The second theory (a very Modern one) offers Judaism and Christianity (and some say Islam as well) as “Ethical Monotheisms” that are out to set the world aright trapped as she is in her pagan darkness.

The first one takes as literal history the Jewish Scriptures. The second takes a very ethnocentric and modernistic assumption that we’re right and everyone else is deluded. Some of these folks go so far as to deny the doctrine of the Trinity in favour of a Unitarianism, simply to maintain a Rational, Ethical Monotheism.

And profoundly boring religion rites like 2 hymns, a Bible reading, an hour sermon and a hymn: Bye!

Word that the Eastern Orthodox were adopting Pagan Festivals just like the Westerners did brings me a total suprise and joy. As does reading Arturo’s post pointing us in an entirely different direction (as the Fathers do): that God was working in all those religions to bring us to himself in Jesus.

I would argue, to the contrary, that the real Gnosticism lies in denying the idea that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not just the completion of the Jewish Old Testament, but of classical paganism as well. This is not merely to speak of “philosohical forms” such as the dialectical method of Socrates, but also of the astrological aspirations, the ritualistic gestures, and the divine symbols that had been passed down since time immemorial. To deny this would be to deny the very divinity and splendor of the Logos Incarnate, Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, who fills all things with His beauty and light.

This is the sense that I draw from one of my favourite books, Christ the Eternal Tao, as well: that Jesus is the fulfilment of all primal religion, no less true than Judaism and no less fulfilled in the Fullness of the Logos.

(Pen & Ink on cardboard, about 14″x14″)