Critical biblical scholars think that the Gospel According to John was written after the Jews expelled the followers of Jesus from the synagogues -- and thereby scorned them.
For a detailed discussion of the process of mourning being abandoned and scorned, see Susan Anderson's perceptive book The Journey from Abandonment to Healing (2000).
But in the church's Tradition, the Gospel According to John is known as the "spiritual gospel." With this kind of "spiritual gospel" inspiring Christians, Jews had better watch out for Christians.
CERTAIN ERRORS IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH'S TRADITION
Sadly, Thomas Aquinas also had a hard time putting aside a certain bias in the church's Tradition of thought. Like many other Catholics of his time, and earlier times, he considered paying interest on a loan to be a form of usury. But doesn't the capital that might be loaned out with interest represent past earnings?
Arguably the most famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) of a Roman Catholic having difficulty with new-fangled thought such as democracy was the 19th-century pope who issued an encyclical letter that has come to be known as the Syllabus of Errors. As the name suggests, he kind of lists supposed error in modern thought.
Hey, I could do that too -- but my syllabus of Errors would be a listing of all the errors in the Roman Catholic natural-law Tradition of moral theory -- you know, no masturbation, no pre-marital sex, no artificial contraception, no abortion in the first trimester -- or later either. Talk about errors! Why, Roman Catholic natural-law moral theory is in effect a syllabus of errors.
Talk about anti-body views!
I guess that Roman Catholics don't live in their bodies on this earth -- no doubt in anticipation of when they die and become dis-embodied spirits in eternal life -- either in Dante's Inferno or in his Heaven.
Dis-embodied spirits are presumably like the allegedly dis-embodied spirit of the resurrected Jesus in his appearances to certain disciples. But what about the part where he tells the doubting Thomas to touch his bodily wounds? Or did the doubting Thomas not touch his wounds and instead just blurted out the words the gospel writer put on his lips?
Disclosure: I think that the apparition appearances of Jesus were hallucinations on the part of his understandably grief-stricken followers. Nevertheless, the Christ myth that his followers eventually constructed contain resources for thought today, provided that we do not interpret the Christ myth literally but figuratively, as I will explain momentarily.
POPE FRANCIS STINKS
On April 28, 2014, Pope Francis tweeted in Latin, "Iniquitas radix malorum." In the media reports this Latin expression was rendered as "Inequality is the root of social evil."
Now, if this is the case, then it is surely a social evil for the church not to allow women to be ordained priests.
But on more than one occasion, Pope Francis has stated that the ordination of women is not open for discussion. Why not? Because Pope John-Paul II said it was not.
But Pope Francis's tweet shows that he likes being in the limelight of the media. Pope John-Paul II also liked being in the limelight of the media -- he was a showman, a man of the theater. By contrast, Pope Francis is more like a television talk-show guy.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
