(no subject)
I recently posted this in my other blog and am interested in any thoughts that you might have on the subject. It's something I continue to think about.
Been thinking alot lately about the evolution of the Christian church. Throughout history and also in different places, contexts, people. I don't have alot of concrete conclusions about it except that a) this thing we call Christianity has meant alot of different things to different people at different times, b) it continues to mean very different things to people of differing denominational or theological persuasions, and c) it is in some ways difficult to see the common strand that ties together all these different definitions of "Christian". Somewhere inside of the lovely chaos we have made of things, there is (I believe) some things which are the Pieces that really matter. What are they? What part of being a follower of Christ unites me with the Christian of the 12th century, or the 5th, or the 24th? In what ways does the love which an Eastern Orthodox Christian gives to God differ from that which I give to Him? What is left over when you discard all the temporal things which define a faith in any given place and point? Because it is the bits left over that must be the most important.
I have many, many more thoughts on this but the more I try to articulate them, the more frustrated and obscure I become. Thank heaven for the omniscience of Christ, Who gets it all.
Been thinking alot lately about the evolution of the Christian church. Throughout history and also in different places, contexts, people. I don't have alot of concrete conclusions about it except that a) this thing we call Christianity has meant alot of different things to different people at different times, b) it continues to mean very different things to people of differing denominational or theological persuasions, and c) it is in some ways difficult to see the common strand that ties together all these different definitions of "Christian". Somewhere inside of the lovely chaos we have made of things, there is (I believe) some things which are the Pieces that really matter. What are they? What part of being a follower of Christ unites me with the Christian of the 12th century, or the 5th, or the 24th? In what ways does the love which an Eastern Orthodox Christian gives to God differ from that which I give to Him? What is left over when you discard all the temporal things which define a faith in any given place and point? Because it is the bits left over that must be the most important.
I have many, many more thoughts on this but the more I try to articulate them, the more frustrated and obscure I become. Thank heaven for the omniscience of Christ, Who gets it all.