(August 17, 2014 at 3:52 pm)Michael Wrote: ShaMan. For me, as with the faith I have, I would always take small steps and check things against reality and against conscience. So I would allow the book the challenge me, but then I would check the results of such challenge against my conscience and against the real experience of my life. Question I might reflect on are....
Does the book speak to my life and the life I see around me? Is its guidence in line with my conscience? Has it helped me to dig deeper into my conscence? Where have others found inspiration in its pages? Where am I most unsure of its guidence and what is it that makes me wary of it? Where might have it led others astray, and do I need to be careful of interpretatation or do I need to reject it outright? Could I be reading a mixture of 'good' and 'bad', and if so can I learn from the good and set aside the bad? How does the text compare to wisdom found elsewhere - does it point to, or contradict, widely held truths? And finally, and perhaps most importantly, what small step can I take to then reflect on?
There is a lovely paragrah in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, reflecting the influence of John Henry Newman on the Catholic Church, which has always spoken like a clarion call to me, and it seems aposite here...
"Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at the right moment. For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God. His conscience is man's most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths."
That's just a highly personal view; I don't pretend to speak for other theists. I'm not sure this is the right or best path, but it's the path that I do take.
My bold. So miracles would be out, along with the 7 days thing, and Adam and Eve, and snakes and apples, and heaven and/or paradise, and people rising from the dead, and, and...
Wouldn't be much left then. I suppose all the genocide and murder would represent reality, though.
