‘Belief’ and ‘the Faith’ are very important to some catholic leaders and lay people. For them, these concepts are the heart of Christian faith. As they would conceive it, believing that Jesus died as a redemption for the sins of the world is of the utmost importance to God. Only if you believe correctly do virtue and service become relevant. The credal Councils, canons of scripture, inquisitions and centuries of conversion can be understood only in this context. Now this focus on belief is not characteristic of all religions. In the ancient near east, the cradle of Christianity, pagan religions placed little emphasis on belief. The existence of a supernatural world was broadly assumed because there seemed no other way to explain the good and bad things that happen to people or natural events like storms, earthquakes, illness and death. And yet the point of religion was not belief, it was to take care of the gods so that they would take care of you and your community. The word ‘cult’ (Latin cultus, care) is related to the word ‘cultivation’. We speak of cultivating the soil so that it will produce good crops, and charities talk about ‘cultivating’ donors. This kind of cultivation was what pagans thought the gods cared about, and so it became the heart of their religious practice. From the beginning, however, Christianity was different. Christians cared about right belief, which they called ‘orthodoxy’ . And slowly but surely during the second and third centuries AD, all kinds of groups like Marcionites, Ebionites, Docetists and groups of Gnostics criticised and competed with one another until in the end one began to dominate, an orthodox view that led to the beliefs of today. This emphasis on right belief, and the persecution of the ‘heterodox’ was and is unique to monotheism. For this reason, Christianity’s claim to possess the truth helped it to out-compete other religions in the Roman east. Those who worship an array of gods (polytheists) are often quite prepared to add on another god to their pantheon. Christians were able to persuade them to add Jesus and then wean them off the others. Eastern religions also do not share Christianity’s concern with belief. Their emphasis is more on practice - spiritual living, self-renunciation, insight and enlightenment. Seeing the world aright and understanding how to embrace it. A priority for propagating belief (evangelism) and a purity of belief (orthodoxy) is only one strategy for religious people. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a movement called ‘modernism’ emerged within catholicism. Modernist theologians began to examine orthodox beliefs in the light of what had been discovered in fields of linguistics, archaeology, psychiatry, biology and human history. After this investigation, traditional Christian certainties began to look less certain. Many modernist Christians have since become much more like members of an eastern religion in that their primary concern is with spiritual practice,and ethics rather than belief. Naturally, a backlash emerged in the form of those who insisted that no-one was a real christian who did not conform to the traditional dogmas. This is the mindset that is coming to dominate Christianity in the public forum.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 07:42:51 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015