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Responding only to the theological coda, if you read this wiki page you will become enlightened. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcionism http://en.wikipedia.or
by msg 14y ago
Responding only to the theological coda, if you read this wiki page you will become enlightened.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcionism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcionism
This particular belief system of unconditional love vs condemning judgment and promised reward, in the context of Christianity, was completely anticipated two thousand years ago. And then criticized.
Instead of reinventing the wheel in this way, you should consider following the grooves of people who have already carved the path. At least you will understand why they turned the way they did.
- moconnor 14y agoI don't think Paul was postulating the existence of multiple (competing?) gods; Marcionism isn't especially relevant to his discussion.
- msg 14y agoMarcion's program was to excise the judging Yahweh from what we now know as the New Testament, leaving only the loving, forgiving Jesus. It was born out of an apparent desire to edit the religion into something he found palatable. My larger point is that the religion of unconditional love has already been invented, as has Paul's detour. An appreciation for this history would save a student from a lot of intellectual blind alleys. And aptly, it is Marcion's failure to grapple with Christianity's continuity with Judaism, to appreciate the history and deal with its paradoxes, that led him into heresy. His heresy led him all the way to publishing a version of the Bible with the parts he didn't like cut out. Paul's post here felt very similar to me.