9/21/08

Divinity School Address

I am working right now on a paper dealing with Ralph Waldo Emerson's The Divinity School Address and am realizing that much of what he has to say about the historical Christian church still applies today. Many of the churches around us do the tried-and-true methods that they have been doing since they incorporated. They stick strictly to the dogmas of what their parents and grandparents have done. They also have taken the humanity out of Christ and put him in a position that he becomes just a sort of eternal clockmaker God or Santa Jesus (this meaning that he gives you everything that you want when you ask for it). Christianity has become stale to these places, and they wonder why people don't come when they aren't reaching out to them.

Emerson states:

Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of prophets. He saw with open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he lived in it, and had his being there. Alone in all history, he estimated the greatness of man. One man was true to what is in you and me. He saw that God incarnates himself in man, and evermore goes forth anew to take possession of his world. He said, in this jubilee of sublime emotion, `I am divine. Through me, God acts; through me, speaks. Would you see God, see me; or, see thee, when thou also thinkest as I now think.'

I think that it's important to remember that Jesus was a man and that he was perfect. He was tempted more than just in the desert, and he is the only way. I think that the last line from that quotation is the best, and it should sum up how the church should work.

Here's the online link that I'm using:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Divinity_School_Address

Got to get back to work. I can't really put that in a paper since my teacher would probably call me a Christian kook and to keep my personal views out of my paper...grunt. More later!

3 comments:

keyofdjonz said...

very interesting. unfortunately having churches change is like moving an elephant.

mjone182 said...

Get a taser! (i.e.: don't taze me, bro!) ;)

Too bad it's not as easy as just making a speech to get a church moving, right? Maybe Dad needs to read this speech for a sermon one day!

keyofdjonz said...

when are you going to write anything???? lol, love you!