“I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.” [Luke: 18:17] Dwelling into the sphere of sensorial and verbal thinking, the Man is unaware of the fact that the object of his perception is actually, unknown. We truly live with the misconception that as soon as we are able to name the object of our knowledge, we are completely acknowledgeable of that object. “The only true knowledge consists in knowing that we know nothing” (Socrates).
Becoming aware of the level of your own ignorance and realizing the limits of your knowledge assists in grasping the existence of the Unknown. While he comfortably dwells in his familiar and limited area of perception, unexpected events and happenings may lead an ordinary man to experience a feeling of uneasiness, fear and hostility. Becoming more and more aware that your own being is as much unknown as the farthest star of the galaxy means a big step forward in understanding a fundamental truth: that the physical being does not belong to Man, and that this physical being is governed by his will only to a certain extent, depending on his level of understanding and cosmic integration.
While in his daily life, the Man handles a sum of apparently known objects and notions, he also confronts himself with a certain amount of unknown data. About these, he cannot say anything for sure; he can believe, wondering about them and fearing them. Lacking a crystal clear understanding, an ordinary man resorts to a dependency on superstition and self-created magical alliances. Confronted with an unforeseen situation, Man has determined that through a firm belief, the scale can be balanced in his favor. The practical goal of all superstition and religion is to psychologically prepare Man, to strengthen his belief in his own victory. A firm belief induces calm, lucidity, courage, success, while doubt generates fear, uneasiness, torment and failure. Nowadays as well as in the past, people resort to magical words and gestures, prayers, spells, amulets, oracles, and horoscopes, in their attempts to chase away their fears and doubts.
more at: http://newway.terra-lucida.com
Is this relevant?
I have to say that this sort of post strikes me as having nothing to do with an emerging theology. There may be some value in this sort of argument about the limits of human knowledge, but it is not an interpretation of Luke 18:17. I’m tempted to delete it as merely a distraction, but perhaps others see it differently - and perhaps newway genuinely wishes to engage in conversation about the emerging church and not simply promote his website. I’m very happy to be corrected. I don’t mind the self-promotion, but I would like it to be relevant.
you may be right
Andrew,
You may be right. I didn’t bother going to his website, but I would argue that this is a conversation about epistomology and that does affect how we think about God and the Scriptures.
I would rather see his post inbedded in a further argument about why he posted what he posted, but newway seems to be positing a completely relativistic argument which I don’t buy but needs to inform how we think about God and and the scriptures.
Newway may be right if we live in a completely naturalistic world devoid of revelation from a loving Creator. That is something I would love to see addressed, cause I am am only beginning to really think about the nature of revelation, how it works, and what it means for us.
Stephen
pantheism in the guise of Christianity
I’m not sure that you need to eliminate this post but do mark that the author is a pantheist and has no connection with emerging theology at all - and I did check out the referrence!
Rather than enlarge this node, it would be great if Stephen or Andrew or … could pick up on the epistemological questions elsewhere.
Live to serve : Serve to live