Theology for the Masses

Question of the day (this time with an answer):

How do we, as Christians, conceptualize the Other?

How should we treat these people, both to their face and within our communities while they are not present? They think that they know how to best relate to that which is “wholly Other” – whether it be God, gods, the numinous, whatever you want to call it(s). We think we know how to as well. What do we do with such an impasse? Shall we let loose upon them the canon and be done with it? Do we assume all roads generate the same journey?

A good friend of mine and fellow author here at Theology for the Masses, JR Madill, navigated these very issues a few weeks ago in a talk on Christianity and Pluralism. Now, I don’t want to give away what he had to say, but I do want to say that I found his reply to be quite good and worthy of your consideration.

Is The Golden Compass anti-gnostic propaganda? If it is, should the Christian Community embrace it? [1]

I was talking with a good friend of mine last night after Heroes. On the boob tube an ad ran for The Golden Compass, which prompted a shift to that topic. My friend was telling me that the books argue against a certain god, but not the one that Christians often posit.

He said that the “god” in the books is the first created being and has duped everyone into thinking that it is the real god. It might have even been reordering creation against the plans of the actual creator.

Does this sound like anything you have heard of before? Perhaps the demiurge of Gnosticism?

Now, I have not read the books and I am sure that some of you know more than I about Gnosticism. It just sounds like the god being railed against is not the god that I often talk about. If so, should “we,” i.e. the Christian community, be up in arms?

Has anyone else come across anything similar here?

Plus – Fighting armored polar bears. How can you not want to see a movie with fighting polar bears in it? It’s better than sharks with figgin lazers on their heads.

1. Given that the Christian Community rejects the “Gnostic” worldview [↩]