Monday 4 July 2022

From complex religious systems to... the opposite

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, successful new "romantic" religious movements - such as Mormonism, theosophy, ritual magic and anthroposophy - very rapidly developed into complex, comprehensive and highly prescriptive systems. 

It seems that this was necessary in order to attract adherents from within existing religions (which is where most people were). A case of like for like.

But now, people are located in situations of spiritual "absolute zero". What used to be necessary now seems an absurd level of detail. What seemed helpful guidance is now experienced as arbitrary external micro-control.

What is necessary here and now requires to be graspable as a whole that can intuitively be validated.

1 comment:

xxxx said...

The most complex system is Catholicism. Protestantism is Catholicism without the Virgin, the saints, the tradition and most or all the sacraments. Islam is Catholicism without all this and without Jesus being divine. Buddish is about mysticism, which is a part of Catholicism. Liberalism is Protestantism without Jesus plus the Self (or Satan)

It seems that the modern man is regressing and is not able to support complex ideas or thoughts. Read the private correspondence of any important person living in the XIX century and start to cry. The sheer deep of the thoughts, the complexity, the insight, the beauty and quality of the expression. Even if you don't agree with them, they seem giants compared to the Twitter generation.