True. And this apppoach to faith I find easier to accept and understand. Yet there is also the problem associated with any faith that requires one to adhere to a particular doctrine or face eternal damnation. I recall once speaking to someone who was convinced that she would not see her parents in the afterlife since, although they were decent enough people, they did not share her faith and her particular beliefs and were therefore (in her mind) slated for a one-way trip to Hell. It rather put me off Christianity, or that particular doctrinal approach at least, for life.
I think it was you,
Mith, who brought up the distress caused to Tolkien's wife by his insistance that she convert to his faith. Have I got that right? If so, I presume that his insistance was grounded in a similar approach.[/QUOTE]
As Bethberry says, my shall we say sadness, regarding that conversion was mainly due to the negative consequences it had for Edith. I get the impression that it was a control issue rather than a theological one and influenced by the ostracism of his mother by her family on her conversion. What Freud would say about this moulding of the wife into the mother's image is perhaps a matter for another topic (or not). However I do think it is a factor in my hearty dislike of the story of Beren and Luthien .
I also am not in accord with that idea. I think the acceptance of the Calormene by Aslan at the end of Lewis' "The Last Battle" is its redeeming feature. When I was a practising Christian I was rather ashamed to be associated with such people who use their "faith" as a justification for bigotry and intolerance. I felt that if they were right, then I didn't want to be apart of it to quote Franz Ferdinand
"I never had a doubt you ever existed
I only have a problem when people insist on
Taking their hate and placing it on your name ".
And as I grew up and associated more with of people of other faiths or none who led lives of equal morality and often greater charity then it seemed an increasingly unacceptable attitude and one that seemed alien to the spirit of the life of Jesus who tended not to be on the side of the sanctimonious and self righteous prigs if I remember correctly
. There are more than one way to skin a cat (but don't try that at home, children).