Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: davidh@cascade.ens.tek.com (David L Hatcher) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: The Shroud of Turin Message-ID: Date: 14 Apr 91 04:36:12 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: /usr/ens/etc/organization Lines: 52 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article ok@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes: >Now "fundamentalists" and "evangelicals" are heirs to the iconoclasts. >They would be shocked (at least, I hope they would) to see a crucifix >displayed in one of their churches with a statue of Jesus on it. Yes, icon worship is not such a hot thing to be doing...But, the emotions manifested through icons can and do have a way of reaching the soul in kind of the same way that music does. If a person were to pay attention to just how the soul is being touched, and allowed themselves to ride that emotion, like they would music, they just might find that they were experiencing a place and height of worship of God that they had not known nor experienced before. Icons are expressions, through art, of another persons attempt to express the experience of glory that they are experiencing as they basked within the presence, and the Glory of God. It's a spiritual awakening tool to help bring one to a much higher degree of awareness of God by awakening memories hidden within the soul. Like Richard, I also would be shocked so see icon's within the churches of fundamentalists and evangelist. The lack of spiritual art within these churches I feel points to an example of how the literal focus of these traditions have been a limiting factor in the believer's access to tools and teachings that have a way of awakening one to the more deeper spiritual experiences of knowing and worshipping God through Christ. As one of the off shoots of the Reformation, I feel that the centuries of accumulated knowledge on how to use the spiritual tools and teachings that work to help to awaken one to an ever more deeper spiritual Union with God were left behind. One of the results of this spiritual limitation is that, IMHO, many, who have a huge hunger for a more deeper and meaningful spiritual growth than the fundamentalists and evangelist are able to provide are often going else where to satisfy their spiritual needs. And that else where for the youth is often towards the Newage spirituality. For seeing the Divine within ALL peoples... David Hatcher [Just as I have to ask Protestants to have respect for what Charles Williams call "the way of affirmation of images", I'd like to say that I find "the way of rejection of images" to be valuable as well. I guess it's an emphasis on ear rather than eye: the church with nothing in it that might distract from the proclamation of the Word, that allows no images (except on Sunday School walls, for some odd reason) so that the worshipper talks directly with God in prayer. I udnerstand that this is a vision that is repellent to those accustomed to visual cues, but for those raised in the tradition, the simple Colonial church, with no ornamentation or pictures, evokes God's presence. --clh]