There Were Times...

[poliphilo]

... "When it seemed the Lord was sleeping".

No, the Pope wasn't hinting that he'd lost his faith.  He was referencing the story of the storm on the Lake of Galilee (Mark 4, 35-41)- the point of which is that we must carry on trusting in God even when he seems to have abandoned us.

Comments

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

And even the Rabbi Jeshu bar Joseph has his moment of doubt:

'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?'

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Apparently so.

Once upon a time you could rely on educated persons having a working knowledge of the Bible. Last night Jon Snow was discussing the Pope's farewell speech with a Monsignor on Channel 4 and neither of them picked up on the reference to Mark 4. It annoyed me.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

I'd consider myself and educated person (a working class autodidact to some extent yet) as you put it, but Quakers generally don't have much to do with the Testaments, yet here am I with that working knowledge. The ignorance of many more mainstream Christians (if a Quaker of Jewish ancestry can even be called that) of the most basic biblical knowledge bugs me mightily.

Can it really be as a result of a C of E upbringing? I doubt it somehow!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I keep being amazed at people's ignorance of things I consider common knowledge. For instance (according to the quiz show Pointless which I've taken to watching at tea time) over 30% of the British public don't know that Britain was ruled through the later part of the 19th century by a Queen called Victoria.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Actually "he" doesn't exist.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

God is an invention of sadists, more like.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh, yes. Used to be a vicar.
I could write a book about it, but I'm not going to....
:)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Exactly. The penny drops.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm with Wittgenstein. "We should shut up about the things we don't understand"- or words to that effect.

Put it another way- I don't believe in any God the human mind is capable of imagining.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes. Precisely.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Or belief mutates.

That's how I ended up of Friends where there are a good blend of Christocentrics and universalists. :o)