I’ve been busy of late. Midterms finished yesterday.

Have you ever ran into any one of those super-cool postmodern Christian pantheists who is really fascinated by Eastern religions, likes to think his ideas are philosophically brilliant (and rather original), but who, in reality, comes off as a misguided sentimentalist who has discarded the truth and the life and merely retained the way (in a Taoist/Hindu combo with Jesus at the head)? (wow, that’s a long question). If you haven’t encountered such thinking, you can here.

This is troublesome to me on several different levels. Perhaps it isn’t the bad theology alone that makes me uncomfortable, but rather how inviting and “good” his ideas sound.

“The Way of Jesus, then, is not an exclusive path - negating other modes of life or religiosity. People in other religions and lifestyles very often follow this Way better than we Christians do.”

I’m sure this idea seems very “good” in the eyes of many Christians, but it’s simply not true. “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.” Jn 14:6 Following Christ can, though not always, negate other modes of life or religiosity. The question of when and to what extend “negation” should occur is indelibly convoluted, and it must be remembered that humanistic compassion (”I’m on the peace core cause I love people,” “I’m a stemcell researcher cause I love people and want to make humanity immortal”) will not get anyone to heaven.

“This entails tuning into the Spirit of God that is present in every human being and in Creation (consider a suggestion that the Holy Spirit may not have been sent on Pentecost, rather recognized on Pentecost).”

Finally, we have the pantheistic heresy of monism. Many philosophers have thrown this idea around, and of course Hinduism recognizes an all-permeating universal law: dharma. Indeed, when we realize “thou art that” and become atman, one with our real self (realize our identity in the universal dharma), moksha, or release is accomplished. Or, if you’re a western philosopher, you need only read Spinoza and his account of Substance (Ethics).

Anyway, you can read the article and make your own critique; just be wary of too much incorporation; for Christianity is not an open set of believes that may be added to at will and manipulated for maximum relativity.