The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum - View Single Post

Kalessin · 02-28-2002, 11:16 PM

Maril, I very much appreciate your post. In fact I think you are right in your analysis of 'distillation' as a contradictory and ultimately superficial exercise, if the sources are complex belief systems (with the similarites in tone but fundamental differences in base philosophy that you correctly identified).

I did say words to the effect that Gibran was part of a fin-de-siecle modernity in expression. Perhaps the distillation was more of the nature of spiritual experience and mysticism in that context - nostalgic, fragmented, non-authoritarian, self-indulgent. That is arguably why it retains a certain 'new age' modernity and appeal in our times. Perhaps it's my own somewhat misty worldview, but I would still recommend The Prophet as a gentle and non-committal doorway to exploration, above the appropriated and cherry-picked fusions of Native American, Druidic, Fluffy-Christian and so on that lead us into scented-candle land (I'm remembering one of your earlier posts). Not that I have anything against scented candles, they have their place.

I also said that, as witnessed first-hand, the individual expression and experience of faith or belief were as diverse and sometimes contradictory within adherents of one established religion as between those of different or competing religions. And I will indulgently include 'Big Bang', 'Selfish Gene' and 'Evolution by Coincidental Mutation' theories as a collective honorary religion here, to illustrate the point about the arguably inherent contradictions between the way in which individual human beings conceive their spiritual reality, and the attempt at - or assumption of - universality in the artifices of all religions.

And yet self-contradiction is what we are all about, on a daily basis we are perfectly able to function whilst laden down with irreconcilable dualities, from the Cartesian to the far more banal.

Still, I agree with you that it doesn't normally extend to being monotheistic and polytheistic at the same time. I am humbled.

Back to the role of scented candles within LotR ...
[img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

Peace

[ March 01, 2002: Message edited by: Kalessin ]

02-28-2002, 11:16 PM	#122
Kalessin Wight Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Earthsea, or London Posts: 175	Maril, I very much appreciate your post. In fact I think you are right in your analysis of 'distillation' as a contradictory and ultimately superficial exercise, if the sources are complex belief systems (with the similarites in tone but fundamental differences in base philosophy that you correctly identified). I did say words to the effect that Gibran was part of a fin-de-siecle modernity in expression. Perhaps the distillation was more of the nature of spiritual experience and mysticism in that context - nostalgic, fragmented, non-authoritarian, self-indulgent. That is arguably why it retains a certain 'new age' modernity and appeal in our times. Perhaps it's my own somewhat misty worldview, but I would still recommend The Prophet as a gentle and non-committal doorway to exploration, above the appropriated and cherry-picked fusions of Native American, Druidic, Fluffy-Christian and so on that lead us into scented-candle land (I'm remembering one of your earlier posts). Not that I have anything against scented candles, they have their place. I also said that, as witnessed first-hand, the individual expression and experience of faith or belief were as diverse and sometimes contradictory within adherents of one established religion as between those of different or competing religions. And I will indulgently include 'Big Bang', 'Selfish Gene' and 'Evolution by Coincidental Mutation' theories as a collective honorary religion here, to illustrate the point about the arguably inherent contradictions between the way in which individual human beings conceive their spiritual reality, and the attempt at - or assumption of - universality in the artifices of all religions. And yet self-contradiction is what we are all about, on a daily basis we are perfectly able to function whilst laden down with irreconcilable dualities, from the Cartesian to the far more banal. Still, I agree with you that it doesn't normally extend to being monotheistic and polytheistic at the same time. I am humbled. Back to the role of scented candles within LotR ... [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] Peace [ March 01, 2002: Message edited by: Kalessin ]