I love the word astonish, as it can fit into any sentence anytime. More so it evokes a sense of spirit, amazement, and even pleasure. Also, this is my 202nd posting this year…and my longest, exceeding the usual one page entries I’m known for. Astonishing huh.
I also like to study, and read from at least 5 different news sources daily…why? Because interpretation by those who decide what is news worthy both amazes me and astonishes me. Point in case.
Yellowstone Nation Park is 400 miles north of me, and this month not only did a big fat gaping hole, almost a hundred feet across open up, but a massive geyser has been erupting. I mean hundreds of feet into the air. When it first erupted to start the month, it was not news, because it seems to happen ever century that man can remember. But then it did it again a couple of weeks ago, and that should have been news, because no one can remember it ever happening twice in their lifetimes. And then to close out this month, it did it again a couple of days ago.
Of the 5 sources I read from, only one found it news worthy, and then it was just a small portion and a dozen lines deep. I understand that the government has blocked all agencies from reporting on it, but it can be seen from a hundred miles away, and you would think that was news worthy.
So while I’m ranting, I’ll discuss Christianity, the most astonishing and diversified religion of them all. Yes, even more so than Hinduism.
We see in the Eastern Orthodoxy, that the Bible is more than the life of Christ, but a symbol of divine wisdom and an ‘image’ of Christ, himself. At first, ‘hermeneutics’ played its part, as Jews had been arguing translations of scripture for hundreds of years. The literal as well as the allegorical explanations were enough to start, but by 200 CE, ‘moral’ and ‘heavenly’ (divine) interpretations were being presented as well. It was through these divine interpretations that ‘papacies’ for the next nine centuries would re-write, and produce ‘edicts’ which would rival all secular powers and demand absolutism of its supremacy.
Eastern Christians could not abide with absolutism, nor the changes to scripture in the early 11th century, professing that the ‘holy spirit’ can be sent by both the ‘father’ and the ‘son’; their regard for original text of ‘from the father’ was the MORE correct version. Also the matter of celibacy of clergy brought further separation with the eastern acceptance that clergy could indeed be married, holding only those of the bishopric to celibacy. It was the mal-treatment and interceding’s from the western crusaders during the early 13th century that provoked a complete and final separation, having Eastern Orthodox proclaim themselves the true descendant of the Apostolic Church (pp.328-9).
Eastern Orthodox views vary in an astonishingly simple matter of Christ’s ‘nature’. Whereas the Council of Chalcedony in 451 CE excommunicated all who would not accept the dogma entailing both a divine and a human nature of the Christ. So Syria, Coptic, and four other smaller churches still hold to Christ’s divinity; within the east today, there are fifteen self-governing ‘orthodox’ practices, all proclaiming their divine placement through patriarch and arch bishops broken into four patriarchates, and smaller sovereigns throughout the world (p.342).
Each of these Eastern Orthodox sects have moved towards man’s ability to approach God personally through prayer and the calling upon the name of Jesus Christ. They each have several icons of distinction and a history of some Saint that has revealed itself as prophetic. These differences are not of divine nature at all, but appear political, and concludes with the wests affirmation as “…there exists a single church of Christ, which subsists in the Catholic Church” (p.360). Not my words, I assure you.
The Protestants desire to reconnect with Christ on a personal level and to adhere to dogmas of which could become a foundation and inspiration to its laity began its integration among the peoples as soon as it declared itself REAL and TRUE. Monasteries carried out the rituals and requirements set by its Abby or local arch bishop. Politics again played a heavy role as England separated itself from the Roman Catholic oppression it faced, claiming its independence and Angelic nature, all so a king might divorce and re-marry. At first these different sects were outcasts from England and Europe, not falling into one practice or the other, forming their own divisions of worshiping. Some called Quakers, others Presbyterian, and another Baptist, and so on. Each identifies with some facet of Christian ritual, dogma, or form of liturgy forsaking others, and only recognizing those who follow them as truly blessed, led, and divine. That includes the 16th century Lutheran’s, as my ancestor’s would tell you they hated the rituals of Catholicism, but needed the revenues which can be generated through commerce as peoples passed through their highways.
I have only known one God throughout my life, and like many others, question the validity of several of these sects. Astonishingly 21,000 independent church denominations under 156 groupings (p.335), and I’m pretty certain that it would take an inspiration or revelation for someone to KNOW which of them leads to God and the here-after; and then they would be numinous, and probably considered a nut. I know I was.
Fisher, Mary. 2011 Living Religions. Religions of the World. Western Religions. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
namkcorb 