A comment from the blogkeeper at Underbelly (thank you Buce) inspired me to look this up. I was fairly certain that I had reviewed the book in the recent past, and so I discovered this. a good book is worth appreciation--over and over and over again. Also, while you are appreciating, you might want to take in Underbelly's look at Helena as well. La Belle Hélène on March 18, 2005 8:11 AM In reading Helena last night I stumbled across a large number of passages I would like to share. But I thought the more important thing to share was an observation. Evelyn Waugh liked this best among his books. There are a good many reasons why this might be so: it is splendidly written--both the prose and the coherence are several notches above some of his earlier, more frenetic work. It is tightly done, with just the right strokes and exactly the right selection of detail. But I suspect the reason Waugh prized this above all the other works is that in t...
Steven,
ReplyDeleteIt seems fairly straightforward to me. Religion and religious institutions get in the way of a relationship between the individual and the godhead.
Dear Fred,
ReplyDeleteWhile I may not agree, your point is perfectly clear to me. And therefore I could understand someone preferring God to institutional religion or religion of any sort. What I can't understand is how one would prefer religion (of any sort) to God. That is opaque.
Your point I not only get, but often feel twinges of. If religions could only be purged of their human element, I sometimes say. But I look at it and say, let me see--the Spanish inquisition or God? Hmm... Seems to me to be a no-brainer. As I said, as a practicing member of religion, I'm often tempted to toss the whole mess to one side and go it alone. But what I know is the folly of that, is that I won't "go" anything under those circumstances. So religion as community of helpers, again I get. But. . . well, as I said, completely opaque.
I think I've come to the conclusion that the commentary uses the word "religion" in a manner quite different from the way I use the same word. I think perhaps it is perhaps meaning a kind of spirituality or spiritual experience--which I view as quite a different thing as religion. But I am more than likely mistaken, and have already said too much.
shalom,
Steven
Steven,
ReplyDeleteI have slowly and reluctantly come to the conclusion that there is no simple right answer to many of these questions. We live in a grey world where black-and-white distinctions are seldom found.