And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring,heirs according to the promise. (Gal 3:28-29) If you contend that Paul was not a christian ( though I understand that his " home " church at Antioch was the " birthplace" of the title of " christians" for followers of Jesus or the way), then this statement from Paul in Galatians surely would NOT have been acceptable to the typical Jew of Paul's day- So Paul was truly an idiosyncratic Jew as you have said !
#5 is fascinating, suggests a possible direct line from Paul’s invention of the individual to equality as the conceptual building block of our Western democracies. Others have suggested that scientific inquiry, another valued Western ideal, has roots in the Christian revelation. This is highly speculative thinking and a trifle chauvinistic but it appeals to me, perhaps because I think there can be a political force for good in the world, as opposed to tyranny and the darkness of superstition.
I have seen it suggested that scientific enquiry comes from the nature of the Jewish/Christian God. Firstly, he has created something wonderful, and commissioned us to manage it, so exploring these wonders is a natural step. Secondly, God has created a mostly 'predictable' world (the sun sets tonight and rises tomorrow, and OK there are things like quantum and chaos) so scientific experiments are repeatable and 'work'. I'm sure there were other points, too, but this bear of little brain has forgotten them!
What I had in mind was the following observation by Stephen C. Meyer: “In 1277, Etienne Tempier, the bishop of Paris, writing with the support of Pope John XXI, condemned “necessarian theology” and 219 separate theses influenced by Greek philosophy about what God could or couldn’t do.49 Before the decree of 1277, Christian theologians and philosophers, particularly at the influential University of Paris, often assumed that nature must conform to seemingly obvious logical principles as exemplified by Aristotle’s cosmological, physical, or biological theories.
The Judeo-Christian—indeed, biblical—doctrine of creation helped liberate Western science from such necessitarian thinking by asserting the contingency of nature upon the will of a rational God. Like the Greek philosophers, the early modern scientists thought that nature exhibited an underlying order. Nevertheless, they thought this natural order had been impressed on nature by a designing mind with a will—the mind and will of the Judeo-Christian God. For this reason, they thought that the order in nature was the product not of logical necessity, but of rational deliberation and choice, what the Scottish theologian Thomas Torrance calls “contingent rationality.”50 By reaffirming the doctrine of creation and the sovereignty and freedom of God to create as God saw fit, Tempier’s decree in 1277 emphasized[…]”
“The Puritans believed that every individual had a direct relationship with God, a relationship that must be discerned by the individual himself, and not be mediated by priests and sacraments. This belief had earth-shattering political implications. If God saw all men as equal in the profound matter of eternal salvation, how could it be possible that he distinguished among them in the less serious matter of human government?” –Heather Cox Richardson, *How the South Won the Civil War”, p. 4. A direct line perhaps from the Pauline invention of the individual to the birth of American democracy.
And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring,heirs according to the promise. (Gal 3:28-29) If you contend that Paul was not a christian ( though I understand that his " home " church at Antioch was the " birthplace" of the title of " christians" for followers of Jesus or the way), then this statement from Paul in Galatians surely would NOT have been acceptable to the typical Jew of Paul's day- So Paul was truly an idiosyncratic Jew as you have said !
#5 is fascinating, suggests a possible direct line from Paul’s invention of the individual to equality as the conceptual building block of our Western democracies. Others have suggested that scientific inquiry, another valued Western ideal, has roots in the Christian revelation. This is highly speculative thinking and a trifle chauvinistic but it appeals to me, perhaps because I think there can be a political force for good in the world, as opposed to tyranny and the darkness of superstition.
I have seen it suggested that scientific enquiry comes from the nature of the Jewish/Christian God. Firstly, he has created something wonderful, and commissioned us to manage it, so exploring these wonders is a natural step. Secondly, God has created a mostly 'predictable' world (the sun sets tonight and rises tomorrow, and OK there are things like quantum and chaos) so scientific experiments are repeatable and 'work'. I'm sure there were other points, too, but this bear of little brain has forgotten them!
What I had in mind was the following observation by Stephen C. Meyer: “In 1277, Etienne Tempier, the bishop of Paris, writing with the support of Pope John XXI, condemned “necessarian theology” and 219 separate theses influenced by Greek philosophy about what God could or couldn’t do.49 Before the decree of 1277, Christian theologians and philosophers, particularly at the influential University of Paris, often assumed that nature must conform to seemingly obvious logical principles as exemplified by Aristotle’s cosmological, physical, or biological theories.
The Judeo-Christian—indeed, biblical—doctrine of creation helped liberate Western science from such necessitarian thinking by asserting the contingency of nature upon the will of a rational God. Like the Greek philosophers, the early modern scientists thought that nature exhibited an underlying order. Nevertheless, they thought this natural order had been impressed on nature by a designing mind with a will—the mind and will of the Judeo-Christian God. For this reason, they thought that the order in nature was the product not of logical necessity, but of rational deliberation and choice, what the Scottish theologian Thomas Torrance calls “contingent rationality.”50 By reaffirming the doctrine of creation and the sovereignty and freedom of God to create as God saw fit, Tempier’s decree in 1277 emphasized[…]”
Excerpt From
Return of the God Hypothesis
Stephen C. Meyer
https://books.apple.com/us/book/return-of-the-god-hypothesis/id1443522162
This material may be protected by copyright.
”emphasized this principle.”
“The Puritans believed that every individual had a direct relationship with God, a relationship that must be discerned by the individual himself, and not be mediated by priests and sacraments. This belief had earth-shattering political implications. If God saw all men as equal in the profound matter of eternal salvation, how could it be possible that he distinguished among them in the less serious matter of human government?” –Heather Cox Richardson, *How the South Won the Civil War”, p. 4. A direct line perhaps from the Pauline invention of the individual to the birth of American democracy.
Yes, I have certainly learned some things that I had not known or even considered!! Wow!!
Somewhat off-topic, but since you've mentioned the Aviary, when might we have our next meeting?
Heni, I'm thinking about one in October!
Thank you! I really enjoy those meetings. (Maybe that's partly because I'm not all Zoomed out like some people.)