Origen of Alexandria and the History of Racism as a Theological Problem
“Earlier scholarly accounts that portray Origen as a champion of human equality and as engaged in anti-racist efforts therefore cannot stand up to scrutiny. Origen disparages certain ethnic groups and develops arguments that connect ethnic identity and geographical location with various degrees of sinfulness. His work offers clear evidence that theories of ethnic inferiority have a long history within the Christian matrix that stretches considerably beyond the modern and medieval periods.”
Matthijs den Dulk, Origen of Alexandria and the History of Racism as a Theological Problem, The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume 71, Issue 1, April 2020, Pages 164–195, https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flaa025
#Image attribution: Luyken, Jan (1649-1712), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Page URL:https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OrigenStudentsLuyken.jpg
"The Rapture: The belief that Jesus will remove all true Christians from the Earth prior to the end of the world and establishment of his kingdom. The belief is mostly found among American Evangelicals and is part of the larger theological framework called Dispensational Premillennialism. But where did this belief come from?"
"The Rapture: The belief that Jesus will remove all true Christians from the Earth prior to the end of the world and establishment of his kingdom. The belief is mostly found among American Evangelicals and is part of the larger theological framework called Dispensational Premillennialism. But where did this belief come from?"
"The Rapture: The belief that Jesus will remove all true Christians from the Earth prior to the end of the world and establishment of his kingdom. The belief is mostly found among American Evangelicals and is part of the larger theological framework called Dispensational Premillennialism. But where did this belief come from?"
"In this paper, we apply the methods of graph theory to reveal hidden relations within the corpus of the Hebrew Bible texts. The structure of relations between different texts was studied based upon their interpretation of the otherworld and the afterlife. We have identified 43 most relevant texts that contained concepts related to the notion of the otherworld and constructed a graph representing the relations between the considered texts."
"The author argues that a cadre of Southern theologians rejected the liberal heritage of the United States and redefined the relationship between the individual and state. Southern clerical fascists reconceived of an alternative modernity that reflected God’s precepts. Slaves, laborers, and slave masters all had a mandate to guide secular and spiritual progress."
When Tlaozolteol presents the beheaded corn snake, a metaphor for desire - She is showing us its sacredness. Even the corn snake bleeds the sacred fluid.
In opening the snake, She reveals its inner divinity.
In opening the snake, She makes us and our desires whole.
For those interested #Professor#RobIliffe has an excellent book on Newton's theological writings entitled 'Priest of Nature: The Religious Worlds of Isaac Newton'.
Today is the feast of St John the Apostle, seen here with eagle and palm in the silver seal matrix of #ClareCollege (the half-figure is 8mm high), & in the sumptuous Breviary of Marie de St Pol, best friend of the #LadyOfClare. 🧵 1/3
Until this year, the only published photo was so fuzzy that there were debates as to whether there was a bird, and interpretation of the palm. Even with the RTI image, discussion continues. Falconer friends think this most resembles a #GoldenEagle, scaled to speak comfortably to St John, while… standing on his fist? as raptors usually do… or on his open palm? as a trusted messenger of God? 🧵 2/3 #StJohn#theology#interpretation#StoneCarving#illustration
Wrote a new blog post about some questions and musings about Gregory of Nyssa, Anthropocentrism, and Christocentrism. Trying to move beyond the "humanity is the telos of Creation" perspective, while still remaining connected to the teachings of the Fathers.
Also, I have moved my blog to a new platform. No platform perfectly matches what I want, but at least now my family and friends can easily subscribe to it.
Dogmatic religion is a bitch. It destroys the very core of people.
Humans are social creatures. So when our cherished others share with us that it is possible to know the love of a perfect being, to be enfolded in the bliss of union with it, if only we follow some rules, we naturally strive to seek this perfection. But the rules are the thing. When we submit to rules we want to know that they are justified. That they will be efficacious. But dogma, the insistence on unquestioning faith, does not give us such reassurance.
Any dogmatic set of rules is functionally unattainable in the long term because of the power of doubt. Dogmatism is not a natural part of what it is to be human. We thirst for understanding. And, while there is a great truth in not being a slave to the why of things, in sometimes accepting things as they are even though we cannot yet understand them, we will never cease completely to ask why.
Whenever there are rules they are broken. Always. If there is a rule, someone is breaking it. But with dogmatic religion it is always the rules held in the highest regard that are broken. Not just broken, smashed. The most proscribed precepts serving only to indicate the nature of the depravity of the oppressors. Our tender bliss seeking hearts recoil from this hypocrisy. And we instantly see the deception that these others have perpetrated upon us. And we hate them for it.
And if we are hurt enough, we defensively reject the entire possibility of the blissful union ever existing at all. We want our money back, because the thing they sold us does not exist. Or so we think. We think this because the hypocrites who taught us are hooked on the idea that there is only one way to characterize the perfect thing, and it is their characterization. All the other ones are evil. The god of Abraham boldly declares that all other gods are evil and untrue, false and deceiving, or even, the big lie, simply nonexistent. Like a spoiled toddler, his every utterance an insistent cry of There Can Be Only One.
This is often the first clue to us that the god of love they say they are recommending might not be quite as loving as they make him out to be. Even though we reject them once we see their hypocrisy rear its so, so ugly head, we have been so traumatically conditioned by the purveyors of the One True God™ that we can’t easily escape from the bounds of monotheism. Once we have found that particular god lacking we fall back on that conditioning and we believe that there must be no gods at all.
But the blissful union with the perfect thing is still there! If we continue to be prisoners of the conditioning foisted upon us by the damaged peddlers of the one single truth lie we shall be forever beholden to their conceptualizations. Forever locked in a trap of their design. Forever believing that it is their way or nothing.
Prosperity Gospel and Nationalism are two Christian heresies that have been rising continuously through my life, and really started rising in the 1960's. They both amount to the same theological fallacy: God wants his people to have social authority over others.
That message is about as far from Jesus as you can get.
Where's a good online marketplace to sell #usedbooks that is #NOTAmazon? Their Seller Central has become a little too complicated and I have a lot of former rentals my brother used in college which my mom had to purchase because he missed the return deadline. If it helps any, they are #history, #memoir, #christian, #theology, and some #fiction (editions published within the last decade). Also may sell some to local stores. #amazonalternatives@bookstodon
Pray without words!
I have written nine short readings, in Norwegian, on how to use your body to pray. Delivered from print today!
The context is #Lutheran, where words have had a too important role throughout Protestant history. I want to reclaim body language as prayer language, but not only in the traditional kneeling and folding hands way. #theology#prayer@theology
I wrote a new short blog post about cybernetics, feedback loops, and the prevalence of evil. Basically, I use theories from cybernetics as analogies to talk about evil works in the world. You can read it here: https://write.as/nathaniel-metz/feedback-loops-and-evil