tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post3203177872720256181..comments2024-03-27T14:45:28.176-05:00Comments on Adventus: "An Atypical Presentation of a Common Condition."Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post-5654208684417665522017-05-05T09:50:41.351-05:002017-05-05T09:50:41.351-05:00I guess I would say that finding our way is a larg...I guess I would say that finding our way is a large part of our responsibility, since our proper way leads us back to God and our neighbors.rick allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07612435616018593956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post-40012579777150456402017-05-05T08:07:23.573-05:002017-05-05T08:07:23.573-05:00Not to turn it against you, but part of the proble...Not to turn it against you, but part of the problem is expecting a way out. Our hearts are not restless, we just want to be relieved of responsibility. But"religion is responsibility, or it is nothing at all."<br /><br />Which may be the real source of the problem.Rmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06811456254443706479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post-83769889326534026382017-05-05T07:36:22.681-05:002017-05-05T07:36:22.681-05:00My last question was meant to be that of Peter to ...My last question was meant to be that of Peter to Jesus, when everyone appeared to be leaving. Where else to go? It's a practical question. I'm a democrat, but are our hearts satisfied with politics? I'm an American, but is my own restlessness cured by nationalism?<br /><br />It's odd, I agree that Augustine is wholly unintelligible to the contemporary world, but I find him more compelling the more time I spend with him (which isn't much, unhappily), and from my own little corner I do see a restless and largely frustrated and depressed world with no clue as to where to turn for a way out.<br /><br />(Though in the mean time we do have the New Golden Age of Television.)rick allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07612435616018593956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post-82972361401280225282017-05-04T23:20:31.371-05:002017-05-04T23:20:31.371-05:00I"m also not sure Augustine speaks to that ma...I"m also not sure Augustine speaks to that many people today. "Our hearts are restless" is not the universal sentiment it once was. IMHO, of course.Rmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06811456254443706479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post-57715510289320504302017-05-04T23:17:02.560-05:002017-05-04T23:17:02.560-05:00No offense, but your last sentence smacks of what ...No offense, but your last sentence smacks of what I call "vulture theology." And the question is not "what type of Christian is church for?", but "why be a Christian at all?"<br /><br />Which is much closer to what Bonhoeffer was after, especially given the context of his comment.<br /><br />But I'm typing this on my phone, and misstating myself badly. I'll have to emend this later.Rmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06811456254443706479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post-79262695256950361402017-05-04T22:32:05.328-05:002017-05-04T22:32:05.328-05:00Surely any Christian can give some sort of answer ...Surely any Christian can give some sort of answer to what the Church is for, what Christianity is for, and it shouldn't be too surprising.<br /><br />I would say that they are to tell us who we are and what we should do. They introduce us to God, whom we may or may not intuit on our own. We are to love God and love one another, and we are given ways to escape from our alienation, from our solitude, from our slavery to our own desires. They are for giving us hope, and meaning, and to make us happy, and to reveal the beauty of this world, and of the other world. They are for overcoming death, and despair. They are to make us like God, who is love. They provide a means to make us whole, when we fail to become like God, and they help us along the way with grace, the very life of God.<br /><br />Now I know a lot of people would leave out the God-stuff. But I don't know how to take him out of Christianity and have something left beyond leftover Christian morality. To say that the bible is about man, not about God, is, to me, to raise an unnecessary either/or. Why can't it be about both? Why shouldn't it be about both. He's there on practically every page (well, except for Esther).<br /><br />Whatever happens to Christianity--who knows?--the things that Christianity is for will linger so long as we are human. Which is to say, we can I suppose suppress those aspects of our existence, drown them out with apps upon apps, concentrate on satisfying our desires to the exclusion of everything else. But I'm just naive enough to think that mere satisfaction isn't going to satisfy, and Christian enough to think that the faith of the Church is what we really need.<br /><br />I think I understand what Bonhoeffer meant by religionless Christianity, but I think he was wrong about it. The things that Christianity is for are not really satisfied by knowledge, or science, or technology, or art, or culture, or pleasure (that is, unless we make religions of them). It's odd, to me, that Bonhoeffer (whom I admire greatly, and whom I have begun to re-read after having been introduced to him in college) talked about the "world come of age" at a time when his world had regressed into a savage primitiveness, a selfish, murderous ego-centricity and pathological childhood almost unparalleled in history. <br /><br />I get why people hate religion. Hypocrisy. Using religion for ends of political or personal power. Smarminess. But that's just a confirmation that what is best has the most potential for corruption. And where else do we have to go?<br /><br />rick allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07612435616018593956noreply@blogger.com