#from the theology and history

[hartenlust]

slowly getting closer to modern times with my christianity class and its so exciting :3 scanned the syllabus and we're covering nazism & christianity and second vatican council and liberalism and everything.......so excited

#op #i love this class #its solely facts which is a departure from my usual vibe in class (i like learning theories more) but it got enough theoretical aspects #from the theology and history #that its still super interesting

[oldshrewsburyian]

From behind the papist virgin with her silver shoes there creeps another woman, poor, her feet bare and calloused, her swarthy face plastered with the dust of the road. Her belly is heavy with salvation and the weight drags and makes her back ache.

The Mirror and the Light, Hilary Mantel

#16th-century anti-catholicism yes but/and i continue to be obsessed with mantel's writerly imagination #the mirror and the light #hilary mantel #the way she writes about theology fascinates me #as well as the way she writes about history obviously #[insert quip about 16th-century English history being inseparable from Anglican wrangling] #book quotes

[july-19th-club]

was looking up the only ash wednesday song ive ever loved (offering of ashes. btw. or just ashes. tom conry 1978 i know nothing else about this man except that he wrote this song) (for fic purposes) and stumbled upon a forum full of catholics discussing the revised version that was included in the 2021 hymnal and boyyyyyyyy the trads HATE this song. it was a 70s piece and a bit hippydippy in the sense that, for a catholic song, it is low on guilt and strong on self-forgiveness, and the first guy in the thread just has to point out that the unrevised version was too pelagian to be properly catholic

#pelagianism is one of my favorite heresies and i dont even know how this song could be that #next commenter 'i wouldnt use either in church if you put a gun to my head' third commenter 'i love it when heresy is removed from hymnals' #so far im feeling great about what i want this song to DO in the fic. like i knew i liked her for a reason #she's actively contrary to the spirit of lenten guilt! she's doing her own thing! and she's doing it hauntingly #lots of the commenters dislike the fact that the song contains the refrain 'an offering of ashes' because the ashes of ash wednesday #are not an offering they're *an outward sign of penance* #which even as a child i thought was sort of self-aggrandizing. like ohhhhhhhh we get it you went to church and we all see it #it always made me feel like a guilt trip if i washed mine off #i love when religious folks get SO up in arms about theology of lyrics in songs. girl i think he was just trying to make it rhyme #do you not have bigger things to worry about. religiously? #theology is like grammar. to me. it's fascinating to learn about its history and usage but some people treat it like the laws of physics

[communistkenobi]

I know being like “communism is religious” is an extremely annoying thing to say but I’m reading a book called red demiurge which is about the legal history of the soviet union and honestly that title is not hyperbole

#red demiurge #only getting like 60% of it bc I don’t know that much about soviet history or law #or really anything . but like I’m reading about them moving an entire industrial plant #like physically disassembling it and moving it along with all the labourers #as well as equipment resources etc #bc of the german invasion #like they can’t afford to lose the factory so they just. move it lol #and like honestly just reading about it does evoke a sense of like #this is very close to a divine act you know #I know political theology is like contentious and I’m not fully familiar with all of those arguments #but like I am sometimes persuaded by the general concept #the state is the closest you get to like divine acts of god #aside from natural disasters and shit #to rhetorically capture the power of the state you sort of end up just talking about god #anyway sorry I’m being insane I’m high rn I think I’m gonna go play animal crossing #please don’t be weird in my notes abt this thank u <3

[fortes-fortuna-iogurtum]

.

#I THINK THAT I FIGURED IT OUTTT #thanks to a Crossway article that showed up in my email last night and a Credo Magazine article from 2016 #that I read while eating lunch when I probably should've been studying for my earth science exam coming up!!! #'solA scriptura' does not necessarily equal 'solO scriptura'!!! #to quote the article #that's what's been bugging me!!!!! #I also read a couple articles on the need to read and study medieval and patristic theology as well as modern theology #and that made me realize that like. I thought everyone understood that. #a really big part of the last 5-8ish years for me as been digging around in church history poking at augustine and anselm #and all those guys #(though I haven't read any of them in-depth yet; was too busy killing myself in an attempt to save money for college) #so like. I kinda forgot that tons of prots/evangelicals DON'T see that as a given and actually kinda avoid it??? #like apparently a lot of them don't read the church fathers at all and also they basically avoid the creeds #which is bizarre to me bc that's a big thing that grounds me when I feel like I can't see straight (faith-wise) anymore. #the historical context and nature of my faith. #so HM YEAH THINKING ABOUT THIS #also this kinda confirms for me something that I've been really thinking about a lot lately #which is that when we try to understand concepts that come from a historical context #we should like really really really put effort into understanding the historical context that they came out of #not just grabbing the concept and running with it. whether we agree or disagree with the concept itself. #we can learn a lot about studying the ideas within their historical context bc ideas don't just spring into being within a vacuum!!! #and this is important re: the Reformation and the solas especially because those beliefs were meant as a COUNTER to things happening #in the mainline/Catholic church *at the time* #sola scriptura was meant as a COUNTER to holding papal authority over or at least as high as scriptural authority #not to say like 'oh the bible is LITERALLY THE ONLY THING WE SHOULD EVER REFERENCE EVER NO EXCEPTIONS' #history and tradition is important and necessary in all religions! otherwise you just keep doing the same work over and over again #(obviously the fathers weren't right on everything but like. it's silly to avoid them. ya know.) #delete later #gurt complains at college #<< should make that an actual tag for my rants and rambles while i'm here lol :')

[thequietabsolute]

The view that held language to be an entirely human phenomenon: this view became current once it was discovered empirically that the so-called sacred languages [those of ancient theologies, primarily] were neither of primordial antiquity nor of divine provenance. What Foucault has called ‘the discovery of language’ was therefore a secular event that displaced a religious conception of how God delivered language to man in Eden. 

For the linguist, language cannot be pictured as the result of force emanating unilaterally from God. As Coleridge put it,

Language is the armoury of the human mind; and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests.

The idea of a first Edenic language gives way to the heuristic notion of a protolanguage (Indo-European, Semitic) whose existence is never a subject of debate, since it is acknowledged that such a language cannot be recaptured but can only be reconstituted.

— Edward W. Said, from Orientalism (1978.)

#edward w. said #samuel taylor coleridge #theology #religion #foucault #note: if anyone feels uneasy that i’m posting from this author in this time please go back through my archive and see my reasoning for that #thank you #but here and now let it be said that i have and have always had a tremendous admiration and respect for Judaic culture & history #n. #queued

[the-fidgety-fiddler]

Got to tour the Cathedral of St. John the Divine with my school's fellowship group today and it was SO cool. I was totally and completely enthralled the entire time

#got to see the full city skyline from this balcony we went out on and it was just getting dark so all the lights were on it was amazing #and the stained glass windows!! and the spiral staircases to go up were so cool #and the history behind it!!!! #i might not necessarily completely agree w the theology of the church itself but it was SO cool to see it and learn about it #thoroughly enjoyed #my post #oh yeah and the sky was super cloudy and overcast too which made the whole gothic vibe so incredible

[mintymarill]

There are as many gods, or stars, in the heavens as there are legions of dæmons around the earth, and there are exactly the same number of dæmons in any legion as there are stars in the sky. There are also twelve princes of the dæmons, just as there are twelve signs in the Zodiac. Moreover, some of these dæmons are under the influence of Saturn, others of Jupiter, Mars, or the Sun … There are as many orders of human souls as the stars and the legions of dæmons numbered together, and souls are allotted the nature, function, and name of their respective dæmons and stars. Now they call these dæmons spirits, the innate guides of our being, each assigned to an individual soul by the law of fate, that is, by the way all the spheres are arranged and the way they influence us, when our souls descend into the embodied state. In so far as our minds are not subject to some of the lower dæmons and the senses, they may be guided every day by these spirits through an easy and hidden persuasion, just as ships are steered with a rudder by the helmsman.

Ficino, Letters, vol. 7, letter 5 - in Valery Rees' From Gabriel to Lucifer: a cultural history of angels, p 184.

#angels #daemons #dæmons #From Gabriel to Lucifer: a cultural history of angels #From Gabriel to Lucifer #valery rees #ficino #theology #religion #quote #quotes

[tiredeyes1975]

ok sorry i am finally reading... unholyverse because i got bored. why is this actually interesting like the catholic stuff

#the only thing i got from being raised catholic and going to a private catholic school is. ok well one i can tie a tie and i can accessorize #but also like miracles and devotion to saints and mary throughout history and shifting catholic law and beliefs throughout the centuries #i dont even get to learn about cool shit in my mandatory theology classes. we literally just learn about sacraments and the gospels and #the mass. its so redundant

[eowynneigh]

I’m gonna live a pure and wholesome life so I can go to heaven and then beat the god-loving shit out of Thomas Aquinas

#your honor I hate him #gonna fail my medieval theology final tomorrow am I can FEEL IT #been cramming all afternoon and evening and like I don’t got it sob sob #🐏 #next semester I’ll be free from theology and I’ll be back in history with a side of furry and gay shit

[chamomiles-away]

just spent another 1,5 hours on my timetable for uni, coordinating the classes overlapping, looking at the module manuals several times etc etc

#all for a semester that's basically a time off because i am changing my major (again) in october #i chose some introductory courses in art history at a uni in another city and a few courses in theology at my regular uni as well as #a course in journalistic and scientific ethics #and one about textiles as museum objects (finally a course that's held in english!) #i want to change my major from primary education (german maths and religion) to applied literature and cultural sciences #with two minors in theology and either political sciences or cultural anthropology of textiles #thankfully 1. my new major will be a bilingual one (german and english) 2. most of my tests won't be classic exams #but written assignments/papers or projects or oral exams which is such a relief #as someone struggling with exam anxiety #the only thing i am a bit skeptical about is that i have to do a semester abroad (leaving my cat and fiancé/husband by then alone) #i am already doing research on it because it is quite hard to organise and i want to choose the right country and city #my favourites are either italy (rome or trieste) or poland (Kraków or warsaw) with rome being number one of course

[flaynbestgirl]

being a fan of fire emblem makes taking an interest in theology a gd minefield

#they take names from so many places #i was watching a video on pre-islamic arabia today and got taken out when he said the word ''nabatean'' #like im not surprised that its taken from something real but im never expecting it is the thing #and they mix the cultures up too cus the characters from their have a mix of irish and greek names ffs #shameless #kath shouts into the void #not just theology but history and literature too like god damn #did they come up with any names themselves???

[cryptotheism]

If you’ve tried to study alchemy, you’ve probably come across the name “Hermes Trismegistus.” Hermes the Thrice-Great is often referred to as the mythical sage who invented everything from alchemy to mathematics to Judaism. There is no evidence he ever existed, but the legend of Hermes Trismegistus is the mortar holding together the bricks of western alchemy. 

As you read the rest of this book, Hermeticism will come up a lot. Occultists love Hermeticism because it is a powerful tool for syncretizing disparate spiritual traditions. In short, it is religious duct tape. 

First, it gave us a legendary sage that supposedly all knowledge came from. A common problem with religions is that they disagree. Hermeticism says that if two theologies have a similar idea, that’s because they both came from Trismegistus. Additionally, the history of alchemy and magic is complicated. By saying “it all comes from Trismegistus” you save quite a bit of time. Because of this, Hermeticism serves as a scaffolding for the otherwise chaotic history of western esoterica.

Talking about Hermetica today on patreon!

#occult #hermetica #patreon

[catgirl-kaiju]

i have a transmasc friend who has been feeling really bummed recently that he hasn't seen much in the way of transmasc positivity on his dash, and i see how much it impacts his mood and self esteem. i care about him a lot, so i want to do a little something to maybe help raise his spirits a little bit:

share some memories of trans masc folks you know or have known, who left a positive impact on your life!

i'll start:

here's to a boyfriend i had years back! he was a very autistic demiboy with a reptile special interest and a love for aquariums! we'd go visit a small local herpatarium together, and he'd tell me all about the animals there. his excitement was contagious! he even had a pet snake who was so cute. we both loved Pink Floyd, and i really treasure the time we spent sharing music with eachother!

here's to a friend i had back in Texas! he was a really warm and chill dude, always so kind and patient. he loved his community and organized a local trans social group so that we could have something more laid back than a support group. he was a scholar in queer and jewish history, as well as jewish theology, and i learned so much from him.

i have a friend now who is a very kind and sweet guy. he's been there for me in some of my darkest moments and is a delight to be around! he is a very skilled cook and baker who helps make incredible food for our household. he has a passion for hair and has helped everyone in the house with cutting and styling our hair. he loves musicals, and i've learned so much about musicals from listening to him and watching movie musicals with him. i could say more, but i know this post is going to be long enough as is lol

#trans #trans solidarity #queer #nonbinary #transmasc #trans men #positivity #trans positivity #trans masc positivity #trans masc

[opencommunion]

"Israel’s defense was the inverse of South Africa’s case yesterday, and as weak in offering documented facts as South Africa’s was powerful. History began on October 7, the Israelis seemed to say, South Africa is Hamas, South Africa did not give Israel a chance to meet up and chat about Gaza before suing for genocide, and actually the Israel Defense Forces is the most moral entity on Earth. As for the voluminous public statements by senior Israeli officials indicating genocidal intent, those were just 'random assertions' by some irrelevant underlings. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statements invoking a murderous story from the Bible about killing the women, infants, and cattle of your enemies? The South Africans just don’t understand theology and presented Netanyahu’s words out of context."

#palestine #zionism

[writingwithcolor]

Any advice for handling race in reincarnation situations?

@swamp-spirit asked:

I'm writing a story that includes characters being reincarnated with completely different appearances. It's a fantasy world, and most of the characters are being reborn in the same region, but I still want a range of skin tones and features in the main cast (this is a comic). I have weird feelings about a character being 'reborn' with notably lighter or darker skin, but it also feels implausible and lazy for people to Just Happen to have a similar appearance when the theology of the story doesn't support it. Characters being reborn, and taking out things specific to real life groups, what are the major things you'd want an author to read up on or take into account? (Note: there is not a 'white' looking ethnic group in this story)

I don’t think it’s a problem as long as the skin tones don’t have any correlation to the circumstances that they’re reincarnated into.

- SK

It’s an interesting question, because in most religions where reincarnation/ transmigration of the soul is a feature of “what happens after death”, remembering one’s past life is not really part of the package deal. From what you’ve written, it’s not clear to me where the “memory” of these characters’ lives are held. Is there a 3rd person omniscient narrator telling the audience who each person is in their next life or do the characters themselves retain memory of past lives?

Assuming this is your typical reincarnation scenario where characters retain no memory of previous lives, it doesn’t much matter. The next life is the next life. Who a person was in their previous life and that identity, in theory, means nothing to them. This also means whatever personality, values, experiences and so on they had in their previous life no longer has meaning. They are, in effect, another person. However, you say you feel awkward about the above which makes me wonder if characters are remembering past lives, in which case…

If you study pretty much any major Asian religion where reincarnation is a part of the belief system, having no memory of the previous life is par for the course. In present-day religions like Jainism, Sikhism, Hinduism and Buddhism, only “special” (I’m using the term very casually here) entities like bodhisattvas, guru, arihant, buddhas, etc. usually get to keep their memories, while the rest of us (literal) mere mortals are supposed to lose our memories between lives as a part of Samsara. In Hinduism, even the gods often forget their previous lives, unless their reincarnation had a targeted purpose (Like being born to defeat an evil entity). 

For most people, it is only through prayer, devotion, meditation and accumulated virtuous/ good/ compassionate deeds that humans are thought to deepen their understanding of the nature of the universe, and thus have the capacity to remember past lives (I’m, again, paraphrasing very loosely here from several years worth of university history+religion courses).  

This is why the isekai genre in Japan is largely regarded as a “cheat”/ parody genre of fantasy. The protagonist, according to common Japanese cultural beliefs, which are quite heavily grounded in Buddhism, is definitively “cheating.” Not to get too ironically biblical, the character’s success often comes from the forbidden knowledge borne of their previous life. 

Thus, there are two ways I look at your characters’ predicaments: 

It’s not technically reincarnation - not by the way most major world religions define reincarnation, anyway. You have people who died now inhabiting other bodies, but that’s not the same as the transmigration of the soul. Also, you want to delve into the weirdness (and maybe heaviness) of “Wow, I went to sleep with one face and woke up with another.” There are certainly stories about people who have had dramatic cosmetic plastic surgery, weight loss surgery, HRT, etc. and then experienced the difference in the “before” versus “after” of how their altered physical appearance makes them feel, as well as how other people treat them. Even if the community your characters are born into now differs from their previous community (Which I guess would make this more a “I traveled between dimensions, and my appearance altered in the process” sci-fi adjacent affair), their new life will still have social environments with differing attitudes towards human physical appearance that will affect your characters’ emotional states. 

Isekai it up and play with the ridiculous contradiction of having past lives and differing memories of one’s appearance. Isekai manga, manhwa and webtoons all make use of this trope heavily, especially with protagonists who experience a “glow-up” (Ex. Going from a Plain Jane OL to beautiful fantasy heroine) or, by contrast, protagonists who end up in very different forms from their original lives (Tensura, I’m a Spider, So What?). I’d be creative and go even more granular. Being able to tan after a lifetime of getting sunburns or no longer needing glasses might be nice, but what if the new body lacks the enzymes to process dairy or alcohol? What about dealing with differences in hair texture? Skincare routines? What about living life as a very tall person after being quite short or vice versa? What if you bumped into an acquaintance from your previous life, and one of you clearly got a more “coveted” reincarnation?  See how far of an extreme you can take this idea until it feels too uncomfortable or ridiculous. 

Marika.

#reincarnation #skin #skin tone #worldbuilding #religions #characters #ask #isekai #writeblr