"Prayer is often thought of as begging God for gifts or confessing to God that which we ourselves have already decided upon to be sin. These concepts of prayer, however valid they may be, tend to seal off its function as a means of insight or inner revelation. ... However, when we evaluate clearly the …
Tag: Wayne Oates
Institutional Conversion
Wayne Oates in Psychology of Religion follows a somewhat similar line of thinking as William James in The Varieties of Religious Experience in the context of "Conversion" as a religious concept. Oates notes that conversion can be used in several ways (both inside the Christian realm, and outside). He notes that there are many different …
The Bible as a “Sacred” Text and as Symbol. Part 2
I spent the first post noting that the Christian understanding of the sacredness of the Bible is quite different from some other faiths' understanding of sacredness. For example, sacredness of the Quran within the Muslim community sees it often terms of physical sacredness. Within Christianity, sacredness is functional. That is, it is the message of …
Continue reading The Bible as a “Sacred” Text and as Symbol. Part 2