I enjoyed this short reading. It was specific and to the point. What I got out of this reading is that it shouldn’t matter what or how people are inspired by god. Or what they use to remind them of god's existence whether they use art or idols or pictures it really doesn't matter. Because god is unnamable and there is no way to describe him people need a description they need a visual to have in their head when praying and worshiping some way to focus their energy to god. So they will fashion one. Weather it is in their mind or out of gold. It all to the benefit of reminding them of god and giving them something to picture. I got the impression that Maximus was telling people that it didn’t matter to what idol or inspiration people gave their worship that it was all for the same god, “the father and fashioner of all that is, older than the sun or the sky, greater than time and eternity and all the flow of being.”
“I have no anger for their divergences. Only let them know, let them love, let them remember.” You can’t tell someone how to believe, how to worship or how to have faith. They may do it your way but is it much more powerful and meaningful when they really believe it and it comes from inside that person.
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then again what if God doesnt like it? What if he thinks idols are wrong? Its true that you cant tell someone what or how to believe but what if its true that Gid doesnt want man to try and make something up to put in his place? These are just some questions I thought of when I read this stuff... Do we really know the answer one way or another? There is kinda a divided line between eastter and western religions on this the western says its bad eastern says its all good...
ReplyDeleteAnd how exactly do you know what God does or does not like? Remember, words and creeds and books are just as much "idols" as statues are. Read the quote in full context and this becomes clear: Maximus of Tyre isn't just saying that images are a way to refer to god (which is what an idol is); words are too.
ReplyDeleteAnd remember "a picture is worth a thousand words". Which is worse, someone ignorantly worshipping an idol, or someone ignorantly worshipping words in a book? The problem is that we (as Westerners) simply don't understand "idol worship" and have a grossly uninformed view of it, thanks to Judaism and Christianity and Islam which had a vested interested in misrepresenting the views of the pagans. This is a good read on the topic:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.paganinstitute.org/PI/essay_idolatry_in_nt.html