It's Important to Remember

Source
Even the Suffering Church (Eastern Church) succumbed to persecutory zeal:

THE following extract from the Ecclesiastical Gazette of Vienna has been reproduced in an Extraordinary Supplement of the Allgemeine Zeitung, of Augsburg, for the 11th May 1854. I subjoin a translation of it in a postscript, as an additional evidence of the persecution to which the Greek Church united with Rome has been subjected in Russia, and which I mentioned in this work: — “Spies appointed for this especial purpose transmitted, in their reports to the Government, lists of such individuals as were suspected to be Catholics at heart; and if all the exaggerated accounts which had been made of the Spanish Inquisition were true, they would be thrown into the shade by the proceedings that were adopted against the above-mentioned individuals. And indeed it is an averred fact, that many of them fell a victim to starvation, blows, and other cruel treatment. The Catholic inhabitants of Worodzkow were forced with stripes, by the Governor and his satellites, to sign a voluntary petition, expressing their ardent wish to be received into the pale of the orthodox Russian Church. The names of those who could not write were signed by others, and whoever showed the slightest manifestation of his desire to remain a Catholic, after having performed this voluntary act, was treated as one guilty of high treason. The same proceedings as at Worodzkow were adopted in a hundred other places, whose vohmtary petitions were obtained with bloody stripes of the knout. The unfortunate petitioners were, in order to perform this operation, dragged from their homes, sometimes to a distance of or 20 versts (1 1/2 verst to an English mile), and those who steadfastly refused to sign were treated by the Russian papas with the utmost cruelty and indignity. They were put into irons, barred up in cold prisons without any fire, starved, thrown into large tubs filled with an icy and stinking water, and most mercilessly beaten, so that many, in order to escape from such torments, signed the voluntary petition, with hearts as bleeding as their bodies, Many succumbed under these fearful persecutions, which were not much inferior to that which the Christians had suffered under the reign of Diocletian. The Papa Stratanovich extorted the signatures made by the feverishly agitated hands of the clerical victims, whilst his lay associate, Waimainich Zokalinski, performed the same charitable office to other unfortunate individuals. Some of these miserable persons were reduced by starvation and every kind of ill-treatment to such a condition, that they were almost unconscious of what they did in signing the voluntary petitions for the reception into the pale of the Russian Church, all of which were obtained by more or less similar means. “It appears from a great mass of documentary evidence, containing the names of localities and persons, that the proselytism of was carried out in the following manner: — Military authorities, and Russian papas or priests, visited Catholic villages, and having called together the Catholic peasantry and landowners of the neighborhood, declared that they must join the Russian Church, throwing into prison those who resisted the summons. In the most part of cases, a petition for this object was signed by some hired wretches in the name of all the community, of whom many often knew nothing about this business, but when they behaved as Catholics, they were punished as guilty of high treason.”

A Christian Case for Relics

Calvin (and others') arguments against relics were based on the horse-laugh - count up all the splinters of the Cross, and you get - much more than a Cross. Calvin's argument is that "it is a very rare thing" to be able to exercise dulia (adoration) without giving way to latria (God-worship). While we grant that this is the case, we maintain that it is also a very rare thing for someone to avoid God-worship directed at some materiality in any case, even if properly instructed (presumably, in a Reformed Church). We may further claim that it might be less rare, if church members received instruction in an initiate, wise, and regulated manner concerning proper forms of Christian worship towards things which are "not-God"; this would include one's spouse ("with my body, I thee worship"), the emperor (Love God, Honor the king), & other instances from Scripture expressly derived. So, the maximal case for keeping worship of God "pure" would involve measured instruction in latria/dulia (of a different kind than that exercised by the Roman Church during its heyday), rather than no instruction at all, or a forbidding of it. For instance, what Southern Baptist is not "religious" about his particular copy of the Bible, possibly "in the family"? What Presbyterian is so Reformed that he would consent to voluntarily desecrate an image of John Calvin by throwing it on a junk heap, albeit hung in a poorly painted frame? A bigger problem is the wearing of titles and taking of names - many nominally Protestant people would be far better off in a more Catholic Church, because they receive their religion with their ethnicity and family, or simply (worse) because this Church is "nice" and has a coffee-house attached to the Mega-facility. As Millinerd states it, what is worse than losing the knowledge of God in a gilded temple? Losing the knowledge of God in an old-drive through that was re-modeled to be an apostolic "temple". At least with relics, architecture, and icons, there is a record of the glory that was lost. It is not just a "pick your poison" dilemma - men definitely (when zealous or serious, something which is unavoidable if Christianity means anything) practice latria and dulia as a matter of course, and teaching them to only give it to God doesn't seem to prevent insidious forms of it from developing. So the real question is, which is worse? Open confusion that is marked (over-venerating an icon) or subtle confusion which one isn't aware of (eg., thinking the SBC has a monopoly on the truth because of its pedigree, arguably a form of latria)? I think I know which is "worse".

Here is the Catholic tradition:

"… the mystic potency emanating from the person or thing that is sacred. These words have in themselves no ethical meaning and no humane implications whatever. They are the keywords of a religious technique and their content is wholly supernatural. In a practical way the second word [virtus] is the more important. It describes the uncanny, mysterious power emanating from the supernatural and affecting the natural. The manifestation of this power may be thought of as a contact between the natural and the supernatural in which the former, being an inferior reality, of course yielded. These points of contact and yielding are the miracles we continually hear of. The quality of sacredness and the mystic potency belong to spirits, in varying degrees to the faithful, and to inanimate objects. They are possessed by spirits, acquired by the faithful, and transmitted to objects..."

How is this any different than the pronounced supernaturalism of the Old Testament?

Resurrection Stones & Golden Snitches

At the close, I open.

Philosophers Chasing Ghosts

The first recorded Ghost Story was written by Pliny the Younger from Rome. Pliny the Younger (c.61 AD - c.112 AD) was a Roman official and writer, famous for his letters which are an important source for Roman history. The story was written in a letter from Pliny to his friend, Sura. Here is a portion of the letter:

“There was at Athens a mansion, spacious and commodious, but of evil repute and dangerous to health. In the dead of night there was a noise as of iron, and, if you listened more closely, a clanking of chains was heard, first of all from a distance, and afterwards hard by. Presently a specter used to appear, an ancient man sinking with emaciation and squalor, with a long beard and bristly hair, wearing shackles on his legs and fetters on his hands, and shaking them. Hence the inmates, by reason of their fears, passed miserable and horrible nights in sleeplessness. This want of sleep was followed by disease, and, their terrors increasing, by death. For in the daytime as well, though the apparition had departed, yet a reminiscence of it flitted before their eyes, and their dread outlived its cause. The mansion was accordingly deserted and, condemned to solitude, was entirely abandoned to the dreadful ghost. However, it was advertised, on the chance of some one, ignorant of the fearful curse attached to it, being willing to buy or to rent it. Athenodorus the philosopher came to Athens and read the advertisement. When he had been informed of the terms, which were so low as to appear suspicious, he made inquiries, and learned the whole of the particulars. Yet none the less on that account, nay, all the more readily, did he rent the house. As evening began to draw on, he ordered a sofa to be set for himself in the front part of the house, and called for his notebooks, writing implements, and a light. All his servants he dismissed to the interior apartments, and for himself applied his soul, eyes, and hand to composition, that his mind might not, from want of occupation, picture to itself the phantoms of which he had heard, or any empty terrors. At the commencement there was the universal silence of night. Soon the shaking of irons and the clanking of chains was heard, yet he never raised his eyes nor slackened his pen, but hardened his soul and deadened his ears by its help. The noise grew and approached: now it seemed to be heard at the door, and next inside the door. He looked round, beheld and recognized the figure he had been told of. It was standing and signaling to him with its finger, as though inviting him. He, in reply, made a sign with his hand that it should wait a moment, and applied himself afresh to his tablets and pen. Upon this the figure kept rattling its chains over his head as he wrote. On looking round again, he saw it making the same signal as before, and without delay took up a light and followed it. It moved with a slow step as though oppressed by its chains, and after turning into the courtyard of the house vanished suddenly and left his company.”
From El Dorado Paranormal Newsletter

What does it mean to be "Tented"?

Alienists, such as Brian Schwertly, being neo-Docetists, deny the Regeneration, or Paliggenesia, of Christ by their derogation of materiality. When Paul writes of the creation “groaning together in the pains of childbirth”, this birth is not a birth of pure spirit, but a birth of the renewed creation in which is the entelechy of the perfect confluence and unity of spirit and flesh. Thus Paul relates in 2 Corinthians that this renwal is not so that we might be “unclothed” (pure spirit) but that what is mortal (flesh) may be swallowed up in life (made imperishable, unlike cursed, mortal flesh). Flesh is particularistic, and this particularism is what Kinists celebrate. If flesh possesses no quiddity, then there is no necessity for each thing to have its own “tent,” as it were. The differentiation of the flesh corresponds to that of the spirit. We know that men are saved as differentiated spirits, since God has elected to save many men, and the “you” that God knew before the formation of your “tent” is also a quiddity, or the salvation of a plurality of men is wasted energy, imperfection, and is the equivalent of God denying his own divinity.

“For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.” 2 Corinthians 5:4

From John Marshall

The Force of Truth

A little known Christian writer (who was probably a "heretic" in that he seems to have believed that mere acceptance of the Jesus narrative conveyed saving faith) named Hervey had a large influence on evangelical spirituality & also English literature (Blake & Walpole) . His book Theron & Apasio (a dialogue between a witty cultured non-believer & a Christian) was instrumental in helping convert Thomas Scott (to be fair, so were a lot of other books named in Scott's autobiography, The Force of Truth). An online edition is here. An interesting blog entry on the man here. I've always been attracted by Scott's fidelity to Truth (read his autobiography when very young), and Hervey's aesthetic Christianity makes an interesting complement to Scott's work. The lesson here? Attempt hard things for God. Attempt crazy things for God. Always seek God.

Strange Folk Practices

I suppose this is why Charles Williams in his War in Heaven makes one of the villains a "Macedonian". The combination of Christian practice with folk religions seems similar to what occurred in Mexico, or in Europe, for example with the Black Virgin. Certainly man is a very complex, mysterious being, and there are "more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in our philosophy". Where that leaves the Christian is a good question.