Personal religion
Dec. 5th, 2014 01:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ghoti_mhic_uaitAs a member of the Church Universal, I tend to think of my personal faith as being linked to the community. Thus I love hymns like Faith of Our Fathers, which I have mostly sung while celebrating Mass in abbeys ruined during the dissolution of the monastery and I love the knowledge that I can go into any church in the world and join in and by in a real as well as technical sense a part of the community. The feeling of Communion, of continual unity with other Catholics, is wonderful.
Anyway, this means that although it might not be the first thing some people think of when they hear 'personal religion', I will be answering this in the form of the Nicene creed* (what we say on a Sunday, in the translation currently used in the English speaking Catholic church) with annotations.
I believe in one God,
This is quite important. I am a monotheist - polytheism I don't quite grok and atheism, well, it sounds nice, but when I got to the point where I prayed for guidance on how to become one I realised it's just not in my nature. I want to be rational on all things; on this, I am not entirely. Sorry.
the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.
One God, first cause. Note that the nature of creation is not explained - I, and the rest of the Catholic church (well, in as much as we all agree on anything, but this is the official stance) assume that this is a big bang, creation of laws of physics, origin of life unclear at this moment, evolution etc (see psalm 148:
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for at his command they were created,
6 and he established them for ever and ever—
he issued a decree that will never pass away.)
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made.
The Son is not separate from the Father, he is consubstantial with the Father. He is the incarnate Logos, the Word made Flesh.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:1-7 (some of you may remember this was the gospel passage we used at our wedding - it's a really important passage, and personally, I find it always sends shivers down my spine. A very strong message.)
For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.
Basically, we understand the Gospels to be the literal good news of the life of the Messiah. Sacrifice and fulfillment of the law - True God and True Man, wholly both. It seems strange to skip over this part, which has been fought about for centuries, but actually, I think the fact that other people fought over it for centuries means I can leave it there and we can accept the conclusions of our forefathers.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.
The Fourth Lateran council said "it is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds". So the Spirit moves within us, the Church, is the action. Where the Father is First Cause in my analogy, the Son is the living Word, the Spirit is action personified. This is not new, and will presumably not be new to most of my readers, it's just a restatement of that above.
I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
Universal Church. We are Baptised in one Spirit, we live in one Spirit, we die in one Spirit. Each gives what they can and receives what they need, ideally in a literal as well as spiritual sense. Again, it's about community.
Lastly, I often talk about the joy of being Christian, I have the LJ interest 'being an Easter people', focus on the light from the Paschal fire warming the church both physical and metaphorical. So I leave you with this thought from the prophet Joel:
Be glad, people of Zion,
rejoice in the Lord your God,
for he has given you the autumn rains
because he is faithful.
(Joel 2:23)
*yes, that's the one which was written at the first ecumenical council, popularly known as the council of Nicaea, where St Nicholas punched a heretic in the face.
Anyway, this means that although it might not be the first thing some people think of when they hear 'personal religion', I will be answering this in the form of the Nicene creed* (what we say on a Sunday, in the translation currently used in the English speaking Catholic church) with annotations.
I believe in one God,
This is quite important. I am a monotheist - polytheism I don't quite grok and atheism, well, it sounds nice, but when I got to the point where I prayed for guidance on how to become one I realised it's just not in my nature. I want to be rational on all things; on this, I am not entirely. Sorry.
the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.
One God, first cause. Note that the nature of creation is not explained - I, and the rest of the Catholic church (well, in as much as we all agree on anything, but this is the official stance) assume that this is a big bang, creation of laws of physics, origin of life unclear at this moment, evolution etc (see psalm 148:
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for at his command they were created,
6 and he established them for ever and ever—
he issued a decree that will never pass away.)
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made.
The Son is not separate from the Father, he is consubstantial with the Father. He is the incarnate Logos, the Word made Flesh.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:1-7 (some of you may remember this was the gospel passage we used at our wedding - it's a really important passage, and personally, I find it always sends shivers down my spine. A very strong message.)
For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.
Basically, we understand the Gospels to be the literal good news of the life of the Messiah. Sacrifice and fulfillment of the law - True God and True Man, wholly both. It seems strange to skip over this part, which has been fought about for centuries, but actually, I think the fact that other people fought over it for centuries means I can leave it there and we can accept the conclusions of our forefathers.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.
The Fourth Lateran council said "it is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds". So the Spirit moves within us, the Church, is the action. Where the Father is First Cause in my analogy, the Son is the living Word, the Spirit is action personified. This is not new, and will presumably not be new to most of my readers, it's just a restatement of that above.
I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
Universal Church. We are Baptised in one Spirit, we live in one Spirit, we die in one Spirit. Each gives what they can and receives what they need, ideally in a literal as well as spiritual sense. Again, it's about community.
Lastly, I often talk about the joy of being Christian, I have the LJ interest 'being an Easter people', focus on the light from the Paschal fire warming the church both physical and metaphorical. So I leave you with this thought from the prophet Joel:
Be glad, people of Zion,
rejoice in the Lord your God,
for he has given you the autumn rains
because he is faithful.
(Joel 2:23)
*yes, that's the one which was written at the first ecumenical council, popularly known as the council of Nicaea, where St Nicholas punched a heretic in the face.
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no subject
Date: 2014-12-06 01:56 am (UTC)Humans appear to have an instinct to partition what they experience into a series of discrete entities, to say "this here is one thing, that there is another" instead of "oh, some stuff". This instinct is strong enough that we sometimes try to kid ourselves that's an easy thing to do, even when it's not.
For example, life. It's easier (though far from trivial) to look at something and say "that's alive" with accuracy than than "that's a living thing". We think of an anthill as lots of separate creatures, but as human being as one, despite all the bacteria, etc. living in us. Then we talk about "the life of the Church". And then we get it wrong and mistake the Portuguese man o'war for one creature when it's really a symbiotic cluster of discrete organisms.
Similarly, when I was thinking and praying earlier this year, I realised that it's often fruitful to think of God as a mass moun, to talk about "some god" rather than "one god" or "two gods". To put it another way, it's much more important that people acknowledge God than that they worry about distinctions between monotheism, polytheism, dualism, the Trinity, etc.
no subject
Date: 2014-12-06 09:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-06 03:40 pm (UTC)On the other hand, I also got the impression atheism was a stance you found easier to relate to than polytheism?
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Date: 2014-12-06 08:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-06 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-06 08:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-07 07:19 pm (UTC)We read the opening of John's Gospel very early on when I started learning Greek, cos NT Greek is a bit easier than Classical Greek, and it is very beautiful language.
It's really interesting to me that you focus on community, on belief and on joy. I would definitely include community in a summary of my religion, but the other two come perhaps lower down, so it's very thinky seeing these themes.
no subject
Date: 2014-12-07 10:06 pm (UTC)The joy thing was something that
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Date: 2014-12-07 10:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-07 11:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-08 09:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-08 01:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-11 09:03 am (UTC)