(October 30, 2022 at 9:24 pm)Jehanne Wrote:(October 30, 2022 at 9:15 pm)LadyForCamus Wrote: It doesn’t matter. Not being able to define god is only a problem for Christians.
I agree! My point is that in terms of the last 2,000 years of "Christian" theology the views being expressed in the OP and the subsequent replies have been too narrow. An excellent book is, "Jesus Through the Centuries: His Place in the History of Culture", which shows the diversity of Christian thought & belief. In the area of free will there have been huge differences from Augustine to Aquinas to Scotus to Ockham to Luther & Calvin (and, between them).
This looks like a really good book. Pelikan is a serious, extremely well-informed scholar (not an apologist) and everything I've read by him has been valuable.
https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Through-Cen...730&sr=8-1
On this forum over the years it's been difficult for me to get across the idea that Christianity is a diverse group of phenomena. It's held together more by a constellation of concepts with family resemblance (in Wittgenstein's sense) than by some single essential core.
In terms of the discussions we have here, it often turns out that the specific aspect of Christianity a poster wants to argue against is in fact rejected by a large number of Christians as well. If someone asserts "Christians believe X," but we know for a fact that Augustine and Aquinas, not to mention Boehme or Simone Weil or the current Pope don't believe it, then the assertion is so simple as to be useless.
I've been told straight out that I shouldn't keep bringing up the theology of Augustine or Aquinas where it contradicts the common form of American Christianity we usually talk about. I've been told that for political reasons, we have to spend our time fighting against the local brand which is doing the trouble, and forget about the fact that Aquinas would equally reject that brand.
It narrows and oversimplifies what Christianity is when we pretend it is less diverse than it really is.
