With yesterday's explosion of interest in sin as defined by the Roman Catholic Church, and consequent misinterpretation by the media, I thought I'd point to where you can find out more what constitutes sin.Frank Ritchie of Servant's Thoughts has written a thoughtful piece on what sin is.
The Roman Catholic Catechism goes into more explicit detail on what would be considered sinful. The list is far larger than the Seven Deadly Sins and the "new" sins being eagerly talked about.
If you still need help after reading all that, I'd recommend The Sinner's Guide by the Venerable Louis of Granada, OP (1504-1588). The online book goes through all the reasons why not to sin and the rewards for trying to live a sinless life. As well as remedies for each of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Ultimately sin leads to separation from God. It's not a good thing and leads to deep unhappiness, followed by possible eternal damnation. As much as it would be nice to think that it all ends when we die, unfortunately (or fortunately) we are immortal beings that will live forever either with or without God. Guess which option is the better one.
quick 2cents.
ReplyDeleteThe loss of a sense of the shape of Chrisitan culture and for that matter the pagan culture that preceded it makes most of our literature incomprehensible!
This post turned out to be way less interesting that the title promised.
ReplyDeleteA good definition of sin in the article. Anything that offends God's perfect law is sin and none of us are innocent. It is not the quality nor the quantity of our sin that is the problem, it is the fact of it. Good thing God provided a solution to the problem if we want to take it up.
ReplyDeleteUnfrotunately the Catholic list is just another example of the disconnect between institutionalised religion and Christianity.
Well, if "organized religion" is so awful what's the alternative?
ReplyDeleteDisorganized religion?
Postmodern? Emerging?
Purposeful? Driven?
Latte drinking, Macbook toting relevant?
Amnesiac on a merry-go-round?
"Pride" appears on the original list. Avoiding making your construction of purified and 'relevant' 'non-institutional' 'Christianity' an object of pride.
Unfrotunately the Catholic list is just another example of the disconnect between institutionalised religion and Christianity.
ReplyDeleteFrom an article by C. David Hess -
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Polls indicate that even though the vast majority of people believe in God, most regard institutional religion with its rituals and structures to be at best optional. The general opinion seems to be: "I'm all for God, but the demise of institutional religion would be no great loss."
While I will be the first to admit that institutional religion has its faults, such blanket judgments of institutional religion are astoundingly superficial and short sighted.
The text for Sunday's sermon was Exodus 12:1-14 wherein is described the institution of Passover. I think it notable that while God was accomplishing His remarkable salvation of the Hebrew slaves, He should take time to institute a religious ritual that they should observe "generation after generation as a rule for all time." Why?
Peter Berger, the sociologist, has said it well: "...religious experience would remain a highly fugitive phenomenon if it were not preserved in an institution; only the institutionalization of religion allows its transmission from one generation to another... Without religious institutions even the experiences of the greatest prophets or mystics would be lost when they disappeared from the earth."
Without institutional religion we would have never even heard of Moses and the burning bush, or Jesus and his cross. Think how much poorer we would be then. Institutional religion is a precious gift. Cherish it.
Without institutional religion we would have never even heard of Moses and the burning bush, or Jesus and his cross. Think how much poorer we would be then. Institutional religion is a precious gift. Cherish it.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't need institutional religion to tell us of Beowulf and Grendel, of Homer and his Odyssey or even of Frodo and his quest.
Would we be poorer if we hadn't heard of them? Undoubtedly so, but is that all institutioanl religion is good for? To preserve memories of myth?
Fugley, do you ever think you confuse myth and history? What makes the difference for you?
ReplyDeleteFrom a pragmatic viewpoint, anything that recognizes the importance of fidelity, the battle against entropy, and reality outside of itself develops institutions.
ReplyDeleteSo we naturally have the institution of the 'global free market' that has developed laws of commerce and currency and leads to the existence of corporations and protection of capital through time.
The institution of democracy, universities, the local rugby club, the Catholic Church, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Royal Society to name an obvious few.
Handy things institutions but they make no value judgment on the information they transmit whether it's the Little Red Book, Linux kernel, or the recipe for KFC.