| Author: | Theodore Austin-Sparks | ISBN: | 9781105855740 |
| Publisher: | Lulu.com | Publication: | June 9, 2012 |
| Imprint: | Lulu.com | Language: | English |
| Author: | Theodore Austin-Sparks |
| ISBN: | 9781105855740 |
| Publisher: | Lulu.com |
| Publication: | June 9, 2012 |
| Imprint: | Lulu.com |
| Language: | English |
We are going to be occupied with the meaning of Christ ... (but) there are a few preliminary words that I want to say, and they have to do with something of which we are all conscious, a matter which is troubling the majority of real Christians. It is the matter of the lost impact of Christ, of the Gospel, of Christianity. We are suffering from a handicap, and that handicap is tradition. Christianity has become that - a tradition so largely something handed down from generation to generation. It has become a theology, a set of doctrines, of statements about God, about Christ, about the Holy Spirit, and many other things, and as such it has passed very largely into the mental realm - a thing to be worked out in thought, a matter of reason. It has also become a great mystical cult. It has passed into the realm of art, and music, so that you can accept Christianity on that basis and be a Christian along that line, and yet that it shall stand completely out of relation to your inner life.
We are going to be occupied with the meaning of Christ ... (but) there are a few preliminary words that I want to say, and they have to do with something of which we are all conscious, a matter which is troubling the majority of real Christians. It is the matter of the lost impact of Christ, of the Gospel, of Christianity. We are suffering from a handicap, and that handicap is tradition. Christianity has become that - a tradition so largely something handed down from generation to generation. It has become a theology, a set of doctrines, of statements about God, about Christ, about the Holy Spirit, and many other things, and as such it has passed very largely into the mental realm - a thing to be worked out in thought, a matter of reason. It has also become a great mystical cult. It has passed into the realm of art, and music, so that you can accept Christianity on that basis and be a Christian along that line, and yet that it shall stand completely out of relation to your inner life.
