[ZenDers]

See this news item http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/world/europe/6285397.stm It's about Greeks turning to the worship of the Olympian gods of mythology.

[Stengapsept]

Dear Andreas,

Thank you for this. Fr. Raphael has a nice line on this on the '21st century: the Orthodox century?' thread.

Maybe they could get together with the UK's druids and shamans, and the Jedis? How true were Chesterton's words that when man stops believing in God he believes in anything!

In Christ,


John

[ZenDers]

Dear John,

Just so!

Andreas.

[Theariwinna]

They can't be serious!

I really enjoyed studying Greek mythology in school, and their gods always seemed like soap opera characters!

[JessiPollo]

They can't be serious!

I really enjoyed studying Greek mythology in school, and their gods always seemed like soap opera characters!

There is something deeply appealing to this world about a god of such characteristics. Such a god can be 'switched off', ignored, with the same ease as one switches off a soap.

Far easier on the ascetical consciousness than this God who keeps demanding righteousness.

INXC, Matthew

[ZenDers]

Let's hope people in South America don't try to revive pre-Spanish conquest religion!

[Trikaduliana]

I worked with a nice guy who was turned right off Christianity but was into Native Indian Shamanism through the writings of some bloke he thought was great.

I am not convinced there is a great appetite for atheism in the UK, rather there is an agnosticism that is sceptical of Christianity as it has been presented. There are many who seem to be trying to drown out the still, quiet voice of God through drink, sex and drugs, but most people I work with and know actually are willing to talk about faith.

If there are new pagans then it is a sign that atheism just doesn't satisfy, but neither does much of what has been presented as Christianity.

Peter

[jeaccatty]

I worked with a nice guy who was turned right off Christianity but was into Native Indian Shamanism through the writings of some bloke he thought was great.

Curiosity strikes, I have to ask.
Carlos Casteneda?

Fr David Moser

[Trikaduliana]

Dear Father

Yes that was the author. I couldn't be bothered to go Google it and find out.

But it showed that he was not unwilling to have faith, and believe all manner of things. He just wasn't impressed by what he thought he knew of Christianity.

Peter

[Stengapsept]

it showed that he was not unwilling to have faith, and believe all manner of things. He just wasn't impressed by what he thought he knew of Christianity.

Peter

Dear Peter,
There is something of wider significance in what you say here. I know many people of my sort of age (early 50s) who are looking for a 'spiritual practice' (as they put it) and who feel alienated at the crass materialism of the western world, but who, whenever I mention Christianity to them, tell me that they are not impressed by what they know of it.

The age group may be significant, as I have a feeling that my generation may have been the last in the UK to be routinely taken to Church on Sundays; certainly where I was brought up, it was 'expected'. Yet all it seems to have left with many of these folk is the desire never to go anywhere near a Church again.

I have tried, as tactfully as possible, to press a little as to what it is they object to, and it does seem to be the Church as an institution, as well as the 'type' of person who 'goes to Church'. The institution is seen as remote and more concerned with forms of worship and perceived behaviour, than it is with love and service; the people are seen in a not dissimilar way, as rather narrow-minded and self-righteous folk who are altogether too keen on voicing their disapproval of the behaviour of others. Church congregations are said to be rather cliquish and exclusive.

Now, as it happens, the people I have spoken to about this have all come from either Anglican or Nonconformist backgrounds in the UK, and so it may be that either my 'sample' is unrepresentative, or represents only what it represents, but I intuit enough of this sort of complaint elsewhere to wonder about this.

I suppose I am wondering if someone will cheer me up by saying that it ain't so Joe - and why, if others have encountered this feeling, it has happened?

It isn't that, like some of my students, they simply have had no contact with Christianity, it is what you say in your post, Peter - they have not been favourably impressed by what they have experienced.

Any thoughts any one?


In Christ,

John

[jeaccatty]

Yes that was the author. I couldn't be bothered to go Google it and find out.

I read Casteneda years and years ago, right about the time I also became Orthodox. When read from an Orthodox frame, the spiritual disciplines and experiences of Casteneda are clearly consistent with the experience and warnings of the ascetic Fathers regarding demons. The appearance and actions of the spirits that Casteneda encounters, the focus of the being in the belly (rather than the heart) and so on. Its been too long since I read it for me to be able to go into detail anymore, but having read it, I am convinced that Casteneda (and hence is Yaqui teachers) had genuine spiritual experiences and were likely deceived by demons. It emphasizes for me the absolute and real boundaries and cautions given by those fathers who have experienced demonic warfare firsthand.

By all this I don't mean to suggest that your acquaintance is a "demon worshipper" (I agree, that he is most likely a genuine and open seeker after some spiritual reality) rather I want to point out the very real danger of deception inherent in any spiritual practice outside the protective boundaries of Orthodoxy.

Fr David Moser

[Trikaduliana]

Dear Father

I certainly agree with you, and it makes me the more concerned that the Church and indeed all Christians do not add to the confusion in which so many struggle.

Peter

[Stengapsept]

Dear Father

I certainly agree with you, and it makes me the more concerned that the Church and indeed all Christians do not add to the confusion in which so many struggle.

Peter

Dear Peter,

This is very true. I do wonder at times whether we realise the impression that those outside the Faith get when they look at Christianity - it must, at times, resemble a bunch of cats fighting in a sack. We are not as mindful as we should be of what St. Paul wrote in Philippians 2:14-15
14 Do all things without complaining and disputing, 15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world
In Christ,

John