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AR 25:46 - Questioning if Buddhism is really a religion
In this issue:
BUDDHISM - "the problem is not your relationship to God, your problem is your relationship to reality"
MESSIANIC PROPHECY - "fresh, solid options for reasonable faith and biblical responses"
OCCULTISM - "magic, religion, and science ... a 'triple helix' of understanding"
Apologia Report 25:46 (1,503)
November 18, 2020
BUDDHISM
"Is Buddhism a Religion?" by Jay N. Forrest (Patheos, Aug 25 '20) -- opens with the Buddha saying as much: "The practitioner will find great joy and attain the state of final rest by having confidence in the Buddha's religion." Yet, Forrest notes there is "no universally accepted definition of religion, and quite possibly there never will be." Even so, he offers his own: "it is a worldview and way of life that is related to the Divine or sacred."
Forrest <jayforrest.org> goes a little deeper and explains that "Buddhism, Daoism, and Jainism have no personal creator God like the Western religions." Further, "Buddhism is not a worldview and way of life that is related to God."
Instead, "Buddhism is not related to the Divine, but it is related to the sacred. By sacred I mean, that which is honored, respected, and even reverenced.
"In Buddhism, it is the Three Jewels that are sacred. They are the Buddha, the Doctrine (Pali, *dhamma*), and the Community (Pali, *sangha*). These are honored, respected, and reverenced by all Buddhists."
Most significantly, Forrest points out that Buddhism "is a unique religion. 'The problem is not your relationship to God, your problem is your relationship to reality. ...
"Buddhism says the moral law existed before God. ... God is obligated to obey the moral law." (That's definitely unique.) <www.bit.ly/3ex1z4r>
In AR 13:31 (2008) we noted that "one of the well-known Theravada monks of Sri Lanka in the twentieth century" reports: "In the Tripitaka [Buddhist canon of scripture] there is absolutely no reference whatever to the existence of a God. ... Buddha never admitted the existence of a Creator whether in the form of a force or a being." <www.bit.ly/3mumQyq>
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MESSIANIC PROPHECY
God's Messiah in the Old Testament: Expectations of a Coming King, by Andrew T. Abernethy and Gregory Goswell [1] -- provides fresh, solid options for reasonable faith and biblical responses on this important subject. If you're looking for a book on all of the messianic prophecies in the Old Testament, "good luck with that." On the one hand, if you'd like to find a good introduction to how difficult it is to understand that subject, well, this might not be the book for you either.
God's Messiah will not be easy reading for everybody. Those unfamiliar with theological study will likely struggle, and the text can be quite technical. On the other hand, if your thirst is serious, you'll find there are ways to acquire enough living water here to satisfy - even when what seems a refreshing stream has become a fire hose.
In the realm of biblical theology, messianic prophecy is disputed territory. Non-conservatives have denied that there is any promise-and-fulfillment support to tie the Old and New Testaments together. Some will even deny *any* relationship between the two testaments. That's on the extreme side. The other we have all seen. Some may regard messianic prophecy in the Bible when it is supported with little more than wishful thinking.
God's Messiah is a fair presentation of the complexity involved in plowing through different views on the OT's messianic revelation and divine intent. Abernethy and Goswell deal with the principal approaches to the "most prominent" area in messianic prophecy, which is Davidic kingship. They discuss the pros and cons of the different perspectives involved, explaining their thinking as they build their case in a summary of findings.
The authors' introduction explains that the messianic idea in this book refers to "the hope of the coming of a royal agent who will serve God's kingdom purposes." They emphasize that "kingship will be our exclusive focus [and] present a more extended history of messianism in the Old Testament period than is common among scholars in this field."
This is important because: "The preaching of the kingdom by Jesus and his apostles serves to confirm that YHWH's kingship is a key theme in the theology of the Old Testament."
What's more, "The theme of the Messiah is both wider and narrower than is often thought." Abernethy and Goswell show that "a number of texts routinely labeled 'messianic' ... are nothing of the sort, though they do point to Jesus, but in a different way." (225) They explain that "in the person of Jesus we see both the coming of God and the coming of the promised human king (= Messiah). Knowing that Jesus is both the Messiah and the Divine King, we see Jesus more often in the Old Testament than we did before, for everything said of God can be applied to Jesus." (238)
"Some expect the royal messianic expectations in the Old Testament to be like a constellation - if we connect the dots, a clear outline of the Messiah will emerge. The 'constellation' approach does not work. ... Instead of the metaphor of a constellation, an *abstract mosaic* is a more suitable metaphor for viewing the whole. ...
"There are numerous modes of expression within mosaic art. ... Similarly, there is not simply one mode in the Old Testament for expressing messianic expectations. In the Pentateuch, there are promises that kings will come from Abraham's line, ... and that a scepter shall rise out of Israel.... In the Former Prophets, Hannah prophesies that the Lord will 'exhalt the horn of his anointed' ... and God promises through Nathan that David's 'throne shall be established forever.... Nathan's promises are reiterated throughout" much of the OT.
"Another mode for giving rise to messianic expectation is narrative. Generally speaking, the Pentateuch includes within its redemptive story line the expectation that kingship will play some role as God fulfills his promises to Israel to bless the entire world. ...
"In addition to the various types of tile, a mosaic can contain a range" of vantage points, forms and characteristics. Abernethy and Goswell explain how "The same is apparent regarding motifs of messianic expectation in the Old Testament." (239-241)
God's Messiah is an uncommonly thorough and rewarding study of this foundational emphasis within the Christian faith. Highly recommended. (We hope to see a sequel — something like God’s Messiah: Mosaic Remnants)
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OCCULTISM
Magic: A History : From Alchemy to Witchcraft, from the Ice Age to the Present, by Chris Gosden [2] -- "startling, fun, and colorful history" [all entwined with the usual spiritual snares]. The publisher's promo reads: "An Oxford professor of archaeology explores the unique history of magic - the oldest and most neglected strand of human behavior and its resurgence today. Three great strands of belief run through human history: Religion is the relationship with one god or many gods, masters of our lives and destinies. Science distances us from the world, turning us into observers and collectors of knowledge. And magic is direct human participation in the universe: we have influence on the world around us, and the world has influence on us. [Amen to that last phrase.] Over the last few centuries, magic has developed a bad reputation - thanks to the unsavory tactics of shady practitioners, and to a successful propaganda campaign on the part of religion and science, which denigrated magic as backward, irrational, and 'primitive.' In Magic, however, the Oxford professor of archaeology Chris Gosden <www.bit.ly/3pECc5Z> restores magic to its essential place in the history of the world - revealing it to be an enduring element of human behavior that plays an important role for individuals and cultures. [I]ts revelations will leave a spell on the reader." [Sound the multi-level irony alert!]
Library Journal's *starred review* (Oct 1 '20) finds: "Defining magic as practices seeking to explore and exploit the connections between humans and the world around them, Godson [sic] identifies participation as the hallmark of magical traditions." Godson uses magical artifacts to "illustrate the ways in which different cultures have sought to understand the place of human beings within the cosmos and to harness the power of correspondences to foretell or influence future events. Rather than forming successive trends of increasing rationality, Godson persuasively argues that magic, religion, and science have always existed in tandem, forming a 'triple helix' of understanding running through the course of human history up to the present day [and] makes a compelling case for a return to the kind of interconnected perspective central to most magical traditions." [4]
Booklist (Sep 1 '20): "At times the book's ambition is more hindrance than help, as Gosden bewilderingly dedicates a single chapter to three continents while electing not to discuss South Asian magic at all." [3]
Publishers Weekly (May 18 '20): "European societies have practiced many forms of magic throughout history, according to Gosden, including ... the transformation and creation of potent objects. Gosden also explores the use of magic in colonized Africa, Australia, and the Americas, and looks at how spiritualism, the Wiccan movement, and the growing importance of ecology have become important expressions of magic since the 19th century." [5]
Writing in the Wall Street Journal (Oct 30 '20), Notre Dame historian Felipe Fernández Armesto complains that "Much of the book is irrelevant: Sometimes Mr. Gosden can find no evidence of magic in the places or times traversed, as…he swivels and leaps around the world. He wastes pages on elementary background information: five on Judaism; eight on a single settlement in England some 11,000 years old. For Africa, the Americas and Australia we get only what he calls 'a taster of cosmological belief,' much of which has little or nothing to do with magic. In 14 pages on the Americas, we learn, in the unlikely event that we didn't already know it, that 'hunting would have been important in early periods' but find nothing about magic, despite abundant sources on Mesoamerica and the Andean region. Nearly half the book is about Europe. Mr. Gosden sticks disappointingly to England in his account of early-modern science, much of which was indistinguishable from magic. ...
"Mr. Gosden celebrates the survival of magic but doesn’t seem to realize that the more complexity science discloses, the more bafflement it causes, driving the perplexed into wild surmise: If electrons and black holes challenge common sense, so can the rappings of ouija boards. The corruption of education by vocational values and postmodern maunderings has dissipated rigor and corroded critical intelligence, conjuring mad websites and cosmic conspiracy theories. Ecological awareness and tree-hugging blurs into New Age nonsense. The retreat of rational religion leaves the field to wiccans and neo-pagans." <www.on.wsj.com/3kJo8nL> (paywall awaits)
As usual in the occult, this volume will be found most appealing to those with no frame of reference to evaluate the grave spiritual danger therein.
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - God's Messiah in the Old Testament: Expectations of a Coming King, by Andrew T. Abernethy and Gregory Goswell (Baker, 2020, paperback, 304 pages) <www.amzn.to/3n49qt5>
2 - Magic: A History : From Alchemy to Witchcraft, from the Ice Age to the Present, by Chris Gosden (FS & G, 2020, hardcover, 512 pages) <www.amzn.to/2GyUcNc>
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