The Trinity challenge

We saw in the article here that the concept of a man also being a god has an ancient heritage.

However, the current ease with which Islam can be accepted when compared with the apparent complexity of the Christian Trinity poses a challenge for the latter when competing for believers. Can a man, Jesus the Nazarene, be both human and Divine? And what is the Holy Spirit?

Christians, therefore, have some rather special relationships to consider and understand.

Some history: in the 2nd century AD, the first major Christian theologian, Tertullian, a Carthaginian who thought and wrote in Latin, coined the term Trinitas. He had some pretty deep disagreements with an important school of thought at the time - Monarchianism. Usefully for us, they had developed a model of, or approach to understanding, "God" as "modalist." This saw the names of Father, Son and Holy Spirit  as corresponding merely to different aspects or modes of the same divine being, playing transitory parts in succession, like an actor on the Classical stage donning a theatrical mask to denote a tragic or comic role or "Persona." (MacCulloch, D. A History of Christianity. London, 2009).

Fast forward to the theologians of the 19th and 20th centuries and we discover a real attempt to interpret classical trinitarian doctine, to get beneath its surface grammar and penetrate its deepest intention. It is now affirmed that God is Triune, the reality of shared love and life rather than in terms of domineering power. (Migliore, Daniel.L Faith seeking understanding - an introduction to Christian Theology, 2nd edn. USA. 2004).

So, how can we represent this Triune concept and enable it to function in our lives?

One way is to turn to a business representation of organisation that features role-plays. We call it a "Value Exchange System" which in some lowly way could introduce us to the limitless love and unfathionable behaviour of God through the idea of relationships and contributions between role plays.

Turning to our diagram below, We can with theological credibility depict three "role plays" shown in our circles with a direct connection to ourselves as a person. But the mix of God as three roles (to our limited understanding, of the mystery of God) is not sequential but a dynamic mix or dance of interplays between aspects of God and each person who allows it. The contributions to our lives can be identified and assessed.

There has to be some "mechanism" for this transfer, and we can utilise the discoveries and theories from physics and other sciences to glimpse how this may occur. This is represented as an inner cloud.

Infusing this, though, is the activity of the "Maker," represented as an overarching outer cloud.

To make things even more complicated, there is no universally held view by Christians of the significance of these three role plays. Depending upon which duo is emphasised more than the others, (Creator/Redeemer; Redeemer/Strengthener; Strengthener/Creator), we can have a different strand of the Christian tradition.

Could Islam cope with that?

Composed by Metisa .... www.metisa.net

Published on LinkedIn at:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/trinity-challenge-david-meggitt?published=u

“New Agers” through the ages

As we have seen here beliefs incorporate repeating elements. And so it is with so-called “New Agers” – a term that gained recognition in the 1970’s. But if we assume one definition that describes New Agers as people who adopt features of the ancient worldview and interlace them with science and knowledge insights current at a particular time to describe their perception of reality, a rich heritage from ancient times unfolds.

A question frequently asked is “if the writers of the Bible or the Qu’ran knew what we now know, would the texts have been inspired differently?” The answer, of course, is that we don’t know.

But let’s delve back a little and start with the very first epic poem written (in c 2100 BC) that describes the prowess of Gilgamesh, the fifth ruler in the city of Uruk in Sumeria in c 2600 BC. As a conduit through which the city’s gods spoke, he would himself after death become a godlike figure to whom prayers and sacrifices were likely offered.

For a taste of 19th/20th century AD New Agers, fast forward to the Existentialists who accepted the lack of order and disorientation in an apparently meaningless world, and proposed that each individual (not society nor religion) is solely responsible for giving meaning to life and living it authentically.

Following is a kaleidoscope of current new age topics:

• Life force particles and “the law of attraction” activated by positive and negative vibrational energy
• Hearing voices (quite normal, but can also be a sign of schizophrenia)
• Channelling from extra-terrestrial beings and some associated charlatan cults
• “The secret” and a multi-universe existence with power to shape a future you desire
• Being “in the present moment,” the practice of meditation (or, narrower, “mindfulness”) and the “power of now”
• For those desperate to reorient their relationships with others, breakthrough experiences using, for example, hypnotic sessions with NLP or a “quantum collapse process” (refer to this role based diagram that uniquely illustrates the dynamics of the process described in tabular form by the author)

• The concept of “pain bodies” affecting persecuted nations that persist over generations
• Scientific evidence showing that beliefs can affect the behaviour of body cells
• There is no separate Divine; we are all Divine and integral with the universe through energies.

In critiquing New Agers, it is beneficial to view developments through a specific lens that carries both evidential and experiential weight. Accordingly, your link to reflections from a Christian perspective delivered is here.

In it the author, David Welbourn, comments that New Agers are very keen on the idea that a single cosmic energy is permeating us all.

He adds that New Agers invariably adopt a pick and mix approach to their beliefs, testing out a succession of options to identify some mix for the present moment that offers hope.








Composed by Metisa .... www.metisa.net

Published on LinkedIn at:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-agers-through-ages-david-meggitt?published=t