Mail me comments, suggestions, warnings, flames, whatever
Dale,
How can your Creation Spirituality stand in light of Philippians 2:5-11, or even John 14:6? In the Johanine passage, John quotes Jesus as saying that He is "...THE way and THE truth and THE life..."(my emphasis). The use of the definite article in Greek distinguishes the accompanying noun as exclusive rather than one of a number. Furthermore, the Greek term diathekes, translated in the NIV as "except" can be broken into several components, all of which come together to strengthen and firmly establish Jesus' own claim to be the One exclusive means to the Creator.
I think perhaps that your statement re:"fundamentalists" exhibits the "shut out" mentality you accuse them of. There are many scholarly writers in the evangelical tradition. And, rather than seek quests and experiences from non-Western sources with an eye to community building and connection to the earth, why not seek connection with the One who made the earth, The Source Himself as revealed in the Bible?
If you really are interested in communicating with someone who has a non-Western cultural background, try writing via snailmail to Ravi Zacharias, Ravi Zacharias Ministries in Atlanta, GA. Sorry, but I don't know the street address. He is from India, and is very well educated.
Please don't consider my strong response as a flame; it is not. I would welcome a dialogue with you.
Marlowe Furan
marlowe@mss.com
MY Response
Marlowe,
Thank you very much for writing me a response. I have been soemwhat dissappointed with the lack of interaction I have received since beginning my Web pages. Perhaps as the web gains popularity and in access, this will continue to grow.
As to your questions/comments:
>How can your Creation Spirituality stand in light of Philippians 2:5-11,
>or even John 14:6?
I see no contradiction here, because it all goes to the definition of WHO Christ is, and how he manifests himself in human experience. My point was that an experience of Christ does not become not-Christ becuase the receptor of the experience has not been educated in Christian explanations of that spiritual experience. Someone who has had a rather horrible "example" of "Christianity" is not going to associate any "revelations" of truth they may have had with this Christ of the person living the rather bad example, but they will instead define their eye-opening experience with this "Christ".
Futhermore, I DO believe that Christ reveals himself outside the scope of conventional "Christian evangelism", to people of other traditions, and they naturally identify this experience with the best experiences of their own tradition. This is not in contradiction with the passges you quoted. They are experiencing salvation through Christ, the only way. There are many many more ways to experience Christ, however, than a simple set of formulas that say "you must say this and believe this interpretation". The way of Christ is the Kingdom of God, and as Jesus of Nazareth showed in his human existence, this often runs very much deeper and often diverges with the popular and dominant traditions of the day.
Do we really think we are that much more "enlightened" than the ones who rejected Christ because he did not "fit the mold" or the dominant set of theologies about who the Christ would be and what he would do. He surprised everyone.
>I think perhaps that your statement re:"fundamentalists" exhibits the
>"shut out" mentality you accuse them of. There are many scholarly writers
>in the evangelical tradition.
The point I was making is that the "fundamentalist" mentality wants to put Jesus in a doctrinal box, and a very narrowly defined one , at that. What they "shut out" is a lot of the creation centered ideas that were much more prevalent in earlier eras of history, especially among the mystics. Today's very rationalistic piety of the majority of Christendom tends to supress a lot of spirituality. I say they "shut out" a lot because of their refusal to accept certain perspectives on Christ that are not expressed in a certain way. A lot of this debate is simply a war of words. The Christ I know is certainly a "Cosmic Christ" who reveals himself everywhere.
I am simply saying that one does not have to say "This is Jesus Christ, the Saviour" in order to truly "believe" that he is. If one responds to the call to love one another as (Jesus) has loved them, then they have "believed" (because this is what the word "belief" really means....not to assent to an idea intellectually, but to "live by" Christ....to live by who he is.)
Someone who lives by Christ is a "believer", more so than someone who "confesses Jesus with his lips" but whose life is lived such that the name of Christ is not glorified. The name of Jesus is WHO JESUS IS, not the word "Jesus" (or "Lord, LOrd" as the Bible states "not all who say Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom")
>And, rather than seek quests and
>experiences from non-Western sources with an eye to community building
>and connection to the earth, why not seek connection with the One who
>made the earth, The Source Himself as revealed in the Bible?
I do not seek ONLY experiences from non-Western sources, but only to add wisdom from non-Western sources to allow me to further understand God and the ways that humanity has responded to the overtures of God toward humanity.
>If you really are interested in communicating with someone who has a
>non-Western cultural background, try writing via snailmail to Ravi
>Zacharias, Ravi Zacharias Ministries in Atlanta, GA. Sorry, but I don't
>know the street address. He is from India, and is very well educated.
>Please don't consider my strong response as a flame; it is not. I would
>welcome a dialogue with you.
So taken. I encourage further dialogue.
Reply Back from Marlowe :
Got your reply; I am thinking and will get back to you. About your discouragement re:home page hits, it may be simply that not many people know of it. I tracked you down through the MN Annual Conf home page that I happened to surf across while trying (so far unfruitfully) to find a Latin dictionary online. (NOTE: I find it too easy to follow tangential subjects of interest on the Web; that is how I found the UMC home page.) For all its hype, W3 is still an infant, albeit a large one.
Marlowe
MARLOWE FURAN
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