kate_nepveu | In which I display my stunning ignorance

Not once but twice!

These are serious questions, by the way—they might offend people but I'm not trying to make fun, I really am that ignorant and I really would like to know.

What was different about European colonialism?

It seems to me that European colonialism gets talked about in a different, more negative way than the various Empires that came and went in Europe, the Near East, and North Africa (Roman, Byzantine, Abbasid, etc.). First, is it the general consensus that European colonialism was either worse or bad in a different way, and second, how? Was it the method, or the timing, or something else?

How, according to Christian theology, does Jesus's death save humanity?

Okay, as I understand it, Christian theology states that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine as one part of the Trinity, one of the three beings/instances/presences that make up God. (Well, those parts of it that believe in the Trinity.) His death saved humanity.

I think the easiest way to get at my question is by contrast.

When I think of other instances where a single death saves a large group, I come up with two categories, which are basically drawn from fantasy novels. First, the death provides the, hmm, the necessary means for something to happen: life-force or energy to power a spell, a door for the gods to enter into the material world, a messenger to tell the gods that their help is really truly needed, something like that. Second, the death is part of a bargain: for that price (to demonstrate resolve or need, perhaps), the gods agree to intervene.

When it comes to Christianity, the first category doesn't seem to fit at all. Instead, the little bit of doctrine I'm familiar with seems to incline somewhat toward the second—but I can't follow the logic of such an argument. That is, Jesus is part of God, and why would you bargain with yourself or pay yourself a price? (Possibly this is another way of asking whether Jesus, as part of the Trinity, had free will.)

Is this related to the way original sin is transmitted (which I don't know either)? Or is this something not actually explained in doctrine, that needs to be taken on faith?

(I'm most interested in actual doctrinal answers to this question, but personal opinions are welcome too.)

(I am, by the way, thinking of making this my default icon for the next four to six weeks. And how are you?)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The church I grew up in (Baptist) related Jesus to the Old Testament laws. Specifically, the Hebrews were required to sacrifice animals to petition for forgiveness of sins, otherwise they would be consigned to eternal torment; Jesus, being God, offered himself to make that sacrifice once and for all for everyone that believed in and accepted his sacrifice. Fulfilled the requirements of his own original law given to the Hebrews, so to speak.

Of course, now that I put it like that, it sounds like he really just wanted to save all the doves and the lambs from dying an early death.

There was a lot more that they taught, but I could never make it make complete sense, which is why I no longer attend my parent's church even as a mythological curiosity.

Afaik, the Torah doesn't have anything about hell.

There's plenty in there about the punishment of the sinful.

Rabbinic tradition holds that there's a part of the afterlife reserved for the torment of the sinful. It's called Gehinom (Gehenna in English sources), a name which occurs in the Torah, referring to the Valley of Hinom, a fiery garbage dump which had supposedly been a site of pagan human sacrifice.

It was the first known instance of "Pay it Forward", as a matter of fact.

(shoot me now)

Thanks.

Hey, unrelated question--would a Baptist willingly go to services at, say, a Lutheran church? Or some other very dissimilar but still generally Protestant one?

I don't know how broadly my experiences would apply, but I was raised as a Baptist and, twice while she was particularly religiously active and we moved out of state, my mother went through a search-for-a-church.

The default was to start visiting other Baptist churches (with a preference for those of a fundamentalist bent), and then to make a couple forays into other denominations (we visited some nondenominational churches, a Unitarian church and, I think, a Lutheran church). Doing so, however, was more of a last resort and there were certain denominations that would never have been explored--Methodist churches were a no-go because of, as I recall, doctrinal differences about salvation. Mom would never have considered going to an Anglican/Episcopal church, either. Other Protestant denominations were more or less considered as foreign and mistaken in their beliefs as Catholics.

I think a lot depends, however, on how progressive or liberal a church you start out in; since Mom was coming from a Southern Baptist fundamentalist background, her view of where we might go was very conservative.

And, er, just in case my early attempt at distancing myself from my mother's perspective collapsed, the "foreign and mistaken" comment is by way of my mother's take on other denominations.

That's about what I thought, and obviously I picked the Lutherans out of a hat there. => Thanks.

Go to services, yes. I myself attended Lutheran schools (Missouri Synod) until I was 15.

It's kind of important, if you're a Protestant, to understand the official differences between denominations (their word for their... sects, I guess?) and even the unofficial differences between different branches of denominations, and whether single churches in a given denomination are allowed freedom to build their own belief statements, and what kind of freedom they are allowed. The Baptists that are not Southern are not particularly well organized and the church I went to was pretty independent, so I can't say how representative it was.

In general, a Protestant that is not Lutheran will not (or is not allowed to) take communion at a Lutheran church, because that is a point on which Lutherans and many other Protestants disagree (consubstantiation vs. memorialism). But they would go to a service, even if they were slightly put off by the different methods of worship. (chants and short sermons)

Sorry so long, I could go on and on about all the strange differences in Protestants; I find it endlessly hilarious and interesting.

In which I display my stunning ignorance

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