The Sufis
Idries Shah, born Nawab-Zaba Sayed Idries Shah el-Hashimi, was Grand Sheikh of the Sufis and the eldest son of the Nawab (the Mohammedan equivalent of Maharajah) of Sardana, near Delhi India. His family originates from the principality of Paghman in the Hindu Kush, where his ancestors have reigned since 1221, and claims the senior descent from Mohammed in Islam. Idries Shah was born at Simla in the Himalayas and lived in London, England, UK. He has published many books on mystical and occult subjects.
The Sufis is the first authoritative, responsible book on Sufism, and as such it fills a colossal gap in Western documentation of Eastern subjects. Following a mystical teaching and a way of life that have had an enormous, though largely unrecognized, impact n both the East and the West for four thousand years, the Sufis believe not that theirs is a religion, but that it is religion. This belief includes conscious evolution, whereby through an effort of will man can originate new faculties -- the faculties of mental telepathy and prophecy are examples -- and Sufis therefore believe ultimately in the limitless perfectibility of man. To its followers, Sufism is the secret tradition behind all religious and philosophical systems. Quoted from the book's jacket.
"The totality of life cannot be understood, so runs Sufi teaching, if it is studied only through the methods which we use in everyday living. This is partly because, although the question 'What is it all about?' can of course be posed in a nominally reasonable sequence of words, the answer is not to be expressed in a similar way. It comes through experience, and enlightenment."
"The Sufi attitude starts to operate on a different basis. All life is struggle, says the Sufi but the struggle must be a coherent one. The average man is struggling against too many things all at once. If a confused and incomplete person makes money, or becomes a profession success, he still remains a confused and incomplete person...Sufism has already learned; it transforms the mind from its natural and acquired incoherence into an instrument whereby human dignity and destiny may be carried a stage further."
Nasrudin was thinking aloud.
"How do I know whether I am dead or alive?"
"Don't be such a fool," his wife said; "if you were dead your limbs would be cold. Now, go to the forest and cut some wood."
It was midwinter. A Nasrudin was in the forest cutting wood, he realized that his hands and feet were cold.
"I am undoubtedly dead," he thought; "so I must stop working, because corpses do not work."
And, because corpses do not walk about, he lay down on the grass.
Soon, a pack of wolves appeared and started to attack Nasrudin's donkey, which was tethered to a tree.
"Yes, carry on, take advantage of a dead man," said Nasrudin from his prone position; "but if I had been alive, I would not have allowed you to take liberties with my donkey."Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 -- 1945)
Ethics
Dietrich Bonhoeffer--along with his twin sister, Sabine--was born on February 4, 1906, in Breslau, Germany. Later a student in Tübing en, Berlin, and at Union Theological Seminary in New York as well as a participant in the European ecumenical movement--
Bonhoeffer became known as one of the few figures of the 1930s with a comprehensive grasp of both German- and English-language theology. His works resonate with a prescience, subtlety, and maturity that continually belies the youth of their author.
He wrote his dissertation, Sanctorum Communio. at the end of three years at the University of Berlin (1924-1927) and was awarded his doctorate with honors. Act and Being, his Habilitationsschrift, or qualifying thesis allowing him to teach at the University of Berlin, was accepted in July 1930. The following year, 1930-1931, Bonhoeffer spent a postgraduate year at Union Theological Seminary in New York. He assumed his post as a lecturer in theology at the University of Berlin in August 1931. In the winter semester 1931-1932 Bonhoeffer presented the lectures that were published as Creation and Fall. His final lecture courses at Berlin--published as Christ the Center--along with a seminar on the philosopher G. W. F. Hegel, were taught in the summer of 1933. His authorization to teach on the faculty of the University of Berlin was finally withdrawn on August 5, 1936.
Bonhoeffer served as a curate for a German congregation in Barcelona during 1929-1930. Following his ordination at St. Matthias Church, Berlin, in November 1931, he was to help organize the Pastors' Emergency League in September 1933, prior to assuming the pastorale of the German Evangelical Church, Sydenham, and the Reformed Church of St. Paul in London. During his sojourn in England, Bonhoeffer became a close friend and confidant of the influential Anglican Bishop, George Bell. After the Confessing Church was organized in May 1934 at Barmen, Germany, Bonhoeffer returned from England in the spring of 1935 to assume leadership of the Confessing Church's seminary at Zingst by the Baltic Sea--a school relocated later that year to Finkenwalde in Pomerania. Out of the experiences at Finkenwalde emerged his two well-known books, The Cost of Discipleship and Life Together, as well as his lesser known writings on pastoral ministry such as Spiritual Care. His work to prepare pastors in the Confessing Church continued all the way to 1939.
Bonhoeffer's early travel to Rome, his curacy in Barcelona, and his post-doctoral year in New York (including regular work at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, as well as travel to Cuba and Mexico), opened Bonhoeffer to the ecumenical church. In 1931 he as appointed youth secretary of the World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship through the Churches, and in 1934 he became a member of the Universal Christian Council for Life and Work. At conferences throughout Europe he vigorously represented the cause of the Confessing Church and challenged the ecumenical movement about its theological foundations and its responsibility for peace.
Bonhoeffer's theologically rooted opposition to National Socialism first made him a leader, along with Martin Niemueller and Karl Barth, in the Confessing Church (bekennende Kirche), and an advocate on behalf of the Jews. Indeed, his efforts to help a group of Jews escape to Switzerland were what first led to his arrest and imprisonment in the spring 1943. His leadership in the anti-Nazi Confessing Church and his participation in the Abwehr resistance circle (beginning in February 1938) make his works a unique source for understanding the interaction of religion, politics, and culture among those few Christians who actively opposed National Socialism, as is particularly evident in his drafts for a posthumously published Ethics. His thought provides not only an example of intellectual preparation for the reconstruction of German society after the war but also a rare insight into the vanishing social and academic world that had preceded it.
Bonhoeffer was also a spiritual writer, a musician, and an author of fiction and poetry. The integrity of his Christian faith and life, and the international appeal of his writings, have led to a broad consensus that he is the one theologian of his time to lead future generations of Christians into the new millennium.
He was hanged in the concentration camp at Flossenbürg on April 9, 1945, one of four members of his immediate family to die at the hands of the Nazi regime for their participation in the small Protestant resistance movement. The letters he wrote during these final two years of his life were posthumously published by his student and friend, Eberhard Bethge, as Letters and Papers from Prison. His correspondence with his fiance, Maria von Wedermeyer, has been published as Love Letters from Cell92. (http://www.cyberword.com/Bonhoef/)
Dietrich Bonhoeffer teaches, "The knowledge of good and evil seems to be the aim of all ethical reflection. The first task of Christian ethics is to invalidate this knowledge. In launching this attack on the underlying assumptions of all other ethics, Christian ethics stands so completely alone that it becomes questionable whether there is any purpose in speaking of Christian ethics at all. But if one does so notwithstanding, that can only mean that Christian ethics claims to discuss the origin of the whole problem of ethics, and thus professes to be a critique of all ethics simply as ethics. Already in the possibility of the knowledge of good and evil Christian ethics discerns a falling away from the origin. Man at his origin knows only one thin: GOD. It is only in the unity of his knowledge of GOD that he knows of other men, of things, and of himself. He knows all things only in GOD, and GOD in all things. The knowledge of good and evil shows that he is no longer at one with this origin.
"Ethics as formation, then, means the bold endeavor to speak about the way in which the form of Jesus Christ takes form in our world, in a manner which is neither abstract nor casuistic, neither programmatic nor purely speculative. Concrete judgments and decisions will have to be ventured here. Decision and action can here no longer be delegated to the personal conscience of the individual. Here there are concrete commandments and instructions for which obedience is demanded. Ethics as formation is possible only upon the foundation of the form of Jesus Christ which is present in His Church. the Church is the place where Jesus Christ's taking form s proclaimed and accomplished. It is this proclamation and this event that Christian ethic is designed to serve."
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Spurgeon, Charles Haddon (1834 -- 1892)Spiritual Warfare in a Believer's Life
Baptist preacher, born in Kelvedon, Essex, SE England, UK. In 1854 he became pastor of the New Park Street Chapel, London. He drew such a large congregation with his often humorous sermons that the Metropolitan Tabernacle, seating 6000, was erected for him (1859--61). In 1887 he withdrew from the Baptist Union because of its increasingly liberal attitude. Apart from 50 popular volumes of sermons, he wrote collections of pithy sayings in John Ploughman's Talk (1869) and many other works. (www.biography.com)
When Charles Spurgeon arrived at the New Park Street Chapel in 1854, the congregation had 232 members. By the end of his pastorale, that number had officially increased to 5,311 members, making it the largest independent congregation in the world. No building seemed big enough to house all those that wanted to hear him preach. Occasionally Spurgeon asked members of his congregation not to attend the next Sunday's service so that newcomers might find a seat. During one 1879 service, the regular congregation left so that newcomers waiting outside might get in, the building immediately filled again. He once addressed an audience of 23,654 people without a microphone or any mechanical amplification
Spurgeon's message was born out of his own personal experience. Before his conversion, he was spiritually tormented for five years with the horror of his lostness and never stopped preaching about the deliverance Christ brings to weary souls. During his years of ministry, he was slandered and scorned both in the press and by other ministers. Spurgeon took seriously the awesome responsibility of the spiritual care so large a congregation, laboring long and hard in the ministry. He suffered emotionally and was well acquainted with recurring depression and doubt. And he was seldom free from physical pain from 1871 on - suffering from gout often afflicted for weeks and even months at a time. He was a seasoned veteran in meeting Satan at every corner and defeating Satan in the power of the gospel.
Central to Charles Spurgeon's message concerning a victorious spiritual relationship is that first, we battle against spiritual forces, two. the word of the LORD our GOD is the most important weapon, and three, winning this battle requires putting on the whole armour of GOD (Ephesians 6:10-20). He preaches, "There is a sacred art in being able to handle the shield of faith. Let me explain to you how that can be. You handle it well if you are able to quote the promises of GOD against the attacks of your enemy.
The devil said, 'You will one day fall by the hand of the enemy.'
'No," said Faith, "for I am persuaded that He that began a good work in me will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.'
'But,' said Satan, as he shot another arrow,' you are weak.'
'Yes,' said Faith, handling his shield, 'but My strength is made perfect in weakens. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weakness that the power of Christ may rest upon me.'
'But,' said Satan, 'your sin is great.'
'Yes,' said Faith, handling the promise, 'but he is able to save to the uttermost them who come unto GOD by him.'
'But,' said the enemy again, drawing his sword and making a tremendous thrust, 'GOD has cast you off.'
'No,' said Faith. 'He hates putting away; he does not cast off his people; neither does he forsake his heritage.'
'But I will have you, after all,' said Satan.
'No,' said Faith, dashing the enemy's jaw. 'He said I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.'
This is what I call handling the shield."Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rolle, Richard of Hampole c. 1290 -- 1349The Fire of Love
Hermit, mystic, and poet, born in Thornton, West Yorkshire, N England, UK. He studied at Oxford, but at 19 became a hermit, first at Dalton and then at Hampole, near Doncaster. He wrote lyrics, meditations, and religious works in Latin and English, and translated and expounded the Psalms in prose. (www.biography.com)
"A mystic," writes Clifton Wolters in his introduction of the Fire of Love, "by definition is one who has been taken into some sort of deep union with God, and who knows it while he cannot adequately describe it."
In Chapter 22, Rolle writes about the fire of love which purges vices and sins along with the signs of true friendship, "When the fire of love has really taken hold of the soul it cleans out all vice, it puts away the trivial and unnecessary, it creates beauty in every virtue. It has nothing to do with mortal sin, though venial sin may remain. Yet the emotion and devotion of divine love can be so ardent that it will burn up venial sins as well, even if one is unaware of their existence. For when a real lover of God is carried away with fierce and fervent longing for him, everything displeases him which hinders the vision of God. Though he is delighting in joyful song his heart is unable to express what he is savouring of heaven. So much does he languish in love.
"The perfect never carry combustibles with them into the next life! All their sins are burnt up in the heat of their love of Christ. But lest anyone should think himself perfect when his is not, let him listen to what it means to have have perfection in oneself.
"This is the life of the perfect man: it means rejecting all care of worldly affairs; leaving one's parents for one's property for Christ; spurning all transitory things for the sake of eternal life; destroying the things of the flesh after prolonged toil; refraining from wanton and improper desires as much as possible; burning in love for the Creator alone; experiencing, after the bitter sorrow and tremendous effort of spiritual labour, the sweetness of heavenly contemplation; and thus (if on behalf of the privileged I may be allowed to speak)to be taken hold of, and pass through the joy of loving God to spiritual song, through contemplation to heavenly music, remaining sweetly in inner peace with all commotion done away.
"Although he has reached the point where he finds no pleasure in outward activity, inwardly the man of God is rapt with the delights and music of eternal love expressed in melodious song and unspeakable joy. So little wonder if in his mind he enjoys the sort of sweetness that angels have in heaven, although to less degree. In this way a man is made perfect, and does not need to be purged by fire after this life: the fire of the Holy Spirit burns in him while he is yet in the body.
"Yet this perfect love does not make a man incapable of sinning, but no sin can persist in him because it is at once purged by the fire of love. Against, one who loves Jesus Christ like this does not say his prayers the same way as other men however righteous they may be, because his mind is raised to great exaltation and is rapt with love for Christ. He is taken out of himself in indescribable delight, and the divinest music floods into him. Consequently, when he is reciting prayers, he does so with certain spiritual quality, lifting up his vocal prayers in melodies in audible to human senses, but clearly heard by himself and God. For spiritual power and strength have overcome the burden of the flesh to such an extent that now he can really rejoice in Christ. His heart, transformed by the fire of love, actually feels the heavenly warmth, so that he finds it difficult to sustain the immensity of love so ardent: he fears he may melt away! But the mercy of God preserves him until his appointed time. God it was who gave him the power to love so much, and to say in truth, 'I languish for love.' Like the fiery seraphim he burns, and loves, and sings, rejoices, and praises, and glows. The more fervent he is in loving, the more acceptable does he become. Not only does he face death unafraid, but he is even delighted to die, for he says with the Apostle, To me to live means Christ is my life, and to die is joy (Galatians 2:20; Philippians 1:21)"
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Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961)Markings
Dag Hammarskjöld was born in Jonkoping, Sweden, and died near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia in an air crash while enroot to negotiate a cease-fire between the United Nations and Kataanga forces. The son of the Swedish prime minister during World War I, Hammarskjöld studied law and economics at the universities of Uppsala and Stockholm. He quickly gained prominence in his own country as secretary and then chairman of the board of governors of the Bank of Sweden before becoming undersecretary of the Swedish department of finance from 1936 to 1945. In 1951 he was made vice chairman of the Swedish delegation to the United Nations, in 1952 he was chair man, and in 1953 he was elected Secretary-General, serving until his death. His leadership at the UN propelled him into that special spotlight of a world diplomat for the cause of peace. His book of meditations has given hi further stature as one of the twentieth century's most noted spiritual pilgrims.
Hammarskjöld writes, "I don't know Who -- or what -- put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone -- or Something -- and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self- surrender, had a goal.
"From that moment I have known what it means 'not to look back,' and 'To take no thought for the morrow.'
"Led by the Ariadne's thread of my answer through the labyrinth of Life, I came to a time and place where I realised that the Way leads to a triumph which is a catastrophe, and to a catastrophe which is a triumph, that the price for committing one's life would be reproach, and that the only elevation possible to man lies in the depths of humiliation. After that, the war 'courage' lost its meaning, since nothing could be taken from me.
"As I continued along the Way, I learned, step by step, word by word, that behind every saying in the Gospels stands one man and one man's experience. Also behind the prayer that the cup might pass from him and his promise to drink it. Also behind each of the words from the Cross."
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Thomas À Kempis (1380-1471)The Imitation of Christ
Thomas À Kempis was born at Kempen near Düsseldorf in 1380. At thirteen he left the local grammar school to join his elder brother John who had attached himself to the Congregation of the Common Life. This community had been founded by Gerald Groote in 1376 to challenge the laxity of the times by a return to apostolic zeal and simplicity. In 1399, Thomas; mentor Florentius allowed him to travel to Zwolle to seek admission to the new monastery at Mount S. Agnes, where his brother had become Prior. He was professed in 1406 and received the priesthood in 1413 at the age of thirty-three. Thomas wrote many other devotional works besides The Imitation of Christ, his masterpiece, and several biographies including those of Gerald Groote and Florentius Radwyn; indeed, his long life was devoted to the study of the Scriptures and the Early Fathers. In 1425, he was elected Sub-Prior, acted as the Master of the Novices and kept the monastery's Chronicle. He died in 1471.
Few who seek to imitate the life of the Christ give thoughtful consideration of their own crucifixion. Fortunately, Thomas was free from this deception. In his chapter entitled On the Few Lovers of the Cross of Jesus, he writes, "Jesus has many who love His Kingdom in Heaven, but few who bear His Cross. He has many who desire comfort, but few who desire suffering. He finds many to share His feast, but few His fasting. all desire to rejoice with Him, but few are willing suffer for His sake. Many follow Jesus to the Breaking of Bread, but few to the drinking of the Cup of his Passion. Many admire His miracles, but few follow Him in humiliation of His Cross. Many love Jesus as long as no hardship touches them. Many praise and bless Him, as long as they are receiving any comfort from Him. But if Jesus withdraw Himself, they fall to complaining and utter dejection.
"They who love Jesus for His own sake, and not for the sake of comfort for themselves, bless Him in every trial and anguish of heart, no less than in the greatest joy. And were He never willing to bestow comfort on them, they would still always praise Him and give Him thanks."Some who seek to imitate the life of Christ do accept the hardship of the way, however, expect that their perseverance to be rewarded. Thomas also corrects this misconception in his chapter, On the Royal Road of the Holy Cross, "If you bear the cross willingly, it will bear you and lead you to your desired goal, where pain shall be no more; but it will not be in this life. If you bear the cross unwillingly, you make it a burden, and load yourself more heavily; but you must needs bear it. If you cast away one cross, you will certainly find another perhaps a heavier...
"You are greatly mistaken if you look for anything save to endure trials, for all this mortal life is full of troubles, and everywhere marked with crosses. The further a man advances in the spiritual life, the heavier and more numerous he finds the crosses, for his ever-deepening love of God makes more bitter the sorrows of his earthly exile.
"Yet a man who is afflicted in many ways is not without solace and comfort, for he perceives the great benefit to be reaped from the bearing of his cross. For while he bears it with a good will, the whole burden is changed into hope of God's comfort."However, once self-interest has been completely vanquished, Thomas shares Four Things that Bring Peace, "My son, resolve to do the will of others rather than your own. Always choose to possess less rather than more. Always take the lowest place, and regard yourself as less than others. Desire and pray always that God's will may be perfectly fulfilled in you. A man who observes these rules shall come to enjoy peace and tranquillity of soul."
In his chapter On lasting Peace and True Progress, Thomas continues to emphasise all we have is a gift from the LORD our GOD, and that true peace depends on "complete surrender of your heart to the will of God, not seeking to have your own way either in great matters or small, in time or in eternity. If you will make this surrender, you will thank God with equal gladness both in good times and in bad, and will accept everything, as from His hand, with an untroubled mind. Be courageous and of such unshakeable faith that, when spiritual comfort is withdrawn, you may prepare your heart for even greater trials. Do not think it unjust that you should suffer so much but confess that [the Christ] is just in all dealings, and praise [the] holy Name. In so doing, you will walk in the true and noble way of peace, and [the Christ] will surely come to you again and give you great joy."
Thomas concludes his meditations with a Book entitled On the Blessed Sacrament. In these chapters he his understanding of the Eucharist to practice. It is a guide which will help many to have greater benefit in their Communion.
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Francis of Sales, St (1567 -- 1622)
Philothea, or An Introduction to the Devout Life
Roman Catholic bishop and writer. He studied at Paris and Padua, and became a distinguished preacher, successfully converting the Calvinistic population of Chablais. He became Bishop of Nicopolis (1599) and Bishop of Geneva (1602), where he helped to found a congregation of nuns of the Visitation. He was canonised in 1665; feast day 24 January. http://www.biography.com
The original work was published, by its author, in 1608. Francis de Sales was born at Thorens in Savoie, August 21, 1567 of a noble family, illustrious in the annals of his native province. He made his first studies near his native place at the college of Annecy in Savoie; later, under the Jesuits in Paris. At the age of twenty, he travelled to Italy and heard the lectures of the famous Pancirola, in the law school of the University of Padua. The degree of Doctor utriusque juris, of civil and canon law, crowned the career of Francis in dreamy Padua. In 1593, he was named, while still a layman, Provost of the Episcopal Chapter of Geneva, the same year he was ordained a priest. In 1602, he was further appointed Bishop of Geneva. His work as Bishop, as founder with St Jane Frances de Chantal of the Order of the Visitation, his labours as reformer of ecclesiastical discipline in Savoie and in France, his influence at court with Henry IV and his son Louis XIII all belongs to the history of the Church in the seventeenth century. Worn out by his labours and suffering intense pains, which he bore without a murmur, he passed away in Lyons, December 28, 1622. Francis was beatified in 1661 and canonised by Pope Alexander VII in 1665. In 1877, he was proclaimed by Pius IX, Doctor of the Universal Church. In order that the memory and example of the saintly Bishop of Geneva might be still more honoured than in the past, Pope Pius XI, on the occasion of the tercentenary of the Saint's death, issued a special Encyclical Letter, dated January 26, 1923.
The first four of the twelve books of Philothea , explain the theory of Divine Love, its birth, growth, perfection in the soul, and how it may be lost there; the fifth defines what is meant by the love of complacency and the love of benevolence; the sixth and seventh treat of affective love; the eighth and ninth of effective love, which is naught else but submission and conformity in practice to the will of God. The last three books resume this teaching and suggest practical methods for its application to the daily life.
Meditation I: Creation
Preparation: Place yourself in the presence of God. Entreat Him to inspire you.
Reflections: 1. Reflect for how many years you were not in the world, and you had no being... 2. God borough you out of nothing, and made you what you are out of His sole goodness, without requiring any assistance on your part. 3. Consider the being which God has given you, for it is the principal being of this visible world, capable of eternal life, and of perfect union with His divine Majesty.
Affections and Resolutions: 1. Humble yourself profoundly before God, saying from your heart with the Psalmist, "My substance is as nothing before Thee" (Psalm xxxviii. 6) "and how hast Thou been mindful of me to create me?' 2. Render thanks to God...since out of my nothingness Thou has made me what I am? 3. Humble yourself. But alas! O my Creator, instead of uniting myself to Thee by my love and service, my ill regulated affections have mad me...to forget Thy goodness and that Thou art my Creator. 4....I will live a new life following from henceforth in God's holy ways, and glorifying in the existence He has given me, I will employ it wholly in obeying His will as I shall learn it, and as my spiritual father shall enjoin.
Conclusion: 1. Thank God...and his loving kindness has created me. 2. Make an offering. O my God, I offer Thee with my whole heart that being which Thou has given me: to Thee I dedicate and consecrate it. 3. Pray. O God, strengthen me in these affections and resolutions....
When your prayer is ended gather together the essence of your devout meditations, as it were in a little nosegay, and keep it before you throughout the day.Examination of the State of Our Soul Towards God
How does your heart stand with regard to mortal sin?...1. What is the state of your heart with regard to God's commandments? Do you find them easy, light, and pleasant?...2. What is the state of your heart with regard to venial sins?...3. What is the state of your heart with regard to spiritual exercises? Do you value and love them?... 4. What is the state of your heart as regards God Himself? Does it delight in remembering Him?...So with souls that love God, although they may be engrossed with other things, when the remembrance of God comes upon them, they will forget everything else, so glad are they to regain that beloved remembrance. This is an extremely good sign... 6. How is your heart affected towards Jesus Christ, both God and man? Do you delight in being near Him?...8. As regards your tongue, how do you speak of God? Do you delight in praising Him according to your powers, do you love to sing His praise? 9. As to works, examine whether you have God's external glory at heart, and seek to honour Him by your deeds; for those who love God, also love to adorn His house. Can you remember any affection which you have forsaken, or anything which you have renounced, for God's sake? For it is a sure sign of love when we renounce anything for the sake of Him we love. What, then, have you abandoned for the love of God?
If there is such as thing as a handbook for spiritual living, Francis de Sales has something very close to one in Philothea
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Bultmann, Rudolf (Karl) 1884 -- 1976
The Presence of Eternity: History and Eschatology; The Gifford Lectures 1955
Lutheran theologian, Hellenist, and New Testament scholar, born in Wiefelstede, Germany. He studied at Tübingen, taught at Marburg, Wroclaw, (formerly Breslau, Germany), and Giessen, then became professor of New Testament at Marburg (1921). An early exponent of form criticism (History of the Synoptic Tradition, 1921) he is best known for his highly influential programme (1941) to "demythologise" the New Testament and interpret it existentially. (http://www.biography.com)
In these lectures, Professor Bultmann explains his theories of the existentialist interpretation of history and Eschatology.
"Now we have seen that the question about meaning in history cannot be answered when we ask for the meaning of history as the entire historical process, as though it were like some human undertaking whose meaning we can recognise when we can survey it in its entirety.
"...[Man] can never, like Goethe's 'Faust', say to the moment: 'Stand still, thou art so beautiful'. That means: the genuine life of man is always before him; it is always to be apprehended, to be realised. Man is always on the way; each present hour is questioned and challenged by its future. That means at the same time that the real essence of all that man does and undertakes in his present becomes revealed only in the future as important or vain, as fulfilment or failure. All actions are risks.
"But the fact that man can either gain his genuine life or miss it, includes the fact that this very thing which he is really aiming at, genuineness of life, is at the same time demanded from him. His genuine willing is at the same time his being obliged. The realisation of his genuine life stands before him as obligation as well as intention. The good which everyone aims at -- as Socrates already saw -- is at the same time the ethical law which he has to obey
"The concrete form of the demand is always determined by the present situation...the present situation as the situation of decision -- a decision which, as our decision over against our future, is at the same time our decision over against our past concerning the way in which it is to determine our future. For our past has by no means one meaning only; it is ambiguous...historicism also misunderstands the future as determined by the past through causality instead of being open
"The concrete possibilities for human actions are, of course, limited by the situation arising from the past. Not all things are possible just as we wish them at every time. But the future is open in so far as it brings the gain or the loss of our genuine life and thereby gives to our present its character as moment of decision.
"...First history is understood as the history of man. It may well be said that history is the history of mind. But mind is not realised otherwise than in hum thoughts, and human thoughts are ultimately intentions of individuals. The subject of history is therefore humanity within the individual persons; therefore it may be said: the subject of history is man. Secondly, the relativity of every historical situation is understood as having a positive meaning.
"...The human person is not completely recognised so long as it is not explicitly taken into account that in the decisions of the individual there is a personal subject, and I, which decides and which has its own vitality...Signs of this identity of the I within the flow of decisions are memory and consciousness and the phenomenon of repentance...
"...there can be no doubt that the radical understanding of the historicity of man has appeared in Christianity, the way being prepared in the Old Testament. This is proved by the fact that real autobiography arose for the first time within Christianity. From this origin the understanding of the human being as historical became effective in the West, and it remained vivid even when it was divorced from Christian faith and secularised as the modern philosophy of existence which finds its extreme form in Sartre"
"...Christian faith believes that man does not have the freedom which is presupposed for historical decisions. In fact I am always determined by my own past by which I have become what I am and of which I cannot get rid, of which in the last resort I am unwilling to be rid, although unconsciously. For everyone refuses to give himself up without reservation...Radical freedom would be freedom would be freedom from himself. The man who understands his historicity radically, that is, the man who radically understands himself as someone future, or in other words, who understands his genuine self as an ever-future one, has to know that his genuine self can only be offered to him as a gift by the future. Usually man strives to dispose over the future. And indeed, his very historicity misleads him to this attempt, because his historicity includes responsibility for the future. His responsibility awakes the illusion of having power of disposal. In this illusion man remains 'the old man', fettered by his past. He does not recognise that only the radically free man can really take over responsibility, and that he is not allowed to look round for guarantees, not even the guarantees of moral law, which take off or lighten the weight of responsibility, as it is expressed in Luther's famous words: pecca fortiter. Man has to be free from himself or to become free from himself. But man cannot get such freedom by his own will and strength, for in such effort he would remain 'the old man'; he can only receive this freedom as gift.
"Christian faith believes that it receives this gift of freedom, by which man becomes free from himself in order to gain himself. 'Whoever will save his life shall lose it, but whoever will lose life shall find it.' The truth of this statement is not yet realised when it is only comprehended as general truth. For man cannot say this word to himself, it must be said to him - always individually to you and to me. Just this is the meaning of the Christian message. It does not proclaim the idea of the grace of God as a general idea but addresses and calls man and imparts to him the grace of God which makes him free from himself.
"This message know itself to be legitimated by the revelation of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. According to the New Testament, Jesus Christ is the eschatological event, the action of God by which God has set and end to the old world. In the preaching of the Christian Church the eschatological event will ever again become present and does become present ever and again in faith. the old world has reached its end for the believer, he is a 'new creature in Christ'. For the old world has reached its end with the fact that he himself as the 'old man' has reached his end and is now a 'new man', a free man.
"It is the paradox of the Christian message that the eschatological event, according to Paul and John, is not to be understood as a dramatic cosmic catastrophe but as happening within history, beginning with the appearance of Jesus Christ and in continuity with this occurring again and again in history, but not as the kind of historical development which can be confirmed by any historian. It becomes an event repeatedly in preaching and faith. Jesus Christ is the eschatological event not as an established fact of past time but as repeatedly present, as addressing you and me here and now in preaching.
"Preaching is address, and as address it demands answer, decision. This decision is obviously something other than the decisions in responsibility over against the future which are demanded in every present memento. for in the decision of faith I do not decide on a responsible action, but on a new understanding of myself as free from myself by the grace of God and as endowed with my new self, and this is at the same time the decision to accept a new life grounded in the grace of God. In making this decision I also decide on a new understanding of my responsible acting. This does not mean that the responsible decision demanded by the historical moment is taken away from me by faith, but it does mean that all responsible decisions are born of love. For love consists in unreservedly being for one's neighbour, and this is possible only for the man who has become free from himself.
"It is the paradox of Christian being that the believer is taken out of the world and exists, so to speak, as unworldly and that at the same time he remains within the world, within his historicity. To be historical means to live from the future. The believer too lives from the future; first because his faith and his freedom can never be possession; as belonging to the eschatological even they can never become facts of past time but are reality only over and over again as event; secondly because the believer remains within history. In principle, the future always offers to man the gift of freedom; Christian faith is the power to grasp this gift. the freedom of man from himself is always realised in the freedom of historical decisions.
"The paradox of Christ as the historical Jesus and the ever-present Lord, and the paradox of the Christian is an eschatological and historical being is excellently described by Erich Frank: '...to the Christians the advent of Christ was not an event in that temporal process which we mean by history today. It was an event in the history of salvation, in the realm of eternity, an eschatological moment in which rather this profane history of the world came to its end. And in an analogous way, history comes to its end in the religious experience of any Christian "who is in Christ". In his faith he is already above time and history. For although the advent of Christ is an historical event which happened "once" in the past, it is, at the same time, an eternal event which occurs again and again in the soul of any Christian in whose soul Christ is born, suffers, dies and is raised up to eternal life. In his faith the Christian is a contemporary of Christ, and time and the world's history are overcome. The advent of Christ is an event in the realm of eternity which is incommensurable with historical time. But it is the trial of the Christian that although in the spirit he is above time and world, in the flesh he remains in this world, subject to time; and the evils of history, in which he is engulfed ... But the process of history has gained a new meaning as the pressure and friction operate under which the Christian has to refine his soul and under which, alone, he can fulfil his true destiny. History and the world do not change, but man's attitude to the world changes.' (Erich Frank, The Role of History in Christian Thought, pp 74, 75).
"...But now we can say: the meaning in history lies always in the present, and when the present is conceived as the eschatological present by Christian faith the meaning in history is realised. Man who complains: 'I cannot see meaning in history, and therefore my life, interwoven in history, is meaningless", is to be admonished: do not look around yourself into universal history, you must look into your personal history. Always in your present lies the meaning in history, and you cannot see it as a spectator, but only in your responsible decisions. In every moment slumbers the possibility of being the eschatological moment. You must awaken it.'
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Frederick Fyvie Bruce (1910 -- 1990)
The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?
Bruce was for many years prior to his death the Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis at the University of Manchester in England. He was the author of numerous biblical commentaries and other books, including The Canon of Scripture, New Testament History, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free and The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?
In his preface, Professor Bruce writes, "For, since Christianity claims to be a historical revelation, it is not irrelevant to look at its foundation documents from the standpoint of historical criticism.
"...When I was invited from time to time to address audiences...on the trustworthiness of the New Testament in general and of the Gospel records in particular, my usual line was to show that the grounds for accepting the New Testament as trustworthy compared favourably with the grounds on which classical students accepted the authenticity and credibility of many ancient documents.
"...The historical and philological lines of approach have, of course, their limitations. They cannot establish the Christian claim that the New Testament completes the inspired record of divine . But non-theological student (for whom the book was written) are, in my experience, more ready to countenance such a claim for a work which is historically reliable than for one which is not. And I think they are right. It is indeed, difficult to restrict a discussion of the New Testament writings to the purely historical plane; theology insists on breaking in. But that is as it should be; history and theology are inextricably intertwined in the gospel of our salvation, which owes its eternal and universal validity to certain events which happened in Palestine when Tiberius ruled the Roman Empire."
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