Musing on Religion, Lent, Mythology, and Devotions

[alanajoli]

For us Christian folk, we're almost at the end of Lent. Today was always the biggest day of the year for me: Maundy Thursday is the part of the story where everything goes wrong for Jesus. He gets betrayed, his friends are unable to stay awake while praying, he is arrested, his friends abandon him, and some time in the middle of the night, he gets

Comments

[caitrin]

I would definitely be interested in participating, in whatever form it takes. A group blog or LJ community could be another idea to consider, to spread out the work a bit - you could do the weekly posts you're talking about, and others could posts quotes or links or thoughts as well, even if they weren't directly related to your verse of the week. Just a thought.

I've been having trouble with Lent this year - wish I'd known you were sending things out! :) I have been struggling to find a parish that I can be happy with - or at least tolerate - on liturgical, theological, AND social levels; I've definitely been feeling that lack of community you speak of.

[alanajoli]

Aw, I wish I had known! I will copy you in on the last three days. Finding a church community really is a struggle.

I suspect that community may be the way I go, but I am going to see if the folks on my mailing list would be willing to follow a link. :)

[jeff_duntemann]

One reason I cannot be other than Catholic (if not Roman Catholic) is that the foundations of the faith are passed on as stories. We hear the stories before we read the Bible, and in fact during the time of my Roman Catholic childhood (roughly 1952-1966) we didn't read the Bible at all because it was not encouraged. That cuts two ways: We missed out to some extent, but then again, we received the stories as stories and were not encouraged to cut the focus down to one or two individual verses, which can radically alter the meaning of the verses quoted.

The Bible was not intended to be a propositional document. It is a collection of stories, within which lie myths of awesome power. It is my view that taking the resolution down past the story level blurs out the greater truths and allows people to see whatever they want in it, which is the same as saying that there's essentially nothing there at all.

[alanajoli]

I think I agree with everything you've just said--the value of story in itself is certainly intrinsic. But I also appreciate the historical context, and wonder from what you've said above what you make of that part of the story's complexity. ;)

[orryn_emrys]

A friend of mine did something kinda similar, and started a blog separate from his LiveJournal to do it. It focuses on the manner in which myths are reforged and retold in pop culture, and how it affects our social awareness of the principles at their core. He also focuses on how these myths and stories have mirrored each other in various culture throughout history. It's really good... Let me find the url.... Ah.

http://storiesaresignposts.blogspot.com/

*grins* It's pretty geeky, but worth the read. Some of the earliest posts are amongst the best.

[alanajoli]

Oooh, what a great blog! (I'm right at home in "pretty geeky.") I've put it in my rss reader. Thanks for the tip!

[sartorias]

Our Jewish friends are celebrating Purim.

Excellent post. As for the devotional, why not start a filter right here? Then only those who sign up will see the messages, and they won't disturb folks who would rather avoid religious subjects.

[alanajoli]

Purim! I was trying to remember that one.

How do filters work on the user end? I've used them to filter which friends listings I read, but not which folks get what content. Do you mean like a privacy filter? I could definitely consider doing that.

Or, possibly, a community, where others could also contribute (and then it could stay public but others could subscribe as they chose).

[sartorias]

I think the filters all work the same. But a community would work!