“The [Abominable Fancy], coined by the 19th-century cleric and writer, Frederick Farrar, refers to a long-standing Christian idea that witnessing the sufferings of the doomed intensified the bliss of the saved. Farrar himself was a believer in universal reconciliation, a position he defended at length in
As I always say, you are a great theologian. For me, if I had believed there was a point where even God would give up on my family, I would never have had the courage to leave. Since I wasn't raised with the idea of eternal hell and never found it morally credible, I could say "not my circus, not my monkeys" when pity for my abuser threatened to weaken my resolve. I could hope that God would heal her, in this life or the next, because I couldn't be responsible for her anymore without losing my own life.
Do you think the belief in damnation -- the postmortem point of no return -- makes it harder for evangelicals to break away from bad relationships? A sense of life-or-death urgency to change the wrongdoer before their soul is lost, instead of cutting your own losses?
As much as I enjoy this site, I have to admit that I struggle with what often feels like an extensive focus on the Bible. Obviously the Bible is one of the most influential texts of western culture, and Danny is extremely knowledgeable about it. And if it were analyzed and discussed simply as a profoundly influential work of fiction, I could definitely get behind that. But it often feels like these discussions look to the Bible as some source of philosophical truth that frankly makes me uncomfortable. Maybe that’s just my issue as someone who is both Jewish and an atheist, because I feel the exhausting weight of Christianity pressing down on me all the time in American society. Anyway, I’m not even sure exactly what I’m trying to say except that I enjoy the posts that are non-biblical the most.
As I always say, you are a great theologian. For me, if I had believed there was a point where even God would give up on my family, I would never have had the courage to leave. Since I wasn't raised with the idea of eternal hell and never found it morally credible, I could say "not my circus, not my monkeys" when pity for my abuser threatened to weaken my resolve. I could hope that God would heal her, in this life or the next, because I couldn't be responsible for her anymore without losing my own life.
Do you think the belief in damnation -- the postmortem point of no return -- makes it harder for evangelicals to break away from bad relationships? A sense of life-or-death urgency to change the wrongdoer before their soul is lost, instead of cutting your own losses?
As much as I enjoy this site, I have to admit that I struggle with what often feels like an extensive focus on the Bible. Obviously the Bible is one of the most influential texts of western culture, and Danny is extremely knowledgeable about it. And if it were analyzed and discussed simply as a profoundly influential work of fiction, I could definitely get behind that. But it often feels like these discussions look to the Bible as some source of philosophical truth that frankly makes me uncomfortable. Maybe that’s just my issue as someone who is both Jewish and an atheist, because I feel the exhausting weight of Christianity pressing down on me all the time in American society. Anyway, I’m not even sure exactly what I’m trying to say except that I enjoy the posts that are non-biblical the most.