1 in Tao Te Ching
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The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and
unchanging Tao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and
unchanging name.
Book Chapter
The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and
unchanging Tao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and
unchanging name.
Book Chapter
When the intelligent and animal souls are held together in one
embrace, they can be kept from separating. When one gives undivided
attention to the (vital) breath, and brings it to the utmost degree of
pliancy, he can become as a (tender) babe. When he has cleansed away
the most mysterious sights (of his imagination), he can become without
a flaw.
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The thirty spokes unite in the one nave; but it is on the empty
space (for the axle), that the use of the wheel depends. Clay is
fashioned into vessels; but it is on their empty hollowness, that
their use depends. The door and windows are cut out (from the walls)
to form an apartment; but it is on the empty space (within), that its
use depends. Therefore, what has a (positive) existence serves for
profitable adaptation, and what has not that for (actual) usefulness.
Book Chapter
Colour’s five hues from th’ eyes their sight will take;
Music’s five notes the ears as deaf can make;
The flavours five deprive the mouth of taste;
The chariot course, and the wild hunting waste
Make mad the mind; and objects rare and strange,
Sought for, men’s conduct will to evil change.
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Favour and disgrace would seem equally to be feared; honour and
great calamity, to be regarded as personal conditions (of the same
kind).
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We look at it, and we do not see it, and we name it ‘the
Equable.’ We listen to it, and we do not hear it, and we name it ‘the
Inaudible.’ We try to grasp it, and do not get hold of it, and we
name it ‘the Subtle.’ With these three qualities, it cannot be made
the subject of description; and hence we blend them together and
obtain The One.
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The skilful masters (of the Tao) in old times, with a subtle
and exquisite penetration, comprehended its mysteries, and were deep
(also) so as to elude men’s knowledge. As they were thus beyond men’s
knowledge, I will make an effort to describe of what sort they
appeared to be.
Book Chapter
The (state of) vacancy should be brought to the utmost degree,
and that of stillness guarded with unwearying vigour. All things
alike go through their processes of activity, and (then) we see them
return (to their original state). When things (in the vegetable
world) have displayed their luxuriant growth, we see each of them
return to its root. This returning to their root is what we call the
state of stillness; and that stillness may be called a reporting that
they have fulfilled their appointed end.
Book Chapter
In the highest antiquity, (the people) did not know that there
were (their rulers). In the next age they loved them and praised
them. In the next they feared them; in the next they despised them.
Thus it was that when faith (in the Tao) was deficient (in the rulers)
a want of faith in them ensued (in the people).<
Book Chapter
When the Great Tao (Way or Method) ceased to be observed,
benevolence and righteousness came into vogue. (Then) appeared wisdom
and shrewdness, and there ensued great hypocrisy.
Book Chapter
If we could renounce our sageness and discard our wisdom, it
would be better for the people a hundredfold. If we could renounce
our benevolence and discard our righteousness, the people would again
become filial and kindly. If we could renounce our artful
contrivances and discard our (scheming for) gain, there would be no
thieves nor robbers.
Book Chapter
All in the world know the beauty of the beautiful, and in doing
this they have (the idea of) what ugliness is; they all know the skill
of the skilful, and in doing this they have (the idea of) what the
want of skill is.
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When we renounce learning we have no troubles.
The (ready) ‘yes,’ and (flattering) ‘yea;’—
Small is the difference they display.
But mark their issues, good and ill;—
What space the gulf between shall fill?
What all men fear is indeed to be feared; but how wide and without end
is the range of questions (asking to be discussed)!
Book Chapter
The grandest forms of active force
From Tao come, their only source.
Who can of Tao the nature tell?
Our sight it flies, our touch as well.
Eluding sight, eluding touch,
The forms of things all in it crouch;
Eluding touch, eluding sight,
There are their semblances, all right.
Profound it is, dark and obscure;
Things’ essences all there endure.
Those essences the truth enfold
Of what, when seen, shall then be told.
Now it is so; ’twas so of old.
Its name—what passes not away;
So, in their beautiful array,
Things form and never know decay.
Book Chapter
The partial becomes complete; the crooked, straight; the empty,
full; the worn out, new. He whose (desires) are few gets them; he
whose (desires) are many goes astray.
Book Chapter
Abstaining from speech marks him who is obeying the spontaneity
of his nature. A violent wind does not last for a whole morning; a
sudden rain does not last for the whole day. To whom is it that these
(two) things are owing? To Heaven and Earth. If Heaven and Earth
cannot make such (spasmodic) actings last long, how much less can man!
Book Chapter
He who stands on his tiptoes does not stand firm; he who stretches
his legs does not walk (easily). (So), he who displays himself does
not shine; he who asserts his own views is not distinguished; he who
vaunts himself does not find his merit acknowledged; he who is
self-conceited has no superiority allowed to him. Such conditions,
viewed from the standpoint of the Tao, are like remnants of food, or a
tumour on the body, which all dislike. Hence those who pursue (the
course) of the Tao do not adopt and allow them.
Book Chapter
There was something undefined and complete, coming into
existence before Heaven and Earth. How still it was and formless,
standing alone, and undergoing no change, reaching everywhere and in
no danger (of being exhausted)! It may be regarded as the Mother of
all things.
Book Chapter
Gravity is the root of lightness; stillness, the ruler of
movement.
Book Chapter
The skilful traveller leaves no traces of his wheels or
footsteps; the skilful speaker says nothing that can be found fault
with or blamed; the skilful reckoner uses no tallies; the skilful
closer needs no bolts or bars, while to open what he has shut will be
impossible; the skilful binder uses no strings or knots, while to
unloose what he has bound will be impossible. In the same way the
sage is always skilful at saving men, and so he does not cast away any
man; he is always skilful at saving things, and so he does not cast
away anything. This is called ‘Hiding the light of his procedure.’
Book Chapter
Who knows his manhood’s strength,
Yet still his female feebleness maintains;
As to one channel flow the many drains,
All come to him, yea, all beneath the sky.
Thus he the constant excellence retains;
The simple child again, free from all stains.
Book Chapter
If any one should wish to get the kingdom for himself, and to
effect this by what he does, I see that he will not succeed. The
kingdom is a spirit-like thing, and cannot be got by active doing. He
who would so win it destroys it; he who would hold it in his grasp
loses it
Book Chapter
Not to value and employ men of superior ability is the way to
keep the people from rivalry among themselves; not to prize articles
which are difficult to procure is the way to keep them from becoming
thieves; not to show them what is likely to excite their desires is
the way to keep their minds from disorder.
Book Chapter
He who would assist a lord of men in harmony with the Tao will
not assert his mastery in the kingdom by force of arms. Such a course
is sure to meet with its proper return.
Book Chapter
The Tao is (like) the emptiness of a vessel; and in our
employment of it we must be on our guard against all fulness. How
deep and unfathomable it is, as if it were the Honoured Ancestor of
all things!
Book Chapter
Heaven and earth do not act from (the impulse of) any wish to be
benevolent; they deal with all things as the dogs of grass are dealt
with. The sages do not act from (any wish to be) benevolent; they
deal with the people as the dogs of grass are dealt with.
Book Chapter
The valley spirit dies not, aye the same;
The female mystery thus do we name.
Its gate, from which at first they issued forth,
Is called the root from which grew heaven and earth.
Long and unbroken does its power remain,
Used gently, and without the touch of pain.
Book Chapter
Heaven is long-enduring and earth continues long. The reason
why heaven and earth are able to endure and continue thus long is
because they do not live of, or for, themselves. This is how they are
able to continue and endure
Book Chapter
The highest excellence is like (that of) water. The excellence
of water appears in its benefiting all things, and in its occupying,
without striving (to the contrary), the low place which all men
dislike. Hence (its way) is near to (that of) the Tao.
Book Chapter
It is better to leave a vessel unfilled, than to attempt to
carry it when it is full. If you keep feeling a point that has been
sharpened, the point cannot long preserve its sharpness.
Article
Jews have learned through bitter experience to expect the worst. We joke about the proverbial Jewish telegram: START WORRYING LETTER FOLLOWS. I am the grandson of gentle and loving Jews who lived through Polish pogroms, saw a son trampled under the hooves of horsemen whom they identified only as “Christians,” and who fled to America …
Continue reading “A New Day for Jewish-Christian Partnership”
Article
Marking the first visit of an ecumenical patriarch to Jerusalem since that of Athenagoras in 1964, the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, Demetrios I, traveled to Israel and Jordan last May for a meeting with the Greek patriarch of Jerusalem, Diodoros I. The trip was another indicator that some circles within Eastern Orthodoxy are now interested …
Book Chapter
Heavy dependence upon the labors of specialists in several religious fields is necessary in writing a book on so many different religions. The author records his deep indebtedness to various scholars who have spent so much study and translation of the literature discussed here.
Article
Amida is Christ, and Christ is Amida. This claim is, in some respects, obviously false. My argument is that, in a deeper sense, it is true. In this essay I want to state first the respects in which it is clearly false and then explain how it is possible to claim that, nevertheless, at a …
Continue reading “Amida and Christ:: Buddhism and Christianity”
Article
Text: "The true light which enlightens everyone was coming into the world." John 1:9 While the first Sunday in Advent is not until November 30th, many Christians in India begin to think about and prepare for Christmas in October. That is when a majority of Indians (who are Hindus) observe two significant festivals, Dussera and …
Article
The study of a religion other than one’s own is a modern, and Western, phenomenon. The earliest reference to "the religions of the world" that Wilfred Cantwell Smith could find after a diligent search (discussed in his recent The Meaning and End of Religion) was in 1508 in Dyalogus Johannis Stamler Augustñ. de diversarum gencium …
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Books Mentioned in the Text Ashe, G, Gandhi: A Study in Revolution, William Heinemann, 1968. Baillie, D M, God Was in Christ, Faber and Faber, 1947 Barrows, H (ed.), The World’s Parliament of Religions, Chicago, 1893. Bayfield, A and Braybrooke, M (eds) Dialogue With A Difference, SCM Press 1992. Bishop, P D, A Technique …
Article
Many church congregations make their first contact with practicing Buddhists when they sponsor refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia. In most American cities, the Buddhist community is not large, although it has grown with the influx of immigrants from Southeast Asia. The situation is very different in Hawaii — sometimes called the “Buddhist state.” The rate …
Continue reading “Buddhism and Christianity: Advancing the Dialogue”
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An outline of the rudimentary beliefs of atheists, hedonists, humanists, materialists (communists), pantheists, animists, polytheists and monotheists.
Book Chapter
Sacred literature is distinguished from the non-sacred, not by any criteria of style, literary form, or even content, but by the fact that in some way or other it has come to be thought of as divine in origin, and therefore set apart from other literatures and given an authority for faith and life quite surpassing that accorded to any other writings.
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Understanding Hinduism can help Christians recover their mystical traditions and allow the Church to communicate with people today at the level of experience rather doctrine.
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Islam is the youngest of the world’s major religions, whose monotheistic beliefs established by the prophet Mohammed are intended to correct and compete with Judaism and Christianity. Its theology is straightforward and is buttressed with specific religious duties and moral rules that have made it particularly effective in attracting converts in the emergent nations in Africa and Asia.
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Shintoism is borrowed from the Chinese: Shen — gods, and Tao — way. Ancient history, the Nihongi, and Norito or Shjinto Rituals are outlined.
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A global ethic demands that every human being be treated humanely, that a culture of non-violence and respect for life be found, that a culture of solidarity and a just economic order be submitted, that truth and tolerance be instigated and that a culture of equal rights and partnership between men and women be found.
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Hinduism is primarily the religion of India, has no central figure, is essentially polytheistic and primitive, and focuses through multiple writings on concepts of karma as retribution requiring reincarnations to allow the individual opportunity to escape the cycle of suffering into nothingness. Buddhism began as a reform movement within Hinduism led by Siddhartha Gautama and issued in monastic rules to lead one’s escape from suffering due to desire into Nirvana. Both are found in the United States – Hinduism in the small Theosophical and Vedanta societies, and Buddhism in Americans of Japanese descent.
Book Chapter
Zoroastrianism is little known and as a living faith no longer occupies a place of great importance, but it has been of enormous influence upon three of the main religions of the world, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and therefore deserves to be better known. The canonical text, the Avesta is presented in its seven divisions: Yasna, Gathas, Visparad, Yashts, some other minor texts, the Vendidad, and some fragments.
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The author concludes that Christianity, with its proclamation that God revealed himself uniquely in history through Jesus Christ, can never accept a syncretism of all religions in which its uniqueness and claim to definitive divine revelation would be subsumed as one part of a more general and comprehensive universal religion.
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To both Christian and Jews, the Old Testament is the word of God. To the conservative Christian, both the Old and New Testaments contain the word of God. Various interpretations of the Bible are discussed in three parts, the Old Testament, the New Testament, and various translations.
Book Chapter
Unlike almost all sacred literature, the Koran was written by one man, Mohammed. He probably did not know how to read or write. His teachings were compiled after his death. Mohammed believed his visions were from God, hence the Koran is the Word of God. It includes regulations for community living — laws of inheritance, responsibilities in marriage, care of orphans and the helpless. Through Mohammed, God was setting up his rule on earth — a true theocracy.
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Numerous modern writings from various movements, mostly in the United States, are viewed, many unfamiliar (The New Day, Unveiled Mysteries, The Voice of I am….) , many well known (Christian Science, Mormonism) . It is expected that the advent of sacred writings will continue in the future.
Book Chapter
Neither the Greeks nor the Romans, the Egyptians nor the Babylonians — all highly literate cultures — had what may be termed sacred books with a definitely limited canon, held to be the exclusive basis of religious faith. But all of them have writings which corresponded closely to various portions of sacred books as found in other religions.
Book Chapter
The survival of the Jews as a self-conscious entity for forty centuries – twenty of them in often bitter estrangement from Christianity – is a historical mystery, and deserves careful analysis of the evolution of Semitic monotheism both in the Jewish understanding of covenant, Torah, messiah and obedience as well as Christian concepts of new covenant, atonement, sin and grace.
Book Chapter
The deeper dimensions to life as encountered with the authentic spiritual teachings and practices of Hinduism have attracted many Westerners who have not had an adequate spiritual experience in Christianity.
Book Chapter
Although Catholics and Protestants have been moving cautiously toward each other, real minor and major differences still separate them, including their understandings and interpretations of grace, faith, authority in governance and teaching as it relates to scripture, the role of Mary, and the sacraments.
Book Chapter
The people of Egypt never reached the stage at which they formed a definitive canon of writings which served as the basis of their faith. But they did have a very extensive sacred literature which was highly influential in the expression of their faith, and to some extent in the determination of that faith. Why Egypt never reached the point of canonization of her scripture can be a matter of conjecture only.
Book Chapter
As there can be a time of companionable silence with a close friend or lover, so in “Centering Prayer,” the prayer of silence to the God within, a Hindu seeks God in silence in contrast to the verbal and outward worship to a transcendent God of the West.
Book Chapter
It was of course known from the Bible that there had been a very close relationship between the civilizations of the Hebrews and the Babylonian-Assyrian people. Five types of Babylonian writings are discussed: (1) The Creation Story and the Flood Story, that is, the story of mythological beginnings; (2) hymns and prayers, including their penitential psalms; (3) ritual texts; (4) their legal code; and (5) omens, all of which find some correspondence in the Bibles of most people.
Book Chapter
The Protestant embracing of the principle of private interpretation of scripture instead of the Catholic teaching of acceptance of its doctrine led to the development of "verbal inerrancy" and Fundamentalism as answers to the loss of authority symbolized on one side by Papal inerrancy and on the other by the demythologizing of liberalism. In the process Protestantism received benefits in the form of the social gospel, modern orthodoxy, and evangelicalism.
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If there is one God who made and loves all people and seeks from them an answering love and obedience, then perhaps spiritual experience is that which unites, and the world of religious differences is caused by cultural and historical variations.
Book Chapter
While noting the blurred lines separating Protestant denominations in our mobile society, Cassels goes on in this chapter to describe important differences among Lutherans, Presbyterians and Anglicans by tracing their origins and particular characteristics.
Book Chapter
Four of the eleven principal living faiths of the world were born in India: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, and all have extensive sacred literatures. Hinduism itself? from which all the others have sprung, has a vast and highly variegated set of scriptures. In Hinduism it is to be found heights and depths of spiritual understanding that compare favorably with the best that have been found anywhere.
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Some mysteries may best be expressed in myth and images and not in words. In Hinduism, some images of the divine, although grotesque and even ugly, seem alien and disturbing, yet they may help fathom mysteries beyond comprehension.
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The English Reformation produced Catholic and Calvinist factions. In this chapter Cassels traces the Calvinists who evolved in American Protestantism as Congregationalists with their emphasis on democratic government, individual freedom and social concern, and Baptists with their insistence on adult baptism by immersion, congregational autonomy and church-state separation.
Book Chapter
Buddhism started in India in the sixth century B.C., but has slowly disappeared from India and has become a world religion, found all over eastern Asia. The sacred literature of Buddhism is extensive–thousands of books. It is very much alive, and as our world grows smaller, the Western world will find its ways of thought and life influenced by Buddhism.
Book Chapter
Of the offshoots of the Church of England, Methodists grew greatly from humble beginnings under Anglican priest John Wesley to become the second largest Protestant denomination in America, first as a kind of “poor man’s” church and more recently as a middle class church. The Society of Friends with their emphasis on simplicity of life and faith has remained small but influential, as did the Mennonites from continental Europe with their anabaptist roots and pacifist beliefs.
Book Chapter
Jainism stresses, more than either Buddhism or Hinduism, ascetic practice as a way to salvation, and its insistence on the principle of non-injury, Ahimsa, is more absolute and far-reaching than that of any segment of Hinduism or Buddhism which also hold it. The three jewels, right faith, right knowledge, and right conduct, afford the clue to the attainment of moksha, or salvation, which to the Jain, as to the Buddhist, meant release from the wheel of birth, on which one is held by the law of Karma.
Book Chapter
America has eight native religious movements, each centered around a central doctrine or emphasis, including the Disciples of Christ and nondenominationalism, Unitarianism/Universalism and creedlessness, Mormons and the Book of Mormon, Seventh-Day Adventists and the sabbath, Christian Science and Science and Health, Pentecostals and the “gift of tongues,” Church of the Nazarene and sanctification, and Jehovah’s Witnesses and Armageddon.
Book Chapter
The Granth, the Sikh Bible, is not like most other sacred books in that it is exclusively in poetry. Sikhism represents a flowing together of the bhakti Hindu faith of Ramanuja and Ramanda, and Islamic mysticism represented by Sufism.
Book Chapter
Ideas about reincarnation are widespread among Hindus. The idea does solve one of the great mysteries of life, that although God is equally good to all and is not whimsical, how is it that there is so much evil and inequality in the World? Perhaps one is being punished for the sins of a past life; perhaps he can be redeemed in a future life.
Book Chapter
Insight into the religions of the Chinese: Confucianism with its high ethical standards; Taoism and its more mystical, other-worldly point of view. Unlike the West, in China there is no sharp separation into religious groups but rather a syncretism, so that the typical Chinese have in them something of both tendencies, and a feeling they can express themselves in either.
Book Chapter
Six million Americans count themselves adherents of the Eastern Orthodox Church in its various national expressions imported by immigrant groups, all of which evolved from the “Great Schism” between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches mainly over the issue of papal authority.
Book Chapter
Although India is changing, yet the poverty and the caste system still permeates much of society and needs to be addressed. The real motive for compassion should not be guilt but thanksgiving. If we acknowledge the abundance of the good things in life that have come to us, then we shall not claim possession of them or be reluctant to share them.
Book Chapter
Many Indians have a deep love for Jesus, but have difficulty seeing him as the unique Son of God. Rather, they see him as divine as Krishna or Rama or Mohammed or Zoroaster, and embrace him as a divine leader among many.
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Perhaps God speaks to every faith community, perhaps never fully grasped by one tradition alone. Perhaps God’s voice is present in other scriptures of the world.
Book Chapter
The author writes of his increased sensitive to the issues of vegetarianism and pacifism by the influence of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
Article
The Assemblies of God is almost as large as the Episcopal Church. In 1989 it reported a constituency in the U.S. of over 2 million served by over 11,000 churches and 30,000 ministers (it lists 16 million adherents worldwide) In 1969 the AG membership in the U.S. was only 592,000. Despite this remarkable growth in …
Continue reading “Charisma and Institution: The Assemblies of God”
Article
Imagine 5,000 young South Africans of all races living together for a week as part of a multiracial mission festival. They share accommodations in hotels and holiday apartments and eat their meals at festival gatherings. The speakers are drawn from all racial groups. Following one black evangelist’s powerful gospel message, the whole assembly breaks out …
Article
Lively debates are taking place among Christian theologians in dialogue with Jews. Christians are seeking to discover what aspects of their faith are or are not negotiable as churches reassess their positions vis-a-vis Jews and Judaism. Quite understandably, the Christian belief in Christ as the world’s redeemer is at the center of Christian-Jewish dialogue. Or …
Continue reading “Christian Fulfillment and Jewish-Christian Dialogue”
Article
From its inception in 1879, the Church of Christ, Scientist has had but one agenda: the practical implementing of a theology in which the healing of sin is primary and the healing of disease indispensable. Indeed, there is a built-in limit, rare in our time, to the degree to which Christian Scientists can compromise this …
Continue reading “Christian Science Today: Resuming the Dialogue”
Book Chapter
Exciting new frontiers of inquiry and of challenge lie at a new and higher level than in the immediate past. I. The study of religion is the study of persons. II. The researcher must overcome the Western concept of the detachment of the investigator. III. The writer and the subject need a more personal relationship. IV. This relationship provides a larger sense of community.
Article
This is not to underestimate the knowledge of native believers — those who understand their own religious language and no others. But theology is nothing if it does not aspire to second order, reflective knowledge; it cannot rest satisfied with the native believer’s knowledge, however proper that may be to living piety. Theological apprehension of …
Continue reading “Comparative Study of Religions: A Theological Necessity”
Book Chapter
Coming from a background of religion editor of United Press International as well as a committed Protestant Christian, the author proposes to present the distinguishing beliefs of the varying theistic religions with emphasis on Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Article
Unlike their mainstream Protestant counterparts, Seventh-day Adventist missionaries did not create independent national churches in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Instead the church’s extensive educational, medical and evangelistic endeavors led to a highly centralized system, headquartered in Washington, D.C. Indeed, the president of the General Conference has stated that the Adventist Church is …
Article
An American flag waves briskly in the breeze beside a Shinto shrine on the major freeway leading from Honolulu to Pearl Harbor. Just five miles away is the spot where Japanese planes dropped their bombs on the American fleet. Few tourists rushing between Pearl Harbor and Waikiki realize the deep irony that flag symbolizes. But …
Article
At the heart of the 16th-century Reformation movement was the experience of “justification by faith” in the life of an Augustinian monk. Martin Luther’s quest for a God who was gracious, not simply a stern judge, led to the answer, “By grace alone, by faith alone.” Out of pastoral concern for the terrified consciences of …
Continue reading “Justification by Faith: The Lutheran-Catholic Convergence”
Article
Has the great dialogue among the world religions stalled, the dialogue that so many of us welcomed so warmly and so recently? Why has the “wider ecumenism,” which had offered hope of crossing not only denominational but faith lines as well, begun to sputter and stammer and, in many instances, simply to stop? Why have …
Continue reading “Many Mansions or One Way? The Crisis in Interfaith Dialogue”
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An attempt to show how we can envisage the study of religious symbolism in the perspective of the science of religions, and what the results of this procedure can be. Interest in symbolism has increased in recent times. Many attempts have been made to show the symbolic character of much of the human enterprise, from rite and myth to art and science. Since man has a “symbol-forming power,” all that he produces is symbolic.
Article
Is there any such thing as a religious faith which in quality or texture is definitely not Christian, but in the approach to which one ought to put the shoes off the feet, recognizing that one is on the holy ground of a two-sided commerce between God and man? In non-Christian faith may we meet …
Continue reading “On Seeking and Finding in the World’s Religions”
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In Western Christian thinking God is personal; monotheistic, and differentiated from His creation. These concepts differ in other religions. The Eastern religions are totally "other" from the concept of Christianity. The author believes that through the eons of development our "religious" thought was begun probably in a similar way to that of the present Eastern religious thought.
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This essay evaluates Henry Duméry’s position (Critique et Religion; Philosophie de la Religion; Le Problème de Dieu) in which an attempt is made to bring to the phenomenolgy of religions the philosophical justification which it lacked.
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This writing includes all of the well known religions of the world except Greek and Roman. These cultures developed no sacred books of a canonical sort. Although it was intended to discuss these, time and publisher’s limitations precluded their inclusion.
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Western man cannot understand or appreciate the Asian peoples unless he has some knowledge and understanding of their religions. This in itself puts history of religions on a new footing in the modern university.
Article
"Isn’t that a bit unfair?" I replied. "You too are an educated man. Couldn’t I ask you the same kind of question about the myths and legends of the Buddhist tradition?" He lowered his gaze, then looked up again with a gentle smile. "Quite so . . . but I am not required to believe …
Article
In May a young Christian Science couple pleaded Innocent in a Boston courtroom to charges of manslaughter in the death of their two-year-old son. Ginger and David Twitchell had sought to treat their son’s bowel obstruction through spiritual means. The case may not go to trial, for the Twitchells’ conduct appears to fall under a …
Continue reading “Spiritual Healing On Trial: A Christian Scientist Reports”
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The classic Taoist text translated in Pinyin by nineteenth century sinologist, James Legge.
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A new era will dawn upon mankind when the religions will rise to true tolerance and co-operation in behalf of mankind. To assist in preparing the way for this era is one of the finest hopes of the scientific study of religion.
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Undergraduate colleges, graduate institutions, theological schools and seminaries have raised questions concerning the nature of the discipline of the history of religions. This essay discusses such questions.
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(ENTIRE BOOK) These essays in methodology are concerned with the need to establish the history of religion and comparative religion as a leading scholarly activity at the modern university. There is a danger that the history of religion and comparative religion will be totally absorbed by certain other fields (philosophy of religion, psychology, sociology, anthropology, history and theology). This book demonstrates that it is not merely ancillary to these other studies but is a discipline in its own right, drawing upon, yet making unique additions to, these areas of knowledge.
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There is an inequality among men; a minority exists in every epoch and in every group. The cohesion of this minority has been sustained in a lasting and almost magnetic fashion by its "historical basis of reaction," its social vitality and action of persuasion.
Article
Book Review: The Assemblies of God: A Chapter in the Story of American Pentecostalism (2 vols.) By Edith L. Blumhofer. Gospel Publishing House. Vol. 1: 464 pp; Vol.2: 256 pp. On a spring day in April 1914, 300 Pentecostal saints met in the Grand Opera House of Hot Springs, Arkansas, to form the General Council …
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(ENTIRE BOOK) The scriptures of the world’s great religions are not easily available to students. This book is an attempt to bridge the gap. Actual quotations from the great religions are quoted and discussed.
Article
After passing through an era dominated by rationalism, Western culture is experiencing an explosion of religious mysticism — a manifestation of the human spirit’s seeking to transcend the confines of the single-storied universe into which it has locked itself since the Enlightenment. Early seasons of mysticism are given to excesses of thrill-seeking and the occult. …
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Primitive people think of the Supreme Being as the Celestial Supreme Being. This essay shows that there exists various distinct forms of the Supreme Being and that the Celestial Being is just one of them.
Article
The challenge of writing poetry, T. S. Eliot once said, is dealing with “undisciplined squads of emotion.” The problem of writing about evangelicals, liberals and fundamentalists in today’s world of religion is one of undisciplined squads of definitions. I live and work at a seminary whose former president, Henry Sloane Coffin, gave to its theological …
Continue reading “What Can Liberals and Evangelicals Teach Each Other”
Book
(ENTIRE BOOK) A short, concise and helpful guide to understanding Hinduism.
Book
(ENTIRE BOOK) Cassels provides a useful guide to understanding the beliefs and unique characteristics of the different religious groups in the United States.