“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”, but I have to believe that a small understanding is better than none at all. The other extreme is to be so immersed in the story detail as to have lost the way out of the forest. You get that a lot here, but bear in mind that I know nothing about theologies, and that situation is unlikely to change. However, since “El Papa” graced us with his presence last week, and since this week we will are well on the way to forgetting about it, I thought in the contrary way, I might now reflect on these matters in general.

Others, such as Gary at Public Opinion have had the same idea.

July 21, 2008

I guess Benedict XVI, in attacking has attacked the spreading “spiritual desert” of the modern secular world, and calling for a new religious age of faith and redemption, has given the Liberals a new message.
They can begin to talk in terms of for a new age in which hope liberates us from the shallowness, apathy and self-absorption which deaden our souls and poison our relationships. Nelson can say that the world needs this renewal, and only conservatives can deliver it. Trust us.

Of course, they may need to temper their enthusiasm for wealth creation and prosperity a bit and talk a bit more in terms of moral absolutes. They would have to go easy on the idea that we live in a world of mere appearances, a kind of husk of reality where we grasp after shadows, though. And on the embrace of poverty and a life of self-denial.

And Truthdig has the cartoon for the occasion:

I thought I would make a comment there at Public Opinion, but as sometimes happens my comment became a commentary:

It is interesting to reflect, given that I know next to nothing about theology, that in the beginning Christianity was a liberation theology, much like Islam, and hence the appeal to the “poor ones” and slaves. As John notes the Bible provides a context for sacrifice, animal and human, and scapegoating. In the First Century, the political question concerned the subjection by an imperial power, Rome.

Political power does something to people’s heads, and hence there are the processes of accommodation and co-option. As we remember, Pontius Pilot washed his hands and placed the blame elsewhere, and that blame was duly recorded in Matthew’s gospel after a passage of tens of years. Religious foundational stories and myths have to be reframed, reinterpreted, in the process so that the original context can be lost.

I find myself agreeing with the Pope about notions about “spiritual desert”, nonviolence and environmental degradation. They are problems it seems to me. The solution may arise from a new cultural paradigm and the question arises about the relevance of the institutional frame of the Catholic Church, aside from its internal politics since Vatican II, given that the questions raised by the Reformation from around the 16th Century have not been resolved.