Diversity
Don't know why I never thought to ask this before, but consider this question:
What is the most diverse religion in the world?
On about any reading of "diverse" the answer is without question Catholicism. That is one reason why a thousand years from now Catholicism will be the only currently existing religion still in existence. There will of course always be some form of Gnostic spirituality but by that time Protestantism and it will be indistinguishable. I suppose some form of Buddhism might still be around, it's pretty flexible. Other than vague Spiritualisms--panpsychism, shamanism, Episcopalianism, etc--the main threat remains, as ever, schism. That's no laughing matter.
Anyway, it's interesting we don't get much credit for diversity in the age which makes it an idol.
What is the most diverse religion in the world?
On about any reading of "diverse" the answer is without question Catholicism. That is one reason why a thousand years from now Catholicism will be the only currently existing religion still in existence. There will of course always be some form of Gnostic spirituality but by that time Protestantism and it will be indistinguishable. I suppose some form of Buddhism might still be around, it's pretty flexible. Other than vague Spiritualisms--panpsychism, shamanism, Episcopalianism, etc--the main threat remains, as ever, schism. That's no laughing matter.
Anyway, it's interesting we don't get much credit for diversity in the age which makes it an idol.
posted by Trent_Dougherty at Saturday, February 25, 2006
3 Comments:
This stirred up some interesting thoughts. On the one hand, I'd already noted and approved the Catholic diversity, though I must say it is heavily European in it's power structure. Secondly, protestantism will still exist. It has a flexible ability to reinvent itself as often as necessary. Various forms of protestantism will bloom and decay over the course of a thousand years, but there will always be those who need to take their salvation into their own hands and the Holy Spirit is ever merciful. You forget or discount the wild freedom of protestantism too quickly.
Protestants: "those who need to take their salvation into their own hands."
I'd never thought of it quite like that, but it seems an apt description.
No credit is given-- because it's the wrong sort of diversity. It's a diversity the secular eye cannot see: divers perspectives all gazing upon the same Truth, the same beatific vision.
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