I agree wholeheartedly that Islam is vulnerable to violence, it's really its glaring defect in my view.
As to having to pick a path up the mountain... This is true, and yet, a canny observation I read once went like this:
> The problem with appealing to tradition is that every tradition got started by a heretic.
This is very true, and it can be put in a less quippy way: new paths get created by someone striking out on their own. As the poet says in Spanish: walker, there is no path, the path is made by walking. There is even a necessity of this happening, as it is precisely through people striking out on their own that spirituality gets regenerated.
The way I see it, Jesus is even expecting this of Christians, as in John 14:12:
> Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
"Greater works than these." Has any Christian accomplished this or even attempted it? We're letting Jesus down in so many ways...
Yes, I realize this is all heterodox and even outright heretical (I do wonder what is the orthodox interpretation of John 14:12 though. What is the one you would give it?), but I don't think I have a choice in this matter.
When Christ says "you will do greater works than these," my first thought is of the saints who, through their deaths, have been fully united to Christ. Who knows what great works the saints have accomplished through their prayers, unknown to us - known only to God and perhaps to themselves?
Christ is working all the time, not in past tense. There are many mysteries in Creation that are unknown (or 'secret') to us, and it is all the work of the Logos. "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen." John 21:25
I agree wholeheartedly that Islam is vulnerable to violence, it's really its glaring defect in my view.
As to having to pick a path up the mountain... This is true, and yet, a canny observation I read once went like this:
> The problem with appealing to tradition is that every tradition got started by a heretic.
This is very true, and it can be put in a less quippy way: new paths get created by someone striking out on their own. As the poet says in Spanish: walker, there is no path, the path is made by walking. There is even a necessity of this happening, as it is precisely through people striking out on their own that spirituality gets regenerated.
The way I see it, Jesus is even expecting this of Christians, as in John 14:12:
> Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
"Greater works than these." Has any Christian accomplished this or even attempted it? We're letting Jesus down in so many ways...
Yes, I realize this is all heterodox and even outright heretical (I do wonder what is the orthodox interpretation of John 14:12 though. What is the one you would give it?), but I don't think I have a choice in this matter.
When Christ says "you will do greater works than these," my first thought is of the saints who, through their deaths, have been fully united to Christ. Who knows what great works the saints have accomplished through their prayers, unknown to us - known only to God and perhaps to themselves?
Jesus did not work in secret, so greater works would have to be public also.
Christ is working all the time, not in past tense. There are many mysteries in Creation that are unknown (or 'secret') to us, and it is all the work of the Logos. "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen." John 21:25