Axor wonders whether his decipherment of Ancient inscriptions might lead:
"'To the very revelation of Christ's universality, that will in time bring all sentient beings into his church?'" (p. 403)
This seems remarkably naive. Christianity has been one of many beliefs since its inception and would be one of many more on the galactic scale of the Technic History. There will be some similarities and Axor might find a pattern of several beliefs in an Incarnation but that is as far as it goes. Proof, if that were claimed, would make Axor's kind of religion no longer a matter of faith. Revelation is a matter of interpretation and overlaps, as I have realized from reading Ninian Smart's World Religions: A Dialogue, with religious experience. Anyone who has had a visionary or numinous experience can claim at least a private revelation. Each of us can only go with our own practice and experience. One devotee will see Christ in Krishna or Krishna in Christ and others will not but there is no universally agreed way to assess experience, nor need there be.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Orthodox Christianity teaches public revelation, in the sense of divinely revealed truths binding on all believers ended with the death of the last Apostle around AD 100. Private revelations, like Dame Julian's visions or the apparition of the BVM who appeared to St. Bernadette at Lourdes are not binding and can be accepted or not as Catholics choose. The Church, wary of frauds or delusions, is very reluctant to certify a private revelation as not being harmful to the Faith.
And I don't believe in Krishna or any other Hindu gods, nor do they exist. And i believe Christianity is the ordinary and universal means of salvation.
Ad astra! Sean
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