Posted by OldtimerToo on July 20, 2004 at 14:49:02
In Reply to: Exegesis on John 1:1-5 posted by Mary Augustina de Franco on July 18, 2004 at 14:55:33:
Maria:
You mentioned "the Essene texts" at the very end of your post. That, and the phraseology of the text of your post does lead me to speculate that
you are either:
1) a new initiate to, yes, the Gnostic form of belief of the Essenes, a very old cult, or
2) a purposeful liar, who waits to draw people into the Essene/Gnostic belief FIRST, and THEN give them the "inside dope", so-to-speak--the "inner teachings" or whatever.
Nice smoke screen, Kid, and nice try!
These URLs distinctively prove my assertion--with all due respect please read:
http://www.essene.com/Gospels/GnosticAndSophia.html
http://www.thenazareneway.com/
http://www.essenespirit.com/
http://www.sevenfoldpeace.com/essenes.html
Please be honest enough, especially on this supposedly cademic and research-oriented board, to at least acknowlede your sources.
I just know where to look, and have a lot of occult experiences in the past, and understand the Essene's allegations about the Nag Hammadi Library manuscripts.
I know better, and, now so should other posters and readers, if they'll read the material at the URLs Iposted here, than to accept you as you seem to be trying to represent yourself.
You may very well have been pursuing Essene teaching, and Gnostic (but "not really Gnostic") experiences for sometime.
I understand your looking elsewhere for spiritual reality than what you may have experienced in the Family, as most posters here have.
And, I do love the study of philosophy, but AS a Christian. I would call myself an adherent of "analytical philosophy"; following are two of y favorite analytical philosophers, Diogenes Allen, and Alvin Plantinga.
Allen touched on some of the things you tried to write about. I thought his following quote here might interest you! Enjoy the read!
http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/oct1987/v44-3-symposium2.htm#author
Is Philosophy of Religion Enough?
By Diogenes Allen
"Now a word about the anti-philosophical attitude which goes under the guise of favoring a Hebraic rather than a Greek mentality. Christian theology is inherently Hellenic. I use the word "Hellenic" instead of "Greek" to refer to the spread of Greek culture and ways of thinking to non-Greek peoples, an influence which received powerful impetus from the conquests of Alexander the Great and Rome. Christian theology is inherently Hellenic because theology could not exist as a discipline without the kind of intellectual curiosity which was unique to ancient Greece.
The ancient Egyptians said that the Greeks were like children because they were always asking "Why?" It is not that other ancient peoples, including the Israetities, did not ask for the whys and wherefores of many things. It is rather that in ancient Greece the practice became a matter of principle. The Greeks did not think of every significant question that has ever been raised, but they asked questions persistently and systematically as a deliberate program until they developed the very idea of disciplines-areas of theoretical knowledge defined by principles and investigated by appropriate methods of inquiry. A practical question, such as the need to determine the boundaries of a piece of property, may start an investigation. But the various rules of thumb concerning the relation of lines to angles were not allowed to remain just rules of thumb, even though they were perfectly satisfactory for all practical purposes. The Greeks pushed until they created the theoretical science of geometry, a discipline that continues to yield new knowledge today. This particular attitude led to the very notion of a "discipline." In carrying out their inquiries, the ancient Greeks became the founders of many of our traditional disciplines, including theology itself.
The systematic search for reasons, or for the logos for anything and everything, is something we today take for granted. It is part of our mental make-up. We do it automatically. We share with the ancient Greeks a desire to push back the domain of the unknown and to unveil all mysteries. We also share with them the concept of disciplines which have their distinctive principles and methods of inquiry. Likewise, this was part of the mental make-up of the early Church Fathers who fashioned Christian doctrines in a decisive way in the first centuries.
The early Church Fathers sought to retain a proper sense of mystery. They recognized that however much we may want to achieve complete comprehension, God's ontological status is such that it exceeds our comprehension. Thus, God, even in self-revelation, remains hidden in that very revelation. Nonetheless, they were persistent in asking of the revealed truth, "How is that so"? Their minds were Hellenic to that extent, to the extent that they created the discipline of theology. Thus, the Hellenic influence on Christianity is much more than the use of particular Greek philosophical concepts, which may or may not have outlived their usefulness. An essential part is an attitude of mind that prizes coherence, that presses as a matter of principle the questions "Why and how is that so?", that searches for principles to organize diverse things, and that seeks to discover the basis or ground for every claim that is made. There would have been no such discipline as Christian theology without the Bible and without a believing community. But likewise we would not have the discipline of theology without the Hellenic attitude in Christians that leads them to press questions about the Bible and the relation of the Bible to other knowledge. When people call for the purging of Greek philosophy from Christian theology, then, unless they are referring only to specific ideas or concepts, they are really calling for an end to the discipline of theology itself."
Here is a webpage for Alvin Plantinga--his writings really helped me to "regain my brain", after my cult experience!
Enjoy!
http://www.homestead.com/philofreligion/Papersbyplantinga.html