Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!rex!uflorida!gatech!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: conan@purina.berkeley.edu (David Cruz-Uribe) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: On Daoism, Buddhism & Confucianism Message-ID: Date: 5 May 91 04:25:53 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: U.C. Berkeley Math. Department. Lines: 48 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article dhsy@vax5.cit.cornell.edu writes: > > james@jack.sns.com (James Hwang) writes: >> ... >> My father once said to me that Jesus is good and he want to believe >> in him, because he makes people good or can save people. Then I told >> him you can not worship our ancestor after you believe in Jesus. >> Then he said this Jesus is a dirty God and we should destroy it >> and he also said how can people can live without their root(ancestors). >> >> I give you this example to show how people can destroy a God, if >> they believe this God is a bad God. > > This is a interesting observation. Would any of the true Christians > here explain this: can we worship, pray and idolize our ancesters and > the same time be a christian? For example, pray to Jesus and Confucious > (or one of the ancesters of our specific root) for help at the same time > when we have a problem? I don't see why we can't. > This is an old and controversial question--I believe that the first time it came up was during the first Jesuit missions to China. (Or at least this is a famous example--are there earlier ones?) Tentatively, I would give a guarded "Yes" to this question, provided that you make a _very important_ distinction between the prayers you offer to Jesus and those offered to Confucious, etc. In traditional Catholic theology, "latria" (~roughly praise and adoration) is offered to God alone, while "dulia" (~very roughly honor) is offered to the saints. Thus, if you were convinced that Confucious, etc. were worthy of this (lesser) honor, then private devotions of this nature _might_ be okay. I have heard Catholics at times address prayers to dead relatives--no less a personage than St. Therese of Lisieux mentions this in her autobiography. There appears to be a danger of abuse here which is even greater than in the Catholic cult of the saints, but that could be due to my unfamiliarity with the practice of ancestor worship. I hope someone else will comment on this issue, since my views are far from fixed. Finally, I should note that since I have an itch for authority that only Rome can scratch (:-)) I would limit public devotions of this kind to those recognized by the (Roman Catholic) Church as worthy of such. (An underinclusive process, but better safe than sorry.) Yours in Christ, David Cruz-Uribe, SFO