Troubling Dichotomy
One of the troubling dichotomies of the Christian world is 'truth versus love,' which often plays itself out in liberal/conservative polarization. Listen to this qoute from Hans von Balthasar: "...there is nothing true or good, in the long term, without the light of grace of that which is freely bestowed. And a Christianity which went along with modernity and subscribed merely to the true (faith as a system of correct propositions) or merely to the good (faith as that which is most useful and healthy for the subject) would be a Christianity knocked down from its own heights. When the saints interpreted their existence in the light of God's greater glory, they were always the guardians of the beautiful."
Wouldn't it be great to have the good, the true, and the beautiful all at once present in our Christian communities?
posted by fatherneo at 1:23 PM
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14 Comments:
In truth there is nothing but Love, and that is the Beauty of Life.
Farewell good people, I go to rock other boats.
Gary
Ah, but you haven't visited our sweet little corner of the world...
"which often plays itself out in liberal/conservative polarization"
Therein lies the rub does it not?
We allow ourselves to be polorized...
In other words... we have basic core values as Christians that no one political party really addresses fully.
Most of our disagreement comes in prioritizing the concerns that we feel need addressed.
Wouldn't it be great to have the good, the true, and the beautiful all at once present in our Christian communities?
Yes indeed...
Father,
Would you dare to venture as to what it would look like? The Spirit of Christ is present and at work in our churches so the Grace and Truth of Christ must be present in varying degrees in our communities. What about your parish? Tell us of the glimpses of this that you see.
Hans von Balthasar, huh? I'm glad to see it. I like him even though he is steeped in the "Whore of Babylon." Of course, he's dead now, and I guess we know what that means being that he's a heretic and such. Really too bad. He should have converted. Apparently he wasn't smart enough to know better.
Bye, Gary, God be with you.
The true, the good, and the beautiful are all at once present in our Christian communities - along with the false, the bad, and the hideous. I think that's the ongoing humiliation and gentleness of God, to tie himself to us like that and allow us to determine his image.
Hopefully, because we're all imbalanced towards one side or the other, it all works out to give a whole. That's why I'm here, liberal sort that I am, because I think that the more conservative element is essential to working out a balance in society and religion at large. And vice versa.
Catch me up Padre...fill me in on who Hans von Balthasar is.
"The true, the good, and the beautiful are all at once present in our Christian communities - along with the false, the bad, and the hideous. I think that's the ongoing humiliation and gentleness of God, to tie himself to us like that and allow us to determine his image."
WOW. Speechless again MCM.
Well, ya know, I look in the mirror every morning, and I just have to know it's true.... ;-) (But thanks, Angevoix, you're a generous soul.)
God knows I love Him, MCM... when I look in the mirror I am not deceived into thinking I hold this treasure in anything but a very earthen vessel.
I hope you didn't think I was implying that you thought otherwise, Ange, cuz I wasn't, for sure. I only meant to say that I can't help but see my own duality in everything I do.
Sigh. Sometimes internet communication is so darn... imperfect.
No...that's exactly what I thought you were saying and I was again agreeing with you... Just can't get used to that can you...ha ha ha...
In otherwords -- I understood you as you meant it... I didn't take it as meaning anything towards me at all...except the generous soul bit...yet somehow I don't feel alone in that...especially on this blog.
Yeah, if you'd just stop all that agreeable-ness, I'd cope a lot better!
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