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« What's Real? | Main | Grace »

23 October 2005

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Dharmavidya

I like this article very much. Assensus may be propositional in form but it was relational in intent. The items assented to were intended to cement one's affiliation to a particular group. Creed gave the security of membership. So, in fact, all the forms of faith are relational. Faith is what takes us beyond self and that means implicitly that there is an Other. Also, the article brings out the fact that faith is a quality and that that quality can be found in all religions and is not dependent upon formal similarity of doctrines so much as upon similarity of religious experience. I like particularly the phrase "experiencing the cosmos as gracious". Certainly all these points strike strong chords in Pureland Buddhism.

steve

Ray,

Marcus Borg is my very favorite among New Testament scholars generally, "Jesus Seminar" participants particularly. I have read most of his books, "Heart of Christianity" included (and most recently), although this discussion of faith already had slipped my mind. So, back goes ol Marcus to the reading pile :-P A minister who succeeded me in a tiny church in the Blue Ridge Mtns many years ago once described faith not as "believing X, Y and Z is true. Faith is holding hands." I never forgot that, obviously; and I believe she was exactly right. Although then there is a Marcus Borg who will remind us that among the original meanings of "believe" -- and not only in English -- there is the distinct connotation of "be-LOVE." In that sense "belief" is a trusting assent from the heart, a "holding hands" with the One you love I suppose it might be, and not intellectual assent to propositional "truths." Anyhow, thanks for posting this (and Tillich on grace) -- I need to soak this in some more.

best,
steve

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