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>…What flows into you from the myth is not truth but reality (truth is always about something, but reality is that about which truth is), and, therefore, every myth becomes the father of innumerable truths on the abstract level. Myth is the mountain whence all the different streams arise which become truths down here in the valley; in hac valle abstractionis. Or, if you prefer, myth is the isthmus which connects the peninsular world of thought with that vast continent we really belong to. It is not, like truth, abstract; nor is it, like direct experience, bound to the particular.

>Now as myth transcends thought, Incarnation transcends myth. The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact. The old myth of the Dying God, without ceasing to be myth, comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history. It happens—at a particular date, in a particular place, followed by definable historical consequences. We pass from a Balder or an Osiris, dying nobody knows when or where, to a historical Person crucified (it is all in order) under Pontius Pilate. By becoming fact it does not cease to be myth: that is the miracle. I suspect that men have sometimes derived more spiritual sustenance from myths they did not believe than from the religion they professed. To be truly Christian we must both assent to the historical fact and also receive the myth (fact though it has become) with the same imaginative embrace which we accord to all myths. The one is hardly more necessary than the other…

>Those who do not know that this great myth became Fact when the Virgin conceived are, indeed, to be pitied. But Christians also need to be reminded … that what became Fact was a Myth, that it carries with it into the world of Fact all the properties of a myth. God is more than a god, not less; Christ is more than Balder, not less. We must not be ashamed of the mythical radiance resting on our theology. We must not be nervous about ‘parallels’ and ‘Pagan Christs’: they ought to be there—it would be a stumbling block if they weren’t. We must not, in false spirituality, withhold our imaginative welcome. If God chooses to be mythopoeic—and is not the sky itself a myth—shall we refuse to be mythopathic? For this is the marriage of heaven and earth: Perfect Myth and Perfect Fact: claiming not only our love and our obedience, but also our wonder and delight, addressed to the savage, the child, and the poet in each one of us no less than to the moralist, the scholar, and the philosopher.

AMEN.

freeborn | ἐλεύθερος | 8r0gwg 1y ago

Straight into my veins:

nostr:nevent1qqs9g3z95lsey405t5l29pstegml24hknagq7fnqutquf9pj90thufcpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfdupzpmdfdjun4mxavxk7ps0e62lal9d8uak0rj5fsgxr3ehye6j4crq9qvzqqqqqqynrw4gv

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cuban

She's right you know...

https://video.nostr.build/a5f23a117b7ff9a2c95001393fe07c7972e4f1205d695131cd8857e3610c0729.mp4#m=video%2Fmp4&dim=464x848&blurhash=%5DcF%23g*M%7Bx%5DWWs%3A%7EXjEtRs%3AfR%25NW-ogs%3AWCkWogWAa%7DWUoLofRjayaes.oeNFayjZofaxaxWVWVogf6fkjZj%5Bofa%23ofa%7Coe&x=68db496218b2e0593a96fb45d91eda4504bb0495b9105a1298fe96f6353fab43

freeborn | ἐλεύθερος | 8r0gwg 1y ago

😂

nostr:nevent1qqsgzxt5gr9vrs6ngyeq9s44ggvul9seru9h2wr0tsu6rj8xjfgtknspzpmhxue69uhkummnw3ezuamfdejsyg85mzthj9yve5j9er2sj99zsn7k9ktukrak3duh5u8jfgtjk53dhypsgqqqqqqscwlj5q

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freeborn | ἐλεύθερος | 8r0gwg

gm #plebchain #coffeechain

"If God chooses to be mythopoeic--and is not the sky itself a myth--shall we refuse to be mythopathic?"

-- C. S. Lewis, "Myth Became Fact"

freeborn | ἐλεύθερος | 8r0gwg 1y ago

Immediate context of the quote:

>…What flows into you from the myth is not truth but reality (truth is always about something, but reality is that about which truth is), and, therefore, every myth becomes the father of innumerable truths on the abstract level. Myth is the mountain whence all the different streams arise which become truths down here in the valley; in hac valle abstractionis. Or, if you prefer, myth is the isthmus which connects the peninsular world of thought with that vast continent we really belong to. It is not, like truth, abstract; nor is it, like direct experience, bound to the particular.

>Now as myth transcends thought, Incarnation transcends myth. The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact. The old myth of the Dying God, without ceasing to be myth, comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history. It happens—at a particular date, in a particular place, followed by definable historical consequences. We pass from a Balder or an Osiris, dying nobody knows when or where, to a historical Person crucified (it is all in order) under Pontius Pilate. By becoming fact it does not cease to be myth: that is the miracle. I suspect that men have sometimes derived more spiritual sustenance from myths they did not believe than from the religion they professed. To be truly Christian we must both assent to the historical fact and also receive the myth (fact though it has become) with the same imaginative embrace which we accord to all myths. The one is hardly more necessary than the other…

>Those who do not know that this great myth became Fact when the Virgin conceived are, indeed, to be pitied. But Christians also need to be reminded … that what became Fact was a Myth, that it carries with it into the world of Fact all the properties of a myth. God is more than a god, not less; Christ is more than Balder, not less. We must not be ashamed of the mythical radiance resting on our theology. We must not be nervous about ‘parallels’ and ‘Pagan Christs’: they ought to be there—it would be a stumbling block if they weren’t. We must not, in false spirituality, withhold our imaginative welcome. If God chooses to be mythopoeic—and is not the sky itself a myth—shall we refuse to be mythopathic? For this is the marriage of heaven and earth: Perfect Myth and Perfect Fact: claiming not only our love and our obedience, but also our wonder and delight, addressed to the savage, the child, and the poet in each one of us no less than to the moralist, the scholar, and the philosopher.

AMEN.

freeborn | ἐλεύθερος | 8r0gwg 1y ago

gm #plebchain #coffeechain

"If God chooses to be mythopoeic--and is not the sky itself a myth--shall we refuse to be mythopathic?"

-- C. S. Lewis, "Myth Became Fact"

Replying to

History & Wisdom

Do you accept the apostles creed?, Nicene creed? Athanasius creed? Chalcedonean creed? Were these written with the intent of being incomprehensible or do they provide clear truths to be understood, comprehended, and provide standards of orthodoxy? I am not debating that God is incomprehensible, but I am certainly asserting that what God has revealed to mankind in the Scriptures is intended to be comprehended by man and that the doctrine of the Trinity is certainly revealed in Scripture and summarized clearly and is comprehensible both in the historical creeds and revelation. Those that deny such are heterodox at best. I also assert that such creeds would be impossible to comprehend without understanding the axiomatic truths of scripture and the proper use of logic. To say that the Trinity is a mystery and incomprehensible is indicative of the intellectual laziness and zeitgeist of our age.

freeborn | ἐλεύθερος | 8r0gwg 1y ago

'Incomprehensible' is a theological term--it doesn't mean "nonsense" or "gibberish."

I would again recommend this: "[Our Incomprehensible God](https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/our-incomprehensible-god)" from Ligonier.

Replying to

History & Wisdom

Do you accept the apostles creed?, Nicene creed? Athanasius creed? Chalcedonean creed? Were these written with the intent of being incomprehensible or do they provide clear truths to be understood, comprehended, and provide standards of orthodoxy? I am not debating that God is incomprehensible, but I am certainly asserting that what God has revealed to mankind in the Scriptures is intended to be comprehended by man and that the doctrine of the Trinity is certainly revealed in Scripture and summarized clearly and is comprehensible both in the historical creeds and revelation. Those that deny such are heterodox at best. I also assert that such creeds would be impossible to comprehend without understanding the axiomatic truths of scripture and the proper use of logic. To say that the Trinity is a mystery and incomprehensible is indicative of the intellectual laziness and zeitgeist of our age.

freeborn | ἐλεύθερος | 8r0gwg 1y ago

I think we're arguing about words, perhaps talking past one another. Yes, I affirm the ecumenical creeds; I've read the Nicene and Ante-Nicene fathers; I've basked in the glow of the Reformed and Post-Reformation greats like Owen and Turretin and Witsius and á Brakel. Just because the doctrine is clear (perspicuous) doesn't mean it's comprehensible (in the technical sense).

I know that Christ has two natures in one person--but that doesn't mean I fully comprehend how the hypostatic union *works.* I know that God is numerically one, but exists eternally in three persons (or 'prosopons') - equal in substance, power, and glory -- but that doesn't mean I fully comprehend how that works. It's not a puzzle to be solved, it's a mystery to be wondered at. "Thus far shall you go, and no further."

The point of my post is that rationalism is as faulty as irrationalism. There are some things that are too high for us, not just because we are lazy (though sometimes we are) but because God is ultimately "unsearchable, his ways past finding out." Some will reject an idea about the infinite because they cannot fully grasp it in their finite mind--which is to bring God down to earth. Hubris is as faulty as sloth.

We are called to love him with all of our mind, to grow in understanding, to move from the "milk" to the "meat" - but there comes a point where the finite reaches its border and we must simply bow in awe. I am not saying God is unknowable--He is (because we share some attributes with him and he is able to communicate himself to us)--I am saying he is incomprehensible. The finite cannot fully contain the infinite. Treating the deep things of God like so many lego pieces to be assembled is to show hubris where humility is called for.

Deut. 29:29

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