Good questions all. The question about Jesus and omniscience/pain: my thoughts aren’t fully formed on that, which is why I haven’t explored the subject in more depth. I’m a bit ambivalent at present. On the one hand, I am tempted to believe that prescience devalues the physical and emotional suffering of Christ. I think part of the reason human suffering is what it is is becuase we endure it without knowing how or when it will end. Entering the unknown in a state of agony with no foresight about its duration is, I think, quite different from agony that has a finite end and a definable purpose. I found natural childbirth very painful, but knowing it would only last X hours and knowing I would have this beautiful baby afterwards made the pain much more bearable than had I had the pain without any context.

On the other hand, if Jesus was truly fully man perhaps some aspects of human tragedy and suffering applied to him; I can’t know. But I admit to a terrible doubt towards this business of being fully man and fully human. I think that the two are so profoundly exclusive that the suggesion one could be utterly both . . .well, i suppose it’s a Christian mystery. That I don’t really accept it as true doesn’t much matter, I guess, given that I’m not a Christian.

Re: the latter question about humility. I agree it’s confusing as written; perhaps I shall edit it. I didn’t mean to suggest that Jesus died for the sake of humility. I mean two different things: one, (the one I mean outright) is that the way I was taught, sacrifice at Lent is a humble response to the tragedy of Christ. Christ on the cross was the pertinent symbol at Lent in my church, hence the two being linked in that paragraph. But also, I think in a more subconscious way, I’ve always linked the image of Christ on the cross to *my* guilt, *my* humility. I could never help but look at that image and think, “This suffering and death was for my benefit”, which was both humbling, and for me, debilitating. I didn’t want this kind of suffering linked with God’s love. There’s enough suffering in the world just by the nature of life that my cosmology and sacred history didn’t need additional suffring tacked onto it. I think many former Christians feel this way.

There are quite a lot of things about Christianity that still speak to me and shape how I view the world and how I live, even though it’s been 12 years since I left the church. If I didn’t still care I wouldn’t dedicate brain space to it. so I appreciate questions like these to help me clarifiy my own position, and to make sure I really do think what I think I think ;)

You also wrote: ‘For many of us, the notion of sacrifice carries with it the Christ on the cross, or the self-abnegation of Lent. Yet the sacrifice that is required to change one’s life isn’t sacrifice for the sake of humility…’ I find this a really puzzling statement! It sounds as if you are saying that Jesus died for the sake of humility, but why he would do that? Wouldn’t that be a waste of his time and ours? What would be the point of such a sacrifice from a God who is wholly humble already? And how would that help us?

I’ve not read it, but I recall Nel Noddings talking quite a bit about it in her book Caring. She complained that Kierkegaard had it utterly wrong–that man’s first obligation is to his tangible here-and-now cared-fors, not the whim of some transcendent Deity. She complained that the kind of faith Kierkegaard trumpets in this book flies in the face of an ethic of care, as it misplaces our loyalties and puts our obligations in the wrong order.

Ever since reading her summation of the book, I’ve been wanting to read it. But I’d forgotten the title.

Here’s a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_and_Trembling

I haven’t read Fear and Trembling. Who is the author?

I’m glad you made it over. I hope I have something more interesting to write about this week. I’m not entirely happy with what I’ve been writing about lately. But at least I’m writing. It’s a start.

I just thought I’d let you know that I have found some of your writing, by which, of course, I mean this.

Have you read Fear and Trembling?

I have a feeling that I might need to sacrifice something just in order to get on with my life, but I’m not sure what.