Original Review of The Pagan Temptation
Re-post of a book review I made in 2010 of Thomas Molnar’s classic, Pagan Temptation in preparation for a new review of the book in 2020
All posts filed under: Theology
The Knowledge of Good and Evil
The stories of Adam and Eve and Cain and Able are a commentary on suffering.
Thisness
Haecceity (from the Latin haecceitas – pronounced heck-see-ity) is usually translated as “thisness.” Duns Scotus is believed to be the first person to use the word to denote the wholly unique components that make a person or object unlike any other person or object. In a certain sense it is the emergent quality of a thing that we recognize as being one of a kind and therefore worth great value. A sensitivity to “thisness” is one of the central muscles of a poetic mind. With it we move out of categorizing all stones as “stones,” which is a time saving device, into contemplation of this particular stone, which is a time occupying device. We pick up the stone, we turn it over, we appreciate it for it’s thisness. This of course is not a muscle exclusive to the poetic mind. The scientific mind also requires this working, this using of effort. In thisness the scientist and the poet stand together — in curiosity, in wonder sometimes, at the profoundness of this one unique thing, this …
All those “isms” are now “wasms,” — Ross Hostetter
Last night I re-read key sections of my touchstone text for clarifying the “isms” associated with faith, and then I spent this morning reading the various definitions on Wikipedia and various other sites, to create short reference definitions that would help me as I think about this confluence of evolution and my own spiritual tradition. The touchstone text is Thomas Molnar’s Pagan Temptation, which I will quote from tomorrow. See my review of the book here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/115890432 Theism – At least one deity “is” and has influence in the physical universe. The term has become more closely aligned with monotheism in the west. Since the majority of theists are from one of the three big monotheistic religions, the majority of theists concieve of God as possessing the quality of personhood. The term “Theism” historically was used by western thinkers who wanted to distance themselves from Deists. Monotheism – There is one God. Monotheism is usually contrasted with polytheism and atheism and is primarily associated with the Abrahamic religions, (Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Baha’i Faith), but …
Summary of 38 Conversations from the Advent of Evolutionary Christianity
In the beginning God was a deep current of tightly folded language. God the code – acorn of infinity. Then God in God’s non-existence retracted; emptied words from a moment of coherence and something other than God filled the opening. Continues filling. Unravels to this day. We sense the syntax; a structure like logic, but clearer. A clarity only math can approximate. It is distance and movement and paradox; a long gush of death spilling fresh elements and levels of complexity. God being born. Suns birthed in water-soaked nursery clouds and gassy nova deaths full of candle flames. Finally, on earth, humans, several steps up from the goo, look around and see. It’s all really there. The universe comprehending itself in 1400 grams of fatty neurons. Within the convoluted folds, 100 trillion connections*. Brain as mirror for emergence. Understanding in a transient species. Reality awake. In the dark, on a cold December evening, I study the sky; feel the emptiness within me, the God hole, odd echo of the lingo before existence. Tongues of the …
