FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   2249   2250   2251   2252   2253   2254   2255   2256   2257   2258   2259   2260   2261   2262   2263   2264   2265   2266   2267   2268   2269   2270   2271   2272   2273  
2274   2275   2276   2277   2278   2279   2280   2281   2282   2283   2284   2285   2286   2287   2288   2289   2290   2291   2292   2293   2294   2295   2296   2297   2298   >>   >|  
more bitterly unhappy than ever." "Are you willing," he asked, after a moment, "to make the supreme renunciation? to face poverty, and perhaps disgrace, to save your soul and others?" "And--others?" "Yes. Your sacrifice would not, could not be in vain. Otherwise I should be merely urging on you the individualism which you once advocated with me." "Renunciation." She pronounced the word questioningly. "Can Christianity really mean that--renunciation of the world? Must we take it in the drastic sense of the Church of the early centuries-the Church of the Martyrs?" "Christianity demands all of us, or nothing," he replied. "But the false interpretation of renunciation of the early Church has cast its blight on Christianity even to our day. Oriental asceticism, Stoicism, Philo and other influences distorted Christ's meaning. Renunciation does not mean asceticism, retirement from the world, a denial of life. And the early Christian, since he was not a citizen, since he took the view that this mortal existence was essentially bad and kept his eyes steadfastly fixed on another, was the victim at once of false philosophies and of the literal messianic prophecies of the Jews, which were taken over with Christianity. The earthly kingdom which was to come was to be the result of some kind of a cataclysm. Personally, I believe our Lord merely used the Messianic literature as a convenient framework for his spiritual Kingdom of heaven, and that the Gospels misinterpret his meaning on this point. "Renunciation is not the withdrawal from, the denial of life, but the fulfilment of life, the submission to the divine will and guidance in order that our work may be shown us. Renunciation is the assumption, at once, of heavenly and earthly citizenship, of responsibility for ourselves and our fellow-men. It is the realization that the other world, the inner, spiritual world, is here, now, and that the soul may dwell in it before death, while the body and mind work for the coming of what may be called the collective kingdom. Life looked upon in that way is not bad, but good,--not meaningless, but luminous." She had listened hungrily, her eyes fixed upon his face. "And for me?" she questioned. "For you," he answered, leaning forward and speaking with a conviction that shook her profoundly, "if you make the sacrifice of your present unhappiness, of your misery, all will be revealed. The labour which you have shirked, which i
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   2249   2250   2251   2252   2253   2254   2255   2256   2257   2258   2259   2260   2261   2262   2263   2264   2265   2266   2267   2268   2269   2270   2271   2272   2273  
2274   2275   2276   2277   2278   2279   2280   2281   2282   2283   2284   2285   2286   2287   2288   2289   2290   2291   2292   2293   2294   2295   2296   2297   2298   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Christianity

 
Renunciation
 

Church

 

renunciation

 

kingdom

 

earthly

 

asceticism

 

meaning

 

denial

 

sacrifice


spiritual

 

framework

 

withdrawal

 

Kingdom

 

Personally

 

heavenly

 

assumption

 

guidance

 

literature

 

divine


submission

 

fulfilment

 

Messianic

 

misinterpret

 

Gospels

 

convenient

 

citizenship

 

heaven

 
answered
 

leaning


forward

 

speaking

 
questioned
 

listened

 

hungrily

 

conviction

 

labour

 

shirked

 

revealed

 

misery


profoundly

 

present

 
unhappiness
 

luminous

 

meaningless

 
realization
 

fellow

 

looked

 

collective

 
called