1. ‘Men of Athens – I can see that in every way you are very religious’ (Acts 17). Religiosity is natural for human beings – a phenomenological observation and a theological one. Man is by natural disposition a worshipper. The trick is to work out what ‘natural’ means…
2. It is only comparatively recently that religious belief was counted an alternative to be chosen by the believing subject, and not a properly basic condition of the world (Charles Taylor, The Secular Age).
3. We need to beware the tendency to impose Western and Christian notions of religion upon the religious phenomena of the world. Hinduism for example is almost entirely a creation of the British Raj. We seek to observe quasi-Christian structures and observances.
4. Where does religion end and philosophy begin? Which is Marxism? Taoism? Buddhism? It makes a large difference to a theological analysis.
5. The religious disposition in human beings has been conducive to wisdom about human beings and the world. It has more often than not obscured the truth about God.
6. While religions may be the monstrous lies and deceits of Satan, they may also be sources of social cohesion, the transmission of wisdom inter-generationally and the basis for human enlightenment. Religions do (to a degree) work as ways to live in the world. It is this ambiguity that is the real tragedy. They present incomplete truths.
7. ‘The human heart is a factory for making idols’ (John Calvin). Prides corrupts the properly natural disposition for worship.
8. False belief and unbelief are suppressions of the truth about the divine nature that is already available to human beings. Ignorance, being culpable, is no excuse.
1 comments:
I like them, though #4 is not a thesis.
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