XPost: alt.religion.christian.east-orthodox   
   From: hayesmstw@hotmail.com   
      
   On 13 Sep 2004 05:59:08 -0700, nat1995@hotmail.com (learner) wrote:   
      
   >hayesmstw@hotmail.com (Steve Hayes) wrote in message news:<4142   
   5af.35633644@news.saix.net>...   
   >   
   >> How does a one-dimensional creature experience a three-dimensional world?   
   >   
   >In the case of dragons, they do not since they do not exist.   
   >   
   >> Ever heard of Eustace Scrubb?   
   >   
   >The Chronicles of Narnia were never presented as fact.  Once again the   
   >Orthodox Church has taught, and presented in icon form, that St.   
   >George killed a real dragon.  If the Church is wrong about dragons,   
   >then what else could it be wrong about?   
      
   I am reminded of the time I had to write an essay on "Jesus and the demons"   
   for the principal of my college. I'm sure you would have got on well with him,   
   for you seem to share his one-dimensional secularist worldview.   
      
   When I had finished reading it to him, he said, "But you haven't told me   
   whether you think demons exist."   
      
   To told him I didn't think it was important. When you have been run over by a   
   bus, the last thing you are interested in is a philosophical argument on   
   whether or not the bus exists.   
      
   What matters is not whether demons exist or not, but rather that whatever they   
   are, Christ has the mastery of them.   
      
   The principal was a convinced Bultmanite, and a great advocate of   
   demythologising. But,. as Berdyaev says,   
      
   The nature of myth.   
            Source: Berdyaev 1948:70.   
       Myth is a reality immeasurably greater than concept. It is   
     high time that we stopped identifying myth with invention,   
     with the illusions of primitive mentality, and with anything,   
     in fact, which is essentially opposed to reality... The   
     creation of myths among peoples denotes a real spiritual life,   
     more real indeed than that of abstract concepts and rational   
     thought. Myth is always concrete and expresses life better   
     than abstract thought can do; its nature is bound up with that   
     of symbol. Myth is the concrete recital of events and original   
     phenomena of the spiritual life symbolized in the natural   
     world, which has engraved itself on the language memory and   
     creative energy of the people... it brings two worlds together   
     symbolically.   
      
      
      
      
      
      
   --   
   Steve Hayes   
   E-mail: hayesmstw@hotmail.com   
   Web: http://www.geocities.com/hayesstw/stevesig.htm   
        http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/books.htm   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)