From: Wim Nusselder (wim.nusselder@antenna.nl)
Date: Tue Mar 01 2005 - 06:44:14 GMT
Dear Max,
You wrote 28 Feb 2005 14:42:20 -0700:
'Wow, such debate over who gets to call themselves Christian. Christianity,
through metonymy must direct one's attention to Christ. For me
"christianity" is a loaded title that is way to spotted for me. What hell
the Christian church has put people through! no, for me, i would perfer to
be a "follower of Chirst" or "follower of Jesus". i've heard some say that
so much evil has been done in the name of Christ; however, i think it is
more accurate to say that so much evil has been done in the name of
christianity. A true mystical experience is through one's relationship to
Christ not through one's relationship to christianity'
This thread started somewhere in 2001 with 'religious traditions, systems of
education and books (taken as patterns of value) differ from each other in
the amount of freedom they leave for the Dynamic'. It's about who can call
themselves Dynamic and mystical and not about who can call themselves
Christian. Sam has been trying to explain for some time his concept of
Christian mysticism (as exemplified in his interpretation of Anglicanism). I
have been trying to explain my concept of Quakerism as mysticism and as the
most Dyanamic religion I know.
I happen to call myself Christian and mean 'follower of Christ' with that.
Quite a few Quakers hesitate to call themselves Christian because of the
negative connotations you refer to, even though they recognize that
Quakerism has Christian roots. Most Quakers (at least those of
my -West-European- brand) would prefer to define Quakerism as 'following the
divine guidance that is available to everyone' and not bother about
differences between religious experience symbolized by the words 'God',
'Holy Spirit', 'Jesus' and 'Christ' (even if they would choose difference
words to define their Quakerism). A true mystical experience is even
possible if you have never heard of Christ.
With friendly greetings,
Wim
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