Interesting. I'm sure it hasn't escaped you, Jon, that many today revert to ancient beliefs of God-in-Nature, .i.e., pantheism. Environmentalism is now the "new" religion, especially in academe, with Al Gore, a radical left politician, the new pope.
Platt On 25 Apr 2010 at 0:38, Jon Bennett wrote: > All, > > The following is an short excerpt from Moscati's "The Face of the Ancient > Orient", which you can read most of on Google Books. Just do a search if you > are interested. > > Here is exhibit A making the case for the uniqueness of the Judaeo-Christian > tradition. This brief quote explains a crucial difference > between Judaeo-Christianity and all the other religious traditions in the > Ancient world. > > After this I will send a quote that is a bit longer from "The End of the > Modern World", by Guirdani. > > Together these two quotes begin to show why this religion, and the philosopy > and culture, that flowed from them, are unique in the history of the world. > > Thanks, > Jon > > "The 102nd Psalm praises the Lord in the following terms: > > Of old thou laid the foundations of the earth, > And the heavens are the work of thy hands, > They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: > Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; > As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed; > But thou art the same, > And thy years shall have no end. > > These words express a fundamentally new idea. We recall the conception of > the universe shared by the other peoples of the ancient Orient: all without > exception regard the earth as a divinity, and the sky as a divinity; the > gods are immanent in nature and render it divine. > > The psalmist´s conception is diametrically contrary: there is only one God, > and this God is outside and above all nature, which He himself created. > Nature is subordinate and of short life in relation to its Creator. If it > has any function of its own, it is to express the glory of God. The position > of man is completely analogous: he draws his origin and destiny from God. > > Thus we are faced with a change in the old values and the advent of a new > conception of the universe. Here we have a crisis in the forces of > nature, the divine is withdrawn from them and retires into transcendence. > But the God of Israel is not only transcendent rather than immanent: he is > one instead of many, so the cosmos is under a single direction. And he is > just and merciful rather than animated by the human type of passions; and so > there is no doubt as to the morality of that direction, there is freedom > from fear, and the genesis of a confident submission. > > Although it is God who created the cosmic order, this does not imply that he > does not alter it and renew it in accordance with his inscrutable judgement. > God alone is active force: the rest, nature and man, have their existence > only as a reflection of him. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
