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Andrew
1128 posts Location:
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07/28/2014 09:47How can we ever forget Love?"The vital part, the heart and soul of Christian Science, is Love."SH13
There is good reason why the good Christian does not trust metaphysics. Metaphysics has a way of making people selfish and unloving. It entices the intellect, draws him into an impractical world where everything fits so nicely but does not meet the need of the hour! As is any superficial religion, it acts as an opiate and does not make a Christian!!
I have no doubt Mrs. Eddy included "Christian" in the name of her revelation for this very reason (among others.) The tendency was there, right from the beginning, to drift away from the life and example of Christ Jesus.
"Divine" metaphysics, however, is a secure platform, based upon Principle, Love - there is no dualism here: "Divine Love always has me and always will meet every human need."S&H - if it is not practical, it is not Christian, and is not divine metaphysics.
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Peter
189 posts Location:
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07/31/2014 14:30Re: How can we ever forget Love?Does your use of the word Christian mean having the quality of Christ (as defined in S&H): that which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error (paraphrase).
Or do you mean the connotation of Christian (running soup kitchens, being charitable, being materially modest, etc.)
Or something else?
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jacob45
370 posts Location:
puerto limon
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08/01/2014 00:51Re: How can we ever forget Love?it could be both I think
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Andrew
1128 posts Location:
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08/01/2014 07:31Re: How can we ever forget Love?Does your use of the word Christian mean having the quality of Christ (as defined in S&H): that which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error (paraphrase).
Or do you mean the connotation of Christian (running soup kitchens, being charitable, being materially modest, etc.)
Or something else?
I thought it was quite clear - striving to follow the life and example of Christ Jesus. The Sermon on the Mount, I Corinthians 13. - spiritual, of the heart, not "material," following of the letter.
Mosab Hassan Yousef states it beautifully: "Most Christians I have seen seem to have missed the point that Jesus redeemed us from religion." The First Edition of S&H often differentiates Christianity from religion...
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Peter
189 posts Location:
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08/01/2014 08:12Re: How can we ever forget Love?Well, in that case, isn't the good Christian a metaphysician?
I took exception to the sentence "reason why the good Christian does not trust metaphysics," when perhaps what you meant was the good Christian does not trust cockeyed metaphysics.
Because, you could reverse it and say "there's a reason why the good metaphysician does not trust Christianity".
Someone with an ounce of spiritual sense (whether Muslim, Jew, agnostic, etc.,) is not going to trust cockeyed metaphysics OR cockeyed Christianity. And, when not cockeyed, aren't they one and the same??
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Andrew
1128 posts Location:
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08/01/2014 08:51Re: How can we ever forget Love?Good point - I did make a distinction between metaphysics and divine metaphysics. To me, the latter is entirely practical, in that sense Christian. The former fills the majority of Christian Science literature - volumes upon volumes of blah blah. It fills the heads (so to speak) of most who go under the name of Christian Science - and promotes a dualism that abides with unreal material existence, and talks metaphysics and ne'er the twain shall meet...
I purposely used "promote" because the likes of Nathan Talbot, very prominent member of the hierarchy in Boston, teaches that the Sermon on the Mount has not much metaphysics, mainly some ideals!!! Mrs. Eddy, on the other hand, said that if the Sermon on the Mount were to be read and nothing else, each Sunday service, that would be sufficient.
You say a modicum of spiritual sense will enable one to tell the difference. I would agree, but it takes moral fiber to listen and obey that modicum of spiritual sense.
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Peter
189 posts Location:
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08/01/2014 09:06Re: How can we ever forget Love?Ok, I'm satisfied.
But you had to go and say this:
"it takes moral fiber to listen and obey that modicum of spiritual sense."
Now, what is moral fiber and where does it come from? Is moral fiber something separate from spiritual sense? Or are they also one and the same?
In this instance of spiritual sense, where one can smell a rat, what will spiritual sense be demanding that we obey? To stay away from the rat? To confront it and lay bare its deficiencies?
I would think that spiritual sense will be lacking if there is no moral fiber.
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Peter
189 posts Location:
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08/01/2014 09:09Re: How can we ever forget Love?You can tell me to shut up. I won't be offended. 
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Andrew
1128 posts Location:
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08/01/2014 09:29Re: How can we ever forget Love?It would be unchristian of me... and counterproductive.  The readers of this Forum are looking for challenging thoughts. How boring would be the constant rehearsal of "the party line!"
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Andrew
1128 posts Location:
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08/01/2014 09:49Re: How can we ever forget Love?
I would think that spiritual sense will be lacking if there is no moral fiber.
Yes, yes, all is One - but it is a way of describing the all-too-common state of thought which smells a rat but does nothing about it. That one does not grow in grace, and the spiritual sense becomes fainter. Further, he will never reach the stature of the Good Samaritan!
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A T M
404 posts Location:
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08/01/2014 17:43Re: How can we ever forget Love?Ok, I'm satisfied.
But you had to go and say this:
"it takes moral fiber to listen and obey that modicum of spiritual sense."
Now, what is moral fiber and where does it come from? Is moral fiber something separate from spiritual sense? Or are they also one and the same?
In this instance of spiritual sense, where one can smell a rat, what will spiritual sense be demanding that we obey? To stay away from the rat? To confront it and lay bare its deficiencies?
I would think that spiritual sense will be lacking if there is no moral fiber.
Spiritual sense and moral fiber increase in us as we progress, and I think your spiritual sense guides you and your moral fiber gives you the courage to act. If one were to seperate the two, they would both fade.
"Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another." Mark.
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parthens
101 posts Location:
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08/01/2014 19:29Re: How can we ever forget Love?
"it takes moral fiber to listen and obey that modicum of spiritual sense."
As the saying goes among philosophers: "for every step in spiritual perception, three steps are to be taken in moral development."
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Gary
431 posts Location:
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08/02/2014 13:59Re: How can we ever forget Love?This is good. I have found it helpful to think of spiritual sense as that faculty of conscience that hears God's voice, that still small voice of Truth uttering itself. Not dependent on any of our material so-called senses, it is indestructible and cannot be impaired in any way by anyone else. It is strictly between me and God.
Moral fiber is the understanding, or conviction, that knows beyond a doubt that what one hears through spiritual sense is true and he therefore has no option but to obey it. Through this obedience, one gains strength and even greater trust in God. "Obedience to Truth gives man power and strength." (S&H 183) The spiritually minded recognize and appreciate this strong moral fiber. Often the path he takes defies human reasoning. To the material minded, he is a rebuke and a threat to their materialism. He draws them out of their comfort zone where they often retaliate; hence the persecution that ALWAYS accompanies obedience to spiritual sense.
Disobedience to the messages we get through spiritual sense leaves one with the quagmire of the Adam dream, where you can't count on anything. That person's spiritual sense will rust and wither through lack of use. Spiritual sense is always there, because it is divine. But, without moral fiber, it won't do anyone any good.
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