Nonaligned faith and practice in the present
!["Woe unto You, Scribes and Pharisees (Malheur à vous, scribes et pharisiens)," by James Tissot (between 1886 and 1894), Online Collection of Brooklyn Museum [Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons].](https://emptypath.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Brooklyn_Museum_-_Woe_unto_You_Scribes_and_Pharisees_Malheur_a_vous_scribes_et_pharisiens_-_James_Tissot-746x400.jpg)
Some fun with words that may go deeper than we usually expect to go in reading the Gospels.
In Mark’s account of Jesus’ Temple teaching, Jesus answers trick questions from the scholars and Pharisees and then responds with one of his own, translated in English as follows (Mark 12: 35-36):
…How can the scribes say that the Messiah is the son of David? David himself, by the Holy Spirit, declared, “The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right
The name “Jesus” scares people off, since our sound bite- and meme-driven culture automatically ties that name with what I call the “Christianists,” those abusive people who misuse the sacred tradition of Jesus’ friends as a political ideology, the way Islamists do the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (“Peace be upon him”).
I’ll say more about this in a future post, but meanwhile….
10Afterward, when he was alone, his followers and the Twelve asked him about his parables, 11and he said, “To you the secret of the realm of God has been imparted; but to those who are outside everything takes the form of parables so that 12‘though they have eyes, they may see without perceiving; and though they have ears, they may hear without understanding; some day they might turn and be forgiven.'”
– Mark
…You don’t know what will happen if you go down that road. That’s why you should go there.
Why do what you have already done?
The world never changes, and it is never the same. Each step opens a new door to the same old life. Infinite variations on the same thing.
Remember
…I am currently reading Neil Gaiman ‘s 2005 fantasy novel, Anansi Boys. Early on, Gaiman’s protagonist, Fat Charlie Nancy, discovers to his alarm and dismay that he is a son of the ancient West African god Anansi. His neighbor, Mrs. Higgler, tries to explain:
…Anansi was a spider, when the world was young, and all the stories were being told for the first time. he used to get himself into trouble, and he used
Part I: Languages of belief
Part II: Survival faith and practice
Part III: “Someone should start laughing”
“Survival faith and practice”
I value very highly the information we gain from authentic empirical science, honest scholarship and rational discourse. My schooling was classical, in the sense that I learned very early to recognize and to see as essential for human progress the difference between arguments arising from such rigorous disciplines and those arising from opinion and
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