Christianity What Do You Think Of Christianity?

[Harkiran Kaur]

I understand what you are saying, and essentially I don't disagree with you. The Bible is a complicated and difficult collection of writings, which is why the Catholic Church has always taught that it needs to be interpreted, and our understanding needs to continually evolve. I don't know anyone personally who would take that passage literally, or see it as indicative of anything other than the misogyny of the writer. Biblical literalism is a relatively modern deviation, encountered mainly in the Protestant sects of the last 150 years or so. It is not a position I hold, so I have no interest in defending it.

I am not sure that the way to remove gender hierarchy from Christianity is to delete all the offending texts. I don't believe misogyny is compatible with the spirit of the Gospel or the life of Jesus. Focusing on the liberating truth of God's presence seems to me a more productive approach than giving undue weight to the letter of the Bible. Obviously Christian institutions could also do much more to promote equality.

I started off by saying that I would probably be more comfortable personally in the Sikh religion, but that isn't what was culturally available to me growing up. Despite its shortcomings, I have found what I consider to be a valid contemplative path within the Carmelite tradition, whose central teacher and saint is Theresa of Avila. I am also very open to learning from other faiths and philosophies.

Funny thing is, I grew up Catholic. My dad had studied to be a catholic priest for 3 years before finally deciding to have a family instead. But what he learned in those 3 years involved a lot of misogyny. I knew at age 8 I wasn't Christian at heart and refused to go back to Sunday school.

I found Sikhi first in my mid 20s. I'm 41 now and have been attending Gurdwara regularly for about 8 years. In full baptized Amritdhari and I am married to a Singh from india. In fact I am living here half the year in Kashmir with my in laws.

 

[Lindsey]

And there's me trying to tell you about Catholicism! I moved away from Christianity in my late teens and didn't go back until my mid thirties; I'm 51 now. I focused on Buddhism in my Religious Studies degree and MA, and although I admired the philosophy I never found a meditation practice which suited me. Eventually through hesychasm in the Orthodox Church and Carmelite contemplation, I found my way back. I studied Western philosophy too, particularly existentialism, so I was never going to be a conventional Christian 'believer'. Having said that, I found the apophatic tradition in theology enabled me to practise contemplation without having to believe a lot of nonsense. I'm happy with accepting religious language as metaphor for that which cannot be expressed rationally.

Maybe if I'd encountered Sikhi (is that the correct term?) earlier I might have been able to find a home there, but I've only just begun to look into it following a recent conversation with a Sikh neighbour. I stopped going to Mass again three years ago because of prejudice that I encountered, so who knows what the future may hold?

 

[sukhsingh]

I have difficulty thinking of God as an 'entity' to be honest because, in Western philosophy, this then raises the question of the existence or non-existence of such an entity. God would therefore be placed on one side or another of a dualistic category, which infers a limitation. God, by definition, would transcend both the possibilities of existence and non-existence. It's probably just semantics and the limitations of dualistic thinking, but I personally feel more comfortable with expressions like, the ground of being, or the unknown source of existence. I would be very interested to learn more about how Sikhs think of God.

As for the question of free will and humans being puppets, my understanding would be that God is creator and we are creatures. Catholic theology speaks of humans being created in the image and likeness of God. We are not God, in the sense that we are created whereas God is uncreated, yet we can share in his life and realise unity with him.

Again, I feel aware of the limitations of language and understanding in trying to talk about these things. I am happy to think of God as mystery, which we ultimately come to know through love rather than intellect. I practice prayer of the heart, which is a form of contemplation aimed at stilling the mind and becoming aware of God's presence.

As I say, the understanding I have comes from a Western Catholic background, although I have read some Eastern philosophy. If anyone could recommend a way of learning more about the Sikh understanding of God, I would be grateful.

Maybe better to think 'truth is' self realised

 

[sukhsingh]

I have difficulty thinking of God as an 'entity' to be honest because, in Western philosophy, this then raises the question of the existence or non-existence of such an entity. God would therefore be placed on one side or another of a dualistic category, which infers a limitation. God, by definition, would transcend both the possibilities of existence and non-existence. It's probably just semantics and the limitations of dualistic thinking, but I personally feel more comfortable with expressions like, the ground of being, or the unknown source of existence. I would be very interested to learn more about how Sikhs think of God.

As for the question of free will and humans being puppets, my understanding would be that God is creator and we are creatures. Catholic theology speaks of humans being created in the image and likeness of God. We are not God, in the sense that we are created whereas God is uncreated, yet we can share in his life and realise unity with him.

Again, I feel aware of the limitations of language and understanding in trying to talk about these things. I am happy to think of God as mystery, which we ultimately come to know through love rather than intellect. I practice prayer of the heart, which is a form of contemplation aimed at stilling the mind and becoming aware of God's presence.

As I say, the understanding I have comes from a Western Catholic background, although I have read some Eastern philosophy. If anyone could recommend a way of learning more about the Sikh understanding of God, I would be grateful.

My understanding of dualism is not that there are two sides of a coin rather there is a whole

 

[sukhsingh]

SSA

Christianity is the biggest religion hold on maybe Islam is. I think it is Christianity is biggest. There has to be a reason that they became the biggest.
If we go by number power then Sikhs are the last.

We have to look at the reason why people joining Christianity? We all are looking for faults in Christianity to knock is down so we Sikhs look good.
Christians have their system of hell and heaven. All are happy with it. How can 35 million Sikhs tell over billion Christians that they are wrong? Then again every one believed that earth was flat and sun goes around the earth. Earth is the center of universe.
That is the reason they named Catholic (universe church).

Every religion claims that God gave them the conduct book. Like dhur di vani?

Christianity made many mistake in their growing days. But they especially those from UK gave us the democracy and education where ever they went. I am grateful to them for it. Other then Catholic most other Christian are just people. They up hold the law and fairness in their dealing. They are companionate. They go to poor counties to help poor and treat them. I have not seen any other religion doing what they are doing. I know people will say they are just doing to convert people to Christianity. So what in the process people are being treated. If we believe every religion people that there is only one God what difference it make if some are Christian or muslim Hindus,Sikhs they all going to same place. IF THEY ARE GOING ANYWHERE.

I think there are more sikhs in the world than any followers of 'religions'