Epiphany
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| The three-headed god, Epiphany |
I had forgotten that today was the Feast of Epiphany. An alien attending the service this morning would discern this much: Epiphany is one of the lesser gods of the pantheon, but an important one, not the least.
These lower gods have arisen out of - or, perhaps better, have multiplied from - the Trinity for various purposes: to privilege certain hopes, to allay certain fears, to test our memories. In the Protestant churches, they seem to have proliferated sometime in the seventies when their (the churches’) commitment to monotheism began to wane. Before, since the Reformation, it had waxed. At least, in the church I grew up in, the Trinity had become two; the Holy Spirit had become but the ghost of a god.
Now there is a sea of gods, from the Baby Jesus to Bible, from Armageddon to Inclusion. (The first two and fourth of these are, in the church Uncle Albert and I attend, among the most powerful, but other gods have more cachet in other churches, I believe.) The chief advantage of polytheistic religion is that there soon becomes a god to petition in practically every circumstance, one committed to listening. The greatest drawback is that the possibilities become as distracting as social media.
01.06.19
Yestercay, I got this link (https://johnpavlovitz.com/2019/01/06/selling-the-souls-of-american-evangelicals/) from my friend DT. The to what they are selling them are "the golden idols of their ego and ambition." Respond. How are these idolators different from your "Christian" polytheists? How are idols different from lesser gods?
ReplyDeleteYou guys are the theologians (if DT is Dick Tracey's brother David). I'm just a poor boy from a poor family. Bu here's a stab it: First, my polytheists are a hell of a lot nicer, not to mention more sincere, than Pavlovitz's idolators. More to the point: Polytheism is when you add to what you believe for the sake of convenience. Idolatry is when you sell out what you claimed to believe in for the sake of gain. There's a difference. The first is the camel's nose. The second is the camel.
DeleteA different DT, not so in a fury about chaos. So, he may take your point as I do.
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