Christianity Outside the Box

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earl

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For those relatively new here they may not know there used to be a separate forum entitled "liberal Christianity" that was eliminated-others can explain why. That served as a place to push the conventional Christian understanding a bit with dialogue. But seeing cyberpi's new thread prompted me to start this as yet contentless thread as a substitute place to feel comfortable having what others might see as conversations too outside the box for conventional Christianity-folks like Path or me for instance.:D Perhaps it is needed and would serve a useful function. Earl
 
Outside of the sheep pen, perhaps? :)
John 10
1 " I assure you: Anyone who doesn't enter the sheep pen by the door but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The doorkeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought all his own outside, he goes ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they recognize his voice. 5 They will never follow a stranger; instead they will run away from him, because they don't recognize the voice of strangers." 6 Jesus gave them this illustration, but they did not understand what He was telling them.


<...>

14 "I am the good shepherd. I know My own sheep, and they know Me, 15 as the Father knows Me, and I know the Father. I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 But I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 This is why the Father loves Me, because I am laying down My life so I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down on My own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from My Father."​
 
Actually, what I'm thinking is that there are occasional interesting but perhaps somewhat divergent dialogues that get going in the Christianity forum that IMO get nipped in the bud perhaps a tad too quickly. There's another forum devoted strictly to what they call progressive Christianity- what perhaps we meant here before by the term "liberal" that I don't frequent much simply because I like to discuss stuff other than Christianity a lot of the time. But they encourage dialogue of various views of what it means to be Christian & boy they can cover a lot of perspectives:D. Get some mighty interesting discussions going in that regard. So I figure a place for a bigger "pen" might be a good thing.:) Earl
 
Ah come on...

You think when G!d says so and Genesis is used as proof in the evolution thread in the Science and Universe area you really have to worry about what is said in the Christianity thread?

So you think over here we can discuss how 36 hours is equal to 3 days?? I was actually ready to start that discussion in Christianity because that is where it belongs. Liberal, Progressive all Christians deserve to have their discussions and expose the issues in the other thread is my opinion...and that is also why the liberal box and the Christian box were merged. It is just the swing of the pendulum.
 
How about a nice "East meets West Café" then? A place where hospitality and lively conversation are served up along with salmon teriyaki, mu shu fajitas, and toasted coconut milkshakes with goji berries? A place where we don't have to be afraid of stepping out of bounds by saying something like koan and Holy Spirit in the same post?
 
seattlegal said:
How about a nice "East meets West Café" then? A place where hospitality and lively conversation are served up along with salmon teriyaki, mu shu fajitas, and toasted coconut milkshakes with goji berries? A place where we don't have to be afraid of stepping out of bounds by saying something like koan and Holy Spirit in the same post?
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Amen to that, sister.

“The pursuit of truth is like picking raspberries. You miss a lot if you approach it from only one angle.” -Randal Martin, Philosophy professor, Carleton University
 
As I understand it, Christianity is not in a box. The various man made boxes known collectively as Christendom were "liberal improvements" to appeal to the secular mind..

Christianity initiated with a conscious source so the sincere seeker must abandon the secular liberal improvements to return to its conscious source which is not limited to man made boxes. But it seems that the current trend is to create more socially acceptable boxes and the process is called thinking outside the box. OK.

Well, as long as one can still acquire good scotch, all is not lost.
 
earl said:
For those relatively new here they may not know there used to be a separate forum entitled "liberal Christianity" that was eliminated-others can explain why. That served as a place to push the conventional Christian understanding a bit with dialogue. Earl
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That would have made for an interesting dialog. Something away from the typical, standard and expected. I am new here and would enjoy such a forum as it would indeed give reason to those who are a free thinker to express their views if they chose to.
 
Again, take a look back when this forum was created, the initial creators and posters were willing to tackle the hardest of questions and discuss them.

There is no reason this shouldn't be able to occur now amongst Christians.
 
I have withdrawn from CR precisely because it is nigh-on impossible to get to any real 'depth' of discussion — the meat rather than the milk — so much of what passes as 'thinking outside the box' is mundane compared to the Mysteries as they stand in their own right — indeed much of it reduces the mystery to banality and the commonplace.

When one considers that Revelation, by its nature, unveils that which is inaccessible to the human faculty, then 'thinking outside the box' is shown for what it actually is, an attempt to bring everything into one's zone of comfort.

Thomas
 
Thomas said:
I have withdrawn from CR precisely because it is nigh-on impossible to get to any real 'depth' of discussion — the meat rather than the milk — so much of what passes as 'thinking outside the box' is mundane compared to the Mysteries as they stand in their own right — indeed much of it reduces the mystery to banality and the commonplace.

When one considers that Revelation, by its nature, unveils that which is inaccessible to the human faculty, then 'thinking outside the box' is shown for what it actually is, an attempt to bring everything into one's zone of comfort.

Thomas
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Welcome to the world of secular dominance. Proudly display a peace sign while expressing platitudes and all will become wonderful.
 
Thomas said:
I have withdrawn from CR precisely because it is nigh-on impossible to get to any real 'depth' of discussion — the meat rather than the milk — so much of what passes as 'thinking outside the box' is mundane compared to the Mysteries as they stand in their own right — indeed much of it reduces the mystery to banality and the commonplace.

When one considers that Revelation, by its nature, unveils that which is inaccessible to the human faculty, then 'thinking outside the box' is shown for what it actually is, an attempt to bring everything into one's zone of comfort.

Thomas
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Thomas, sorry to hear you feel that way re CR. Guess I'll put you down for 1 vote to stay "within the box of defined dialogue parameters" then should you decide to stick around here.;) :) earl
 
Thomas said:
I have withdrawn from CR precisely because it is nigh-on impossible to get to any real 'depth' of discussion — the meat rather than the milk — so much of what passes as 'thinking outside the box' is mundane compared to the Mysteries as they stand in their own right — indeed much of it reduces the mystery to banality and the commonplace.

When one considers that Revelation, by its nature, unveils that which is inaccessible to the human faculty, then 'thinking outside the box' is shown for what it actually is, an attempt to bring everything into one's zone of comfort.

Thomas
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In order to get at the mysteries you speak of we first have to identify and accept the myriad of mistakes we've made in the past. Until we decide to come clean, we are simply playing with dirty wine skins.
 
Nick_A said:
As I understand it, Christianity is not in a box. The various man made boxes known collectively as Christendom were "liberal improvements" to appeal to the secular mind..

Christianity initiated with a conscious source so the sincere seeker must abandon the secular liberal improvements to return to its conscious source which is not limited to man made boxes. But it seems that the current trend is to create more socially acceptable boxes and the process is called thinking outside the box. OK.

Well, as long as one can still acquire good scotch, all is not lost.
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Well hi Nick A. Sounds as if you'd like to get a discussion going in this pen. Perhaps you'd like to ealborate upon your brief thoughts here. It's a big pen in this thread with wide parameters in my opinion. :Dthanks, Earl
 
Dondi said:
Hey, 'real' Christians don't drink......scotch.
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Not even sacramental scotch?

Sounds like a topic. I know there are some teetotalin denominations and others which stick only to the wine and others that you can party with the preacher...

I was at a Baptist church in Alaska where the preacher called out a Deacon, defrocked him in front of about 1,500 people because he saw his car at the bar for the last time. That was enough of that church for me.
 
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