tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post4917528098638599508..comments2024-03-28T21:32:26.550+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Metaphysics is destiny in these End TimesBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-34324199740307798872021-05-21T19:52:45.034+01:002021-05-21T19:52:45.034+01:00The pro-family movement made themselves irrelevant...The pro-family movement made themselves irrelevant by talking about things like married fathers living more years, married mothers being above the poverty line, and children from married homes getting good grades (in schools of secular indoctrination!) They took the route of "evidence!" and ended up making a case based on Leftist assumptions, and had no way back. The case was made that marriage makes you safe, no courage needed. But that message is lame. Safety is such a red herring. Marriage can't be safe AND excitingly meaningful.Lucindahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01834799557675879450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-89142516138223331582021-05-21T13:57:34.768+01:002021-05-21T13:57:34.768+01:00I think the reason my thoughts turned to marriage ...I think the reason my thoughts turned to marriage in my comments on this post was because the role of church/social group in marriage is large for a church-going person. When I wrote Paradoxical Patriarchy I had a hope that understanding marriage from that perspective would strengthen my marriage, especially the way that the Church mediated it. The most important help turned out to be that I didn't believe anymore that divorce existed, which became a bulwark against that female-hive-mind pressure to punish my husband for wrong-think.<br /><br />I currently believe that institutionally mediated marriage (patriarchy) has effectively collapsed. So analogous to your understanding that Christians must directly relate to God rather than mediated through a Church, I would say husbands and wives must be "romantic", not relying on proper group support of their marriage. You can find individuals who support you, but not institutions, which will be actively, often underhandedly, tearing down real marriage.<br /><br />That sounds gloomy though, so I want to add that I have a lot of hope about it. When husbands and wives progress and no longer rely on a middle-man, the opposition makes the marriage eternally stronger.Lucindahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01834799557675879450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-82551120271637023632021-05-20T06:03:11.858+01:002021-05-20T06:03:11.858+01:00@SP - Well, people may 'need guidance' fro...@SP - Well, people may 'need guidance' from a church, including the RCC - but as of 2020 that guidance is almost sure to be leading them towards hell. <br /><br />Historical comparisons can be very misleading - we are in uncharted territory now. That is why metaphysics has come forward, as other types of comparison-based knowledge - which worked well enough in the past - have become positively malign. <br /><br />Interesting history though!<br /><br />I think the first requirement of Christians is to recognize that things have changed qualitatively for the worse since 2019 - the churches are not just in crisis, but have actually collapsed in the same way that other social institutions have collapsed: they are now shells filled with something alien and evil-aligned. <br /><br />Of course there are islands of goodness and sanity in the churches - but to benefit from these requires an honest recognition of the lethal corruption of the leadership and the majority, and of the epic scope of their (unrepented) spiritual failure in 2020. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-27761806913147521442021-05-19T23:59:57.231+01:002021-05-19T23:59:57.231+01:00Interesting post Bruce.
It actually deals with ma...Interesting post Bruce.<br /><br />It actually deals with many of the themes that occupied the Nouvelle Theology movement in Catholicism in the first half of the 20th C. There was a feeling among the memebers of this movement that the faith had become "automated" and lost its connection with Christianity. They were looking for a deeper connection to Christianity, not through a deeper rationalisation of it but through a deeper "intuitive" understanding of it. <br /><br />Historically, what's really interesting is that these guys--in France at least--were one of the main branches of resistance in France in WW2. The more "traditionalist" Catholic faction in France sided with Vichy. The bottom line is that the Nouvelle Theologians seem to have a better moral compass compared to the Trads.<br /><br /><i>Among those who put obedience to their church as primary; there is the assumption that the relation between each Man and God must be mediated by a church if it is to lead to salvation and theosis.</i><br /><br />I think that's too broad a statement.<br /><br />Not everyone can be a saint or a mystic and some people need guidance and rules. I think one of the big problems of the Nouvelle Theology movement <i>was its assumption</i> that everyone is capable of deep spiritual insight, and left to their own devices and goodwill they'd work things out in the end. It just didn't work out that way. Look at the disaster in Catholicism following V2. Note, pre V2 was a disaster as well, but from a different angle. The Social Pathologisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12927698533626086780noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-51182176528854855792021-05-19T13:13:31.938+01:002021-05-19T13:13:31.938+01:00@Frank - It is becoming clear to me that Man can n...@Frank - It is becoming clear to me that Man can now believe whatever he wants to believe - by his choices, he is creating the universe within which he lives. <br /><br />https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2019/12/why-modern-materialism-was-necessary.html<br /><br />Part of this is (as Stanley Messenger says in the above talk) that from rejecting 'heart thinking'/ intuition/ direct knowing as the basis of reality - 'brain thinking' is by now advanced in its corruption and collapse. In other words, by making the wrong choice about 'who to believe' - people end up being *passive believing-machines*. <br /><br />We now have a world stuffed with these passive believing machines, who reject heart-thinking and consequently become incapable of (what used to be) basic brain-thinking. <br /><br />Therefore evidence, observation, experience, common sense etc have no influence upon them - and they just believe, passively, absolutely Anything that the powers of the world are Currently feeding them. <br /><br />The only way they can escape would be to admit their own responsibility for their own beliefs - and to use their power to believe Anything, to believe what is Good (true, beautiful, virtuous) - to believe-in God and Christ. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-71357574073191245432021-05-19T13:11:49.840+01:002021-05-19T13:11:49.840+01:00"merely using Christian language" is a v..."merely using Christian language" is a very good, and generous, description.<br /><br />My understanding of Christian marriage and fatherhood is that a Christian man is to be the primary tie binding his wife and children to God through his example of personal familial love, with real Christian community acting only as backup when the Christian man requires help of some kind to further his own work of love, not any group work of impersonal love.Lucindahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01834799557675879450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-53788631777087991292021-05-19T10:15:24.278+01:002021-05-19T10:15:24.278+01:00I recently criticized the Catholic Church in Hunga...I recently criticized the Catholic Church in Hungary for its insistence that it still possesses some semblance of spiritual authority. A Catholic commenter pointed out that I do not have the fundamental right to make such a claim and that my discernment did not "excuse" me from the "one true path."<br /><br />I am finding it increasingly difficult and counterproductive to argue with Christians who espouse "church above all else, church despite everything" attitudes in these times. I merely wish them good luck and leave it at that.<br /><br />At the most basic level, church should represent a God-aligned community of people who have freely chosen to follow Jesus into everlasting life. Today's conventional, everyday, institutionalized Christian churches have aligned themselves with the anti-Christian System and are spiritually collapsing in upon themselves like dying stars. In spite of this, many Christians continue to maintain that churches remain the only "true paths." <br /><br />At the same time, an internal, "mystical" form of Christianity guided by the Holy Spirit is becoming stronger and better established in the hearts of men. In my humble opinion, the future of Christianity resides there, not in churches. Francis Bergerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11063224017320651978noreply@blogger.com