Puffing on the Opiate of the Masses
The other night, in search of something relaxing to read, I picked up The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which I hadn't read in about ten years. I'd somewhat forgotten how much I loved it, for a few reasons.
CS Lewis is just so charming in his style... and so appealing in his theology. I think Mark Rosenfelder was right (commentary on the movie vs the book, down the bottom of that page) when he put it: "His version of Christianity is attractive precisely because it doesn't ask you to leave your intelligence, your pagan inheritance, and your sense of fantasy at the door. Narnia is liberating and a little subversive..."
I think that was why, back in the day, my nascent theological standpoint, predicated as it was on hardcore agnosticism I admit, was that the only God I could love was a God in the mode of Aslan, allegory of God as he was. Not just a God who is loving and lovable even as he is fierce as well, and not just a God who is so present and real, but the God who rewards virtue, for whatever reason, and condemns evil, no matter whose name it's committed in.
I can't quite get in board, entirely, with a theology where the evil are forgiven and rewarded, so long as they claim Christianity, and the good are condemned if they don't. Possibly this discomfort with total forgiveness is merely a sign of my human weakness. A lot of my religio-philosophical viewpoint is also rather unorthodox, since I come at Christianity through CS Lewis, the Dalai Lama, and a bit of paganism, but still.
I think the problem for me is that some people seem to view the symbol as the signified; if you claim to repent, if you mouth the words of prayer and if you are administered the Christian ritual, your sins will be forgiven, even if all this is just a way of hedging your bets, and... no. That bugs. I think, to me, it seems like it only can count if your repentance is sincere, if you truly, genuinely regret and repent of the sins you have committed against others.
Atonement for that isn't easy, but you have to realise you need to do it first. I think the Jews had it right, that you must attempt to reconcile with people you have wronged, and right the wrong if possible, before Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when you have the chance to repent your sins before God.
I think, when you get right down to it, insincerity of religion bugs me. You shouldn't claim to believe unless you believe; you shouldn't claim repentance unless you're really really sorry. I can believe in total forgiveness after true and sincere repentance, and in forgiveness granted by deity in lieu of the perfection of humanity, but...
Maybe it just boils down to there being too little sincerity in the world.
Maybe it's just that really, I was reminded of how much I wish I lived in Narnia... sure, there's no World of Warcrack, but on the other hand, talking badgers.
CS Lewis is just so charming in his style... and so appealing in his theology. I think Mark Rosenfelder was right (commentary on the movie vs the book, down the bottom of that page) when he put it: "His version of Christianity is attractive precisely because it doesn't ask you to leave your intelligence, your pagan inheritance, and your sense of fantasy at the door. Narnia is liberating and a little subversive..."
I think that was why, back in the day, my nascent theological standpoint, predicated as it was on hardcore agnosticism I admit, was that the only God I could love was a God in the mode of Aslan, allegory of God as he was. Not just a God who is loving and lovable even as he is fierce as well, and not just a God who is so present and real, but the God who rewards virtue, for whatever reason, and condemns evil, no matter whose name it's committed in.
I can't quite get in board, entirely, with a theology where the evil are forgiven and rewarded, so long as they claim Christianity, and the good are condemned if they don't. Possibly this discomfort with total forgiveness is merely a sign of my human weakness. A lot of my religio-philosophical viewpoint is also rather unorthodox, since I come at Christianity through CS Lewis, the Dalai Lama, and a bit of paganism, but still.
I think the problem for me is that some people seem to view the symbol as the signified; if you claim to repent, if you mouth the words of prayer and if you are administered the Christian ritual, your sins will be forgiven, even if all this is just a way of hedging your bets, and... no. That bugs. I think, to me, it seems like it only can count if your repentance is sincere, if you truly, genuinely regret and repent of the sins you have committed against others.
Atonement for that isn't easy, but you have to realise you need to do it first. I think the Jews had it right, that you must attempt to reconcile with people you have wronged, and right the wrong if possible, before Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when you have the chance to repent your sins before God.
I think, when you get right down to it, insincerity of religion bugs me. You shouldn't claim to believe unless you believe; you shouldn't claim repentance unless you're really really sorry. I can believe in total forgiveness after true and sincere repentance, and in forgiveness granted by deity in lieu of the perfection of humanity, but...
Maybe it just boils down to there being too little sincerity in the world.
Maybe it's just that really, I was reminded of how much I wish I lived in Narnia... sure, there's no World of Warcrack, but on the other hand, talking badgers.
posted by Sami at 12:26 am
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