Comments on: Responding to Made-Up Stuff… http://raphael.doxos.com/2008/05/11/responding-to-made-up-stuff/ Some place between 40 and Death Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:52:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: david http://raphael.doxos.com/2008/05/11/responding-to-made-up-stuff/#comment-2945 david Mon, 12 May 2008 21:15:33 +0000 http://raphael.doxos.com/?p=2623#comment-2945 Lundi de Pentecote! Lundi de Pentecote!

]]> By: Michael http://raphael.doxos.com/2008/05/11/responding-to-made-up-stuff/#comment-2941 Michael Mon, 12 May 2008 14:15:59 +0000 http://raphael.doxos.com/?p=2623#comment-2941 In the past year I have done some reading on Judaism, and I have to admit that I was (still am) woefully ignorant. I think that, like many Christians, I thought Judaism was the version of the Old Testament I had been taught in Sunday School and later in seminary. Without reflecting on it at all, I thought as if Judaism had no history after the New Testament period. Of course, many Christians seem to think Christianity had no history after New Testament times, too. Just as I assumed the Old Testament described Judaism today, the fundamentalist church in which I was raised assumed that the New Testament described fully and adequately the church as it was then and as it should be now. (We were actually told that there was an underground Christian church that maintained all the beliefs we held so dear for 1900 years before it could emerge into the bright light of the American day.) Of course, once upon a fundamentalist time, I also believed Roman Catholicism was the evil straw man I had been taught about in Sunday School and heard described in lurid Sunday sermons. When I became Catholic, I was a bit disappointed to discover Mass was not pretty much like a debauched idol-worship scene from one of those old biblical epic movies. I now read about all sorts of religious traditions -- Western, Eastern, Native American. My awareness of the circle of my ignorance grows even as the small circle of knowledge increases. In the past year I have done some reading on Judaism, and I have to admit that I was (still am) woefully ignorant. I think that, like many Christians, I thought Judaism was the version of the Old Testament I had been taught in Sunday School and later in seminary. Without reflecting on it at all, I thought as if Judaism had no history after the New Testament period. Of course, many Christians seem to think Christianity had no history after New Testament times, too. Just as I assumed the Old Testament described Judaism today, the fundamentalist church in which I was raised assumed that the New Testament described fully and adequately the church as it was then and as it should be now. (We were actually told that there was an underground Christian church that maintained all the beliefs we held so dear for 1900 years before it could emerge into the bright light of the American day.)

Of course, once upon a fundamentalist time, I also believed Roman Catholicism was the evil straw man I had been taught about in Sunday School and heard described in lurid Sunday sermons. When I became Catholic, I was a bit disappointed to discover Mass was not pretty much like a debauched idol-worship scene from one of those old biblical epic movies.

I now read about all sorts of religious traditions — Western, Eastern, Native American. My awareness of the circle of my ignorance grows even as the small circle of knowledge increases.

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