eating cereal with buttermilk

[ProScribe]

How do you proceed to gain a better understanding of Christianity if you don't study other religions?

 

[Barky]

wat?

We have the true faith. I don't believe it's wrong to study other religions to break our ignorance of them, and to understand their beliefs. I think that is a good thing.

A true understanding of Orthodox Christianity comes from living its life. It is relationship with God, and this can be communicated only through experience.

 

[Michael G]

Studying other religions will not do anything for your understanding of Orthodox Christianity. To really know Orthodoxy you must live it, practice it, pray its prayers, observe its fasts and be a regular recipient of the sacraments. Book knowledge of a religion is nothing compared to the experiental knowledge you get of that religion by living it. If you want to learn to be Orthodox the best place to start is privately praying in your icon corner and at Divine Liturgy. Then you should begin to practice Orthodox ways in dealing with others and with keeping your passions in check. And it would not hurt to be in regular open, honest communication with your priest while doing this.

 

[Chesterton]

Is the question literal or rhetorical or some of both? And when you say "gain a better understanding" are you talking about for the person who's already a believer?

It can be helpful to see similarities and contrasts maybe, but I don't think it's necessary to study other religions to better understand Christianity, because Christianity is self-understanding; it understands itself, so as a world-view it's sort of a complete package.

 

[tekiahteruah]

Well, not everyone feels that way. I'm about to graduate as a World Religions major and I still love Jesus.

And there are important Orthodox writers who enjoyed studying other religions, including Fr. Seraphim Rose and Fr. Aleksandr Men' (evangelist-martyr in the late Soviet Union). The latter, as a priest of the Catacomb Church, helped reintroduced Orthodox Christianity to many Russians raised as atheists and was rewarded for it by being assassinated on his way to Divine Liturgy with an ax. I think it is pretty indisputable that he is a saint, like all of those who are martyred for doing God's will, and will eventually be canonized. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Men

He also also studied in depth other religions as a way of more fully understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ: http://www.tuirgin.com/orthodoxy/articles/why_be_a_christian.html

I most certainly don't think that studying other religions is necessary for salvation or anything like that, but I also don't think there is anything wrong with it. I think studying God's work in the hearts of human beings is never a bad thing. How can we as God-loving people be unmoved by the Hasidic masters like the Baal Shem Tov in love with Hashem, singing songs and dancing and preaching love to all people, when they so resemble our own elders? How can we not appreciate the instinct, of, say, my Buddhist host mother in Sri Lanka who hated war and violence and treated all peacefully and kindly? Or how about my other host family for the month of my independent study who loved God and each other as much as any Christians I have ever met, except that they were Muslim? Who not only immediately took me in as part of their family but whose town took in nearly 100,000 Muslim refugees thrown out by the LTTE in the North even though they did not have the resources to do so? And every time I asked them why, they said it was because of their faith, because God wanted them to be generous and loving. Can we be blind to that? And I think Fr. Men' gives us a great question: can we appreciate all of that and see it as a good thing and still believe in the uniqueness of the gospel and of Christ? And he answers it for us: yes! Praise God!

 

[Julina]

well it worked for me, PS. but i didn't do an actual in-depth study of any other religions; i just kind of glanced at a few different ones before realizing that Christianity has to be the only way, and from there i looked into different Christian denominations to see which one was the most "right". none of them seemed like it, but then i asked my Orthodox Christian friend if i could go to church with him one Sunday.

 

[Protoevangel]

You don't learn more about how to work on cars by studying music theory.


What does the Truth have to do with a lie?

 

[rusmeister]

I would add that it's not a question of "wrongness" in studying other religions, but the motivation for it. WHY are you doing it? For what purpose? Are you truly anchored in Orthodoxy? Are you clear on why the other religions are false, for all the good and truth that they do have?

Such study, if the motivation is good, is best undertaken with the blessing of and check-in with your SF/priest. Without that, what's to keep you from falling into one heresy or another?

 

[Stringaling]

My first thought was "How can you proceed to gain a better understanding of Chinese if you don't study German?"

Seriously, if you want to have a full and clearer understanding of Orthodoxy, studying other thigs will only cloud your mind and cause confusion. I'm sure you've heard it before, but as an example when people are trained to work as tellers in banks they only work with real money, that way when a counterfeit comes across, they will instantly be able to recognize it because it is not like the real money they have grown to know so well...

 

[Michael G]

You don't learn more about how to work on cars by studying music theory.


What does the Truth have to do with a lie?

You do not learn more about painting iconography by studying impressionist art and oil painting.

 

[Julina]

You do not learn more about painting iconography by studying impressionist art and oil painting.

couldn't it show you what not to do?

 

[Michael G]

couldn't it show you what not to do?

No, not really. The way to learn what to do and what not to do in iconography is to study iconography itself. Study both the good examples by the masters and the not so good examples by those who had ulterior motives in writing iconography. Studying oil painting will just confuse you as to what is iconography and what is not, since there was about a 400 year period in which oil painted icons, which are against the canons of the church, were permited.

 

[ProScribe]

Is the question literal or rhetorical or some of both? And when you say "gain a better understanding" are you talking about for the person who's already a believer?

The logic I'm using is - if Jesus is God, that would make Him literally God of all the religions.

(At least all monotheistic religions that trace its roots back to the patriarch Abraham)

 

[Stringaling]

The logic I'm using is - if Jesus is God, that would make Him literally God of all the religions.

NO. The gods of other religions such as islam or hinduism are false gods...

 

[Michael G]

The logic I'm using is - if Jesus is God, that would make Him literally God of all the religions.

(At least all monotheistic religions that trace its roots back to the patriarch Abraham)

Your logic is inherently flawed.

 

[Barky]

The other religions worship a false god, and at that a non existent one. The gods of other religions are so different than the one true God it is like night and day

 

[ProScribe]

Your logic is inherently flawed.

Do you suppose that someone else has perfect understanding?

 

[ArnautDaniel]

What about this slant on it -

Presumably one wants others to convert to one's own (true) faith. In this vein we would like potential converts to have an open mind with respect to other faiths. Now it strikes me that one should never expect something in others that one doesn't have oneself, so one should have an open mind with respect to other faiths. Moreover one cannot expect others to be prepared to find their beliefs to be wrong unless one oneself is prepared to find one's own beliefs to be wrong.

So each of us should be open to studying other faiths if we expect others to study our own.

Also, it strikes me, that there is a certain pride and hubris present in one that never leaves open the possibility that they are wrong.

 

[Michael G]

Do you suppose that someone else has perfect understanding?

Other religions do not worship Jesus Christ. Jews worship God the Father, but they do not worship Christ. Hindus do not worship Christ, nor do Buddhists. Muslims think he is a prophet, but not God. Only Christians worship Christ as being God.

 

[Michael G]

What about this slant on it -

Presumably one wants others to convert to one's own (true) faith. In this vein we would like potential converts to have an open mind with respect to other faiths. Now it strikes me that one should never expect something in others that one doesn't have oneself, so one should have an open mind with respect to other faiths. Moreover one cannot expect others to be prepared to find their beliefs to be wrong unless one oneself is prepared to find one's own beliefs to be wrong.

So each of us should be open to studying other faiths if we expect others to study our own.

Also, it strikes me, that there is a certain pride and hubris present in one that never leaves open the possibility that they are wrong.

Sorry, I have to disagree with you. I know that Orthodox Christianity is the true faith, if it were not the true faith I would not have left the Roman Catholic Church and nearly every Catholic friend I had in order to embrace Orthodoxy. Prior to beginning my inquiry into Orthodoxy I asked God in a most sincere manner to lead me to the true faith in Christ and that he did.