By: Tony Callan

Tony Callan — Fri, 14 May 2010 01:44:50 +0000

To Thaddeus Kozinski:

The Christian must offer their “way of life” as a false choice: Either the Christian God exists or everything is permitted…..if one chooses atheism (or any other alternative), this way madness lies. But the desperation of the Christian becomes apparent because his screeching triumphalism and assertiveness masks self-doubt. The Christian must present all other alternatives as equally leading to nihilism because he knows that the dogmas of Christianity fall like a house of cards when even mildly scrutinized. Paranoia dressed as piety.

By: Thaddeus Kozinski

Thaddeus Kozinski — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 02:28:07 +0000

I think we must at all costs not live in abstractions of our own devising; to live inside, as it were, of religious dogmas, as if they were realities, is religious insanity masking as piety, indeed, an existential hell from which Jesus came to save us. “I come to give you life, and life to the full,” to paraphrase the Master. Is Heraclitean spirituality life to the full? Heraclitus can be helpful as an antidote to religious fanacticism; yet, like Nietzsche, it is the extreme opposite, and so not ultimately more helpful than its contrasting opposite. In short, I don’t see how immanent spirituality can be reconcilable with Christian spirituality, where heaven begins on earth through the overcoming, not embracing, of sin, and where heaven’s opposite, hell, is not to be embraced as art of a life-giving, life-destroying dyad–but avoided at all costs. Thus, I don’t see how Heraclitean “spirituality” has anything to offer to a life of authentic Christian faith, hope, and charity, which is the only spirituality worthy of the name.

Comments on: Heraclitean spirituality: divine conflict

By: Tony Callan

By: Thaddeus Kozinski