The world provides choices.
We must choose - and we can personally choose; or else we can accept external (societal, institutional) choices.
That is to say: some things we choose to accept, others we choose to make a personal choice.
Therefore, we choose what to choose.
In some cases our situation provides a menu of choices; and the expectation (or instance) that, in our personal choosing, we choose from the menu.
But we may choose Not to choose from the menu!
Because it may be that we (choose to) assume that the menu provided by "society" does not include all the possible or best options!
In sum: sometimes we choose to choose from the menu of choices; but other times we choose our choices.
If we decide to choose from the menu; then we have already-chosen to immerse ourselves into society as it actually-is.
This is important: choose only from the menu; and you are in-effect endorsing society.
When you choose from the menu; you are implicitly endorsing the values of those who have provided the menu.
The question arises: Can we, should we, choose to go outwith the menu of choices?
This model of choosing applies to Christianity: the the fundamental way in which we conceptualize and understand Jesus; it applies to the choice of denominations and churches - their doctrines and authority - it applies to dealing with differences and disagreements within churches; it applies to choosing how we read the Bible...
Always, there is choosing of choices; always the choosing of choices goes All The Way Down.
But surely anyone who chooses Jesus (or any other of the great religious figures) is choosing from the menu, in one sense... Isn't the choice of Jesus always predicated to some degree on his importance to history? If the sayings and deeds of Jesus had been forgotten soon after his death, and then discovered in some manuscript thirty years ago, who would pay much attention to that?
ReplyDelete@M - We come across things (such as Jesus) in many ways, from many sources, at any levels of detail and theorization - including potentially from innate knowledge (God-given), and our own imaginations.
ReplyDeleteBut "the menu" is an "externally-approved selection" from all this multitude of possibilities - indeed the menu may be just between two approved choices, or "take it or leave it".