Can Christianity be recreated to work as a metaphor ?

What needs do mythology and religion serve in today's world and in ancient times? Here we discuss the relationship between mythology, religion and science from mythological, religious and philosophical viewpoints.

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CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

Does the metaphor Christian believe in the divinity and the saviour role of Jesus?

:?:
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

youkrst
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Post by youkrst »

Does the metaphor Christian believe in the divinity and the saviour role of Jesus?
metaphorically (within) yes

literally (historically) no

i guess.

to me "i and the father are one" means the mystery at the core of my being is the same (part of) as the mystery at the core of the entire known and unknown universe.

so i could say christ in me is divine and has power to save but in no way do i attach that to a literalised metaphor, the historical christ.

anymore than i feel i have to trouble a cat to prove that there is more than one way to skin it.

or (less graphically for cat lovers) try to ascertain the market value of birds to prove that one in the hand is worth two in the bush.

juneindecember
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Post by juneindecember »

Hello all,

I, also, am new to the jcf forums, and I have to confess, I am in love with this post and the resulting conversation!

After pondering the question krugers asks, "Can Christianity be recreated to work as a metaphor?", and reading the entire post, I don't know if we need a reinvention so much as a reinterpretation.
jonsjourney wrote: If "thou art that", why would someone need a church?
Agreed. I don't think we need more institutions, but I do believe change is necessary and on the horizon. Those who have posited that Christianity is too entrenched to change need but recall that Judaism was well entrenched in Jesus' time.

Douglas B. Clark wrote:" First of all the word church simply means, called out ones"
Douglas has brought up a great point here because it removes the Church's basis for authority. Moreover, when the word ekklesia was first used by the early Christians it came to have the added meaning of assembly of the faithful. It was only later that it came to mean Church in the sense that we know it today. The early Christians gathered in their homes, and they made a habit of breaking bread together, the beginnings of the modern Eucharist, but the intimacy has been lost.
Neoplato quoting the Gospel of Thomas wrote:39 Jesus said, "The Pharisees and the scholars have taken the keys of knowledge and have hidden them. They have not entered nor have they allowed those who want to enter to do so."
Neoplato wrote: Institutionalized religion became a means for controlling the masses. In order to do that, you must ensure the followers never experience the mystic revelation of “god”.

Otherwise the authority of the "church" will be questioned.
Here is the crux of the issue for me, institutionalized religious organizations have usurped Creation's Authority and our autonomy. We are not free to realize the mystical revelation of God as Neoplato notes, nor are we free to seek our Source because the hierarchy of the Church stands between us.

This successive movement away from God, which began at the foot of Mt Sinai, through the tactic of interposing Priests; then Judges were added; then Kings; and finally Popes (The rulers behind the rulers, as the high priest and subsequently High Councils of Israel once were), between the Creator and His Creation. This robs us of the intimacy of such metaphors as "His Breathe, alone, gives Life". The beauty of the immediacy of the relationship of one to one's own living breath is so intimate it precludes any misunderstandings because the breath carries the word, the Living Word, still warm from the interior of the being that breathes it forth.

I am inclined to agree with Joe, we need poets. we need poetry because of its transcendent nature. We need master crafters who can reinterpret the truths in all religions and esoteric schools and make them more relate-able to modern day men and women.

In closing, I want to add that I read many beautiful things in this post, and I am grateful to the poster and the contributors for I have surely been enriched.

Thanks all

June

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

Religion serves the individual, and lacking consensus, can only divide society into competing factions unless secular forces are brought to bear against the tendency to conquer unbelievers and punish transgressions.

Secular governments and economies are supposed to achieve stability in the midst of religious war, except that believers are put in charge of governments and economies. Perhaps Christian government officials cannot effectively protect us from Christian zealots who seek to impose Christian dogma on unbelievers, because the officials suffer a conflict of interest.

You cannot reinterpret male dominance. In a hierarchical universe, there are but two significant genders, and only one will be first. Every major world religion is led by a man, and their point of view has captured everyone's attention.

What we observe dominates our gaze and our reality. There are only a few images of women in a male universe. She is mother or sexual prey or somehow masculine.

She is Other. Reinterpretation of Christianity is, in essence, inconsequential. To see women as significant, we would have to make our observations from the woman's frame of reference. This has to fly in the face of those who expend such enormous energy trying to control and influence her. Every time hierarchy looks upon woman, it is through the eyes of men as simply Lesser Man.

In our age, death of humanity is an imminent possibility. The collision and splitting of atoms is the dominant metaphor. It is through a female's eyes that we see a way to avert disaster. Testosterone is not helping. More babies are not helping. There is a better way, and it will free us from fear. It begins with seeing the family of humanity as a whole, including our sister, the effective and positive leader whose experience guides us into the future. The metaphor is compelling, if only because no other can address our current predicament.

Mother and Father and Son must enter the shadow world as they are confronted by the impact of Daughter's presence. She rises from the ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

~
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

zoe
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Post by zoe »

Religion serves the individual, and lacking consensus, can only divide society into competing factions unless secular forces are brought to bear against the tendency to conquer unbelievers and punish transgressions.
You are in good company with that thought.
We need values based on common sense, experience and scientific findings, what I refer to as secular ethics. - His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

Secular ethics.

Perfect.

~
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

Billymack1949
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Post by Billymack1949 »

Greetings all . . . haven't read all 7 pages of this thread yet, but I think I read enough to get a good grasp of where it's going.

"Religion is simply a misunderstanding of poetry".
J.C.

Regarding the "I hope not" comment about starting a church around a purely mythological concept of Christianity, I'm not so sure it would be a totally wrong idea. Starting a denomination might be going a little too far, but as one person pointed out if all the applications of the Resurrection and other Christian symbols are interior, and experienced there, "why have a church"? Well I could also ask, "why have Mythological Round Tables"? To meet with other like-minded folk, have readings discussions, and rituals that advance the inner meaning of Christianity, not the historical versions.

Now I'm not raising my hand to start one, but I'm an ex-pastor of 13 years, and Campbell supplied the steam I needed to leave . . . it might be fun to set foot in a place that knows how to talk about these concepts the way he did! :wink:
This is no ordinary universe!

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