The Eighth Sermon to the Dead

You are dependable, popular, and observant. Deep and thoughtful, you are prone to moodiness. In fact, your emotions tend to influence everything you do. You are unique, creative, and expressive. You don't mind waving your freak flag every once and a while. And lucky for you, most people find your weird ways charming! The World's Shortest Personality Test

I had a friend ask me "Why did you decide ot seek ordination in a Gnostic church rather than one of the other heritage churches?" My response follows. Well, I've had several mystical experiences. In a subjective sense, I know (understand, have insight) that God, in some manner, exists and affects my life. I don't have faith in what someone else is telling me. I don't feel any particular need to be saved through the sacrifice of any individual other than myself. The Gnostic mythology makes sense to me as a symbolic method of explaining what the world is about and what to expect. It's not scientific, but it has the huge benefit of not CLAIMING to be scientific. It's an internal understanding of the world within, and how that affects the world without. It's an explicit understanding that we live in our heads. The Mythology is tools to grasp the reasons behind what saint Paul said: "For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, t...

Divinity known Not in peals of thunder, but The silence between

I've taken a slight break from Christian Theology, to take and read John Ringo's "The Road to Damascus", which is a Bolo novel, about a giant war machine and the deteriorating situation on the planet the machine is supposed to defend. It's been a good book, light read. It's got some ideas about how a government should be run, and how guns = security, etc. Standard Libertarian fare. I've enjoyed it, as I've enjoyed all of Mr. Ringo's work. I recommend his books. I have a quote in the book that I really liked, and wanted to pass on. I'll do so when I find the quote again.

"If, as (F.D.E.) Schleiermacher suggests [in Christian Faith, 1821-2], the distinctive essense of Christianity consists in the fact that God has redeemed us through Jesus Christ, and through no one else and in no other way, it must follow that the Christian understanding of God, Jesus Christ, and human nature should be consistent with this understanding of redemption. Thus the Christian understanding of God must be such that God can effect the redemption of humanity through Christ; the Christian understanding of Christ must be such that God may effect our redemption through him; the Christian understanding of humanity must be such that redemption is both possible and genuine. In other words, it is essential that the Christian understanding of God, Christ, and humanity is consistent with the principle of redemption through Christ alone. According to Schleiermacher, the rejection or denial of the princple that God has redeemed us through Jesus Christ is nothing less than the reject...

Although I'm not a thelemic practitioner, I do enjoy the Podcast "Thelema Coast to Coast." This week, the interview a fellow who wrote a book about the Symbolism of Led Zepplin IV. It's a very cool interview, go check it out.

Tim Boucher writes: One of the other points that Nathan made indirectly is the idea of giving people permission. Permission to actually follow their interests. A lot of people need that, are lacking it, and can’t seem to give it to themselves. They’re worried that people will laugh at them or think they are crazy. I've run into that myself, the feeling that you need permission to study things outside the mainstream: Whether it's Gnosticism, or Theology, or Freemasonry, or what have you. Tim makes the quote in the context of Conspiracy theory, but this can apply to any field of inquiry that doesn't have to do with the "mainstream" of music, tv, sports, etc...

I've been reading in "Christian Theology: an Introduction" about the divinity of Christ. One of the things I came across is the idea that Jesus had to be both Man and God in order for the Redemption to be effected. Under Gnostic thought, this is the case with every human, as we each have a part and parcel of the Sacrae Flamme. This leads to the idea that Jesus, in his being, was not special, as he is under orthodox formulations. Which makes the idea of Gnostic Christianity a little stranger, for why would we commemorate a person who wasn't special? For the Christ (or Xristos) under Gnostic thought was not a particular human being. I haven't really pursued the idea very far of what the Xristos WAS, mind you. I'll be doing more research and thinking on that subject. However, the idea that it was a particular human named Yeshua bar Joseph doesn't seem to figure into it. I'll post more on the topic as I progress.

This blog is going to be an attempt to record some of my thoughts and experiences as I pursue ordination in the Apostolic Johannite Church. AJC is a Gnostic Church, focusing on the Christian tradition. I might also post things here of a general gnostic theme.