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Post by general313 on Sept 5, 2019 15:03:09 GMT

Sept 5, 2019 0:19:29 GMT goz said:

Sept 4, 2019 16:11:57 GMT general313 said:

I think it's easy these days to dismiss the value of religious ceremony in the modern practice of worshiping God, given how ubiquitous Christianity is now, but in the past that ceremony was vital. I believe the Vikings would still be heathens (i.e. Odin worshipers) today if the early Christians didn't have some impressive ceremony to help convert them.

That is so interesting that you should say that. Despite apparent 'modernity' in current ay society, there is stull room for 'ceremony' It seems to give humans a sense of something's worth and value. WE still go to weddings and funerals, graduations etc, to mark special occasions.

Also despite me being one of the harshest critics of the Catholic Church in the way that they have taken their 'specialness' to a new level in not pursuing criminal priests and hiding their crimes ( not to mention their ridiculous rejection of modern medical science and technology), I still have a respect for some of the old fashions rituals and ceremonies.

When I walked the Camino de Compostella in Spain, I loved reaching each village with its church and religious effigies and icons, and I absolutely adore in the Cathedral at the end the swinging of the great incense burner etc.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=koGIoST4mME

That must have been a great trip you made in Spain. If I were in that cathedral I sure wouldn't have been in the middle in the path of the swinging pendulum held on by some clerics.

For my interest in art I'm glad the Catholic Church decided to take a loose interpretation of the commandment about graven images. If they had taken the same approach as Islam or The Orthodox Church (Iconoclasm seriously limited the flowering of Byzantine art in my opinion), it would have greatly impoverished western art and its assimilation of Greek art. The early Protestants wanted to simplify the ornate trappings (sometimes with good reason), but I'm glad they for the most part welcomed and nurtured sacred art music.

About "rejection of modern medical science and technology" I think you might be conflating the Catholics with some "born again" evangelical protestant groups (the latter being much more likely to take that anti-intellectual position).