God God until God vanished they chanted Dharma Dharma Dharma until Dharma vanished but neither God nor Dharma vanished into nowhere but into what was there and many words, objects & beings were there mountains & seas rivers & woods & plains and tiny animals with long names and...

Addendum Interpretations of the Quaran and the Hadith are of course very important for a whole range of issues in Islamic cultures, including the status of women, the relation between secular and sacred power, and so on. And such discussions on this forum are interesting and welcome. But I think...

Hi Thipps. I’m not actively posting on these forums, since I don’t feel I currently have anything of value to contribute. So I’m really very reluctant to respond. I’m only doing this out of a sense of unfinished business, and out of respect for you. But again, I’m puzzled by what I see as...

Hi Brian. (sigh) I wish you could take a leap of faith and give my unorthodox point of view the benefit of the doubt. I'm sorry you couldn't resist one final sniping comment, which again I don't think is appropriate for you, especially in your position as administrator. I'm not going to...