Front PageUltimate Meaning: Faith Beyond Religion
Submitted by bill on Thu, 03/09/2006 - 11:26. faith Spirituality
The beginning of faith for most people is in religion. It is there that we learn the principles of faith and hopefully develop faith. But faith cannot be given, taught or even willed. Faith and belief are more of a response to a higher power or meaning. They are neither ends in themselves nor necessarily a means to it. Faith is the beginning without which there is no meaning for humankind. And faith in a higher purpose, a higher meaning than my own limited, wretched life, is the meaning each of us longs for.
In the preface to his book man's search for ultimate meaning, Viktor Frankl, a Viennese psychiatrist and survivor of Hitler's death camps, describes what others have called that divine spark within us that longs for ultimate meaning, for God, even at the lowest point possible that human sense of meaning can fall to.
Frankl wrote:
The concept of religion in its widest possible sense, as it is here espoused, certainly goes far beyond the narrow concepts of God promulgated by many representatives of denominational and institutional religion. They often depict, not to say denigrate, God as a being who is primarily concerned with being believed in by the greatest possible number of believers and along the lines of a specific creed, at that. “Just believe,” we are told, “and everything will be okay.” But alas, not only is this order based on a distortion of any sound concept of deity, but even more importantly it is doomed to failure: Obviously, there are certain activities that simply cannot be commanded, demanded, or ordered, and as it happens, the triad “faith, hope, and love” belongs to this class of activities that elude an approach with, so to speak, “command characteristics.” Faith, hope, and love cannot be established by command simply because they cannot be established at will. I cannot “will” to believe, I cannot “will” to hope, I cannot “will” to love—and least of all can I “will” to will.Upon closer investigation it turns out that what underlies the attempt to establish faith, hope, love, and will by command is the manipulative approach. The attempt to bring these states about at will, however, is ultimately based on an inappropriate objectification and reification of these human phenomena: They are turned into mere objects. . . .To the extent that one makes intentional acts into objects, he loses sight of their objects.
When we turn faith, hope and love into objects we lose sight of their purposes and instead worship the objects themselves. Idolatry.
The path my own spiritual journey will take over the next several weeks will be one that seeks to understand better the meaning above religion and the God above the god of religion. Only after understanding why and how it is that I feel pulled toward faith, hope and love, can I make use of the religious disciplines that are meant to mature them.
Viktor El Frankl, man's search for ultimate meaning (New York, NY, Basic Books, 2000)
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The Freedom of Existential Responsibility
Submitted by bill on Thu, 03/09/2006 - 14:11.
Reido,
I think you would like this book, although you may have already read Frankl. Frankl's thesis is that it is choosing between the spiritual and the instinctual and taking responsibility for our existence or being, that provides meaning. The objective is a cop out to avoid subjective responsibility. In this sense, sin is harmful to the existential being or perhaps soul. But avoiding sin because God said to, provides no meaning and may even be harmful. Instead, we must do right because it is right. And doing right adds meaning or worth.
bill
» reply
Another Kindred Spirit
Submitted by reido on Thu, 03/09/2006 - 14:35.
No I havent read his work. But your quotes sound so much like what I have found on my own journey. It reminds me of the familiarity with Borg's concepts before I heard them.
reido
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Baptizing
Submitted by DJDisciple on Thu, 03/09/2006 - 20:04.
Reido,
I liked your post on baptism. Sometimes
I have similar thoughts when I am made to feel
like I HAVE to raise my hands during praise
and worship if I intend on honoring God.
I do have a question....
Is there scripture that says we SHOULD be
baptized after our we confess Christ as our savior?
I think there is but I could not find it after
reading your post.
DJ
» reply
The Meaning of Baptism
Submitted by reido on Fri, 03/10/2006 - 12:27.
DJ
There are many such passages about baptism. As I see it, the problem is not finding a specific passage so much as it is finding the original meaning of Baptism.
There are many scholars who consider baptism a purely Christian event, even so far as to say that remission of sins is not accessible without it -- thus an Essential act of salvation, Acts 2:38 would be a verse cited.
In my own study I have found that baptism did not suddenly "appear" with Jesus and John, nor was the concept of ceremonial cleansing limited to Jewish lore. And yet, biblical evidence is lacking -- that is, it suddenly just appears with little explanation and with little fanfare as though it were a previously understood practice. One might describe it as a poor man's ceremonial cleansing.
In NT, among the many citations, I like Paul's reference in Romans 6...
Quote:
"Do you not know that as many as were baptised into Christ were baptised into his death. We were buried therefore with him thru baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead thru the glory of the Father, so we shall also walk in this new life. For if we are one with him in this likeness of death, we shall also be one with him in resurrection.
If you had access, I would recommend Karl Barth's Commentary on Romans for an existentialist view of the message. But I doubt you can find it where you are -- besides, commentaries are only good to a limited extent. What you will find useful is a contemplation of the Essence of what all this means, rather than the Essentials. That is, what does it mean to be buried and risen with Christ? The bodily movements of baptism come easy, but the understanding of it often gets hidden in the symbol itself. That is, humanity has come to view the symbol as the thing in itself, rather than the thing it symbolizes.
Let me know if that last sentence is confusing.
reido
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Freedom
Bill
He writes clearly, understandably. For years I hammered on Baptism as the commanded prerequisite for entering the kingdom of heaven. Years later I even asked myself if I knew the meaning behind it all. How, for instance, can we sing a song all six verses until someone responds? This is programming -- not faith.
To me, being free for something means that I have shed as much preconception as possible in order to "see". It is an emptying of the ego and the "push" that people inflict. Consider that you have just gotten home from work to sit down for a quiet meal with your family...and the phone rings. "You have been chosen...." Somehow, the machine on the other end cannot conceive that if I wanted whatever crap they offer, I would call them. But, the desire is not REALLY to provide something I want. Is it? It is to persuade me to do something that I otherwise do not want to do.
reido