I have noticed that some traditionalist Christians project-onto "Romantic Christianity" their own notion that it aspires to be some kind of denomination, or church, or - at least - is a would-be organization seeking "recruits".
Ah well... It does not seem to matter how often I or others make explicit what Romantic Christianity actually is about.
Projection is, after all, rooted in self-understanding and self-motivation; and it is therefore impossible to overcome unless there is an honest act of empathy - and a wee-bit of sustained effort.
To understand some-thing entails that we are motivated to... understand it! When our motivations are otherwise, then the inevitable outcome is that we will Not understand it; but will create some kind of bogeyman or straw-man suitable for us to reject, ridicule, or otherwise attack.
And sufficient honest empathy to grasp what the other chap is actually saying, is - apparently - something that too-many traditional Christians find impossible - or at least undesirable.
2 comments:
based on a few conversations I've had with traditionalists, I think I understand why they always default back to that assumption. if it is just another movement, another potential church, another reformation, etc, it is a known quantity, they have the answers ready, the saints can be quoted to oppose it. but a fully individual engagement with God dismantles the whole basis of traditionalism. they are left with no other leg to stand on but... their own individual discernment and engagement with God!
@Laeth - " their own individual discernment and engagement with God!"
Which is what they Already have and use - but this fact needs to become explicit and acknowledged. And that, in a nutshell, is RC,
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