Interesting religious history on NPR
Jun. 4th, 2003 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogSo, due to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wooisme's infulence, I've been listening to NPR during the day. I've never really listened to public radio before, and it's often rather interesting. I like hearing the international viewpoints on current events particularly. Anyway, there was a really interesting interview today with a religious historian about the gospel of Thomas, which I've never heard of before.
Thomas, in this case, being the one commonly referred to as 'doubting Thomas'. Seems his writings about the teachings of Jesus were, well, rather different from those of the other chroinclers. John makes it quite clear that, while Jesus was of divine origin, the rest of mankind is not. Mankind must strictly follow every little nugget of doctrine and believe wholly in Jesus as the son of God and sole salvation of mankind, or they will find themselves punished by an eternal and unhappy afterlife...
Thomas tells it a bit differently. It seems that his recollections of the teachings center around the idea that, while Jesus was divine, so is everyone else. Everyone has that spark of divinity in them, and it is up to them to figure out what it is and how to relate to it. This is something that, generally speaking, must be done for oneself, not through the dictations of authority figures (i.e. the religious hierarchy). In fact, *gasp* Jesus is not necessarily the one and only path to salvation! How about that?
As I understand it, when the works now known collectively as 'the Bible' were brought together into mostly the form in which it exists today, it was by no means a clear cut process. There was a lot of argument over which works should become part of the official cannon and which should become blasphemous heresy. However, since it was largely the aforementioned religious hierarchy, along with other men in positions of authority at the time, I am less than surprised that a book which would seem to indicate that having such figures of spiritual authority in your life is unnecessary and that you are better served finding your own path would somehow end up as one of those that were declared heretical. In fact, all copies were ordered to be burned. Fortunately, it seems a few survived. I didn't quite catch where they were found or how long the work has been known, but it's certainly a much better match for my worldview than most of the rest of the bible.
Not that most of the rest of the bible should really matter anyway. I don't really consider myself a Catholic, or a Christian, or solidly of any religion really, but I grew up Catholic. As I understand it, wasn't the old testament completely thrown out by the 'new testment' created by Jesus? It seems to me that he was basically saying 'Hey, toss those antiquated ten commandments out the window. Just love everybody and it's all cool.' ( Yes, long hair, bare feet, all you need is love... Jesus was the first hippie. *grin*) Still, all the rabid fundamentalists (and others too) adhere to the supposedly infallible and unchanging literal truth of every word of these books assembled out of many other writings by human beings who, even if they didn't have any ulterior motives, were fallible. I have never understood that belief. If the word is eternal and unchanging, why did it get translated. And even better, why did it requre the services of the person who you will probably find listed somewhre in the front of your copy, if you own one, under the title of 'editor'? Yes, it seems that, despite having required the services of an editor, it is still the eternal unchanging word of God, right from the horse's mouth... But I digress.
The talk of this new gospel was really interesting to me. I'll have to see if I can find a copy of it somewhere to peruse. If anyone knows where I might find a copy, please enlighten me. I would be grateful. (EDIT: Never mind, I found one. That was easy.) The woman talking about it on NPR says that, on the whole, it's a very simple, short, and eloquently beautiful work, containing ideas relating to things like divinity not being concentrated in the person of a single savior, but instead being everywhere. In every person, every aminal, every rock, every tree, all the universe. That is much more like the way I've always felt things are, despite the attempts by my religious education teachers to convince me otherwise. *smile and nod, smile and nod* The idea of divinity being, in a way, in everything and everyone feels very right to me. Whether we call it goddess, god, allah, the source... *shrug* It doesn't really matter, because it's there, for everyone to relate to in their own way.
Now if all the people fighting and dying over which way is better would just grow a brain and understand that, the world would be a much happier place.
---
Added after examing a copy of the work in question:
Hmm, I'm reading through this gospel of Thomas. Interesting stuff. A lot of it is very similar to other things I seem to recall from the bible, but a lot of it is rather different too. I recall one well used quote from the Bible, somehting to the effect of 'Wherever two or more gather in my name, I am there.' Very human centered. The Thomas book contains the lines "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there." That's really kind of neat. It reminds me in a way of Wiccan thought, my thought, wherein the god/dess is in everything...
Also seems that according to the FAQ on that page that some of the information on the radio (like the book having been written by 'doubting' Thomas is not necessarily correct. Oh well. It's interesting anyway. There's so much confusion over the origin of any of these religious works that no one is ever going to really know where they all came from. And that's ok. I really think that, regardless of any claims by anyone or anything to be an authoritive source of spiritual information, we all just need to find our own path.
Other than that, my throat has been scratchy and slightly sore all day. I suspect it's due to working for a few hours in Glenmarc, the place next door to Kenzer, where they dealt with a lot of chemicals and paints and things. In fact, I'm quite sure of that, because I refuse to allow myself to develop a cold this weekend. Nope, that just won't do.
wooisme's infulence, I've been listening to NPR during the day. I've never really listened to public radio before, and it's often rather interesting. I like hearing the international viewpoints on current events particularly. Anyway, there was a really interesting interview today with a religious historian about the gospel of Thomas, which I've never heard of before.Thomas, in this case, being the one commonly referred to as 'doubting Thomas'. Seems his writings about the teachings of Jesus were, well, rather different from those of the other chroinclers. John makes it quite clear that, while Jesus was of divine origin, the rest of mankind is not. Mankind must strictly follow every little nugget of doctrine and believe wholly in Jesus as the son of God and sole salvation of mankind, or they will find themselves punished by an eternal and unhappy afterlife...
Thomas tells it a bit differently. It seems that his recollections of the teachings center around the idea that, while Jesus was divine, so is everyone else. Everyone has that spark of divinity in them, and it is up to them to figure out what it is and how to relate to it. This is something that, generally speaking, must be done for oneself, not through the dictations of authority figures (i.e. the religious hierarchy). In fact, *gasp* Jesus is not necessarily the one and only path to salvation! How about that?
As I understand it, when the works now known collectively as 'the Bible' were brought together into mostly the form in which it exists today, it was by no means a clear cut process. There was a lot of argument over which works should become part of the official cannon and which should become blasphemous heresy. However, since it was largely the aforementioned religious hierarchy, along with other men in positions of authority at the time, I am less than surprised that a book which would seem to indicate that having such figures of spiritual authority in your life is unnecessary and that you are better served finding your own path would somehow end up as one of those that were declared heretical. In fact, all copies were ordered to be burned. Fortunately, it seems a few survived. I didn't quite catch where they were found or how long the work has been known, but it's certainly a much better match for my worldview than most of the rest of the bible.
Not that most of the rest of the bible should really matter anyway. I don't really consider myself a Catholic, or a Christian, or solidly of any religion really, but I grew up Catholic. As I understand it, wasn't the old testament completely thrown out by the 'new testment' created by Jesus? It seems to me that he was basically saying 'Hey, toss those antiquated ten commandments out the window. Just love everybody and it's all cool.' ( Yes, long hair, bare feet, all you need is love... Jesus was the first hippie. *grin*) Still, all the rabid fundamentalists (and others too) adhere to the supposedly infallible and unchanging literal truth of every word of these books assembled out of many other writings by human beings who, even if they didn't have any ulterior motives, were fallible. I have never understood that belief. If the word is eternal and unchanging, why did it get translated. And even better, why did it requre the services of the person who you will probably find listed somewhre in the front of your copy, if you own one, under the title of 'editor'? Yes, it seems that, despite having required the services of an editor, it is still the eternal unchanging word of God, right from the horse's mouth... But I digress.
The talk of this new gospel was really interesting to me. I'll have to see if I can find a copy of it somewhere to peruse. If anyone knows where I might find a copy, please enlighten me. I would be grateful. (EDIT: Never mind, I found one. That was easy.) The woman talking about it on NPR says that, on the whole, it's a very simple, short, and eloquently beautiful work, containing ideas relating to things like divinity not being concentrated in the person of a single savior, but instead being everywhere. In every person, every aminal, every rock, every tree, all the universe. That is much more like the way I've always felt things are, despite the attempts by my religious education teachers to convince me otherwise. *smile and nod, smile and nod* The idea of divinity being, in a way, in everything and everyone feels very right to me. Whether we call it goddess, god, allah, the source... *shrug* It doesn't really matter, because it's there, for everyone to relate to in their own way.
Now if all the people fighting and dying over which way is better would just grow a brain and understand that, the world would be a much happier place.
---
Added after examing a copy of the work in question:
Hmm, I'm reading through this gospel of Thomas. Interesting stuff. A lot of it is very similar to other things I seem to recall from the bible, but a lot of it is rather different too. I recall one well used quote from the Bible, somehting to the effect of 'Wherever two or more gather in my name, I am there.' Very human centered. The Thomas book contains the lines "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there." That's really kind of neat. It reminds me in a way of Wiccan thought, my thought, wherein the god/dess is in everything...
Also seems that according to the FAQ on that page that some of the information on the radio (like the book having been written by 'doubting' Thomas is not necessarily correct. Oh well. It's interesting anyway. There's so much confusion over the origin of any of these religious works that no one is ever going to really know where they all came from. And that's ok. I really think that, regardless of any claims by anyone or anything to be an authoritive source of spiritual information, we all just need to find our own path.
Other than that, my throat has been scratchy and slightly sore all day. I suspect it's due to working for a few hours in Glenmarc, the place next door to Kenzer, where they dealt with a lot of chemicals and paints and things. In fact, I'm quite sure of that, because I refuse to allow myself to develop a cold this weekend. Nope, that just won't do.
