07-08-2009, 07:42 PM
Greetings, abudar:
As a member of the CoE, I want to briefly comment on references made in that article on the issue of the CoE being in "full communion" and "isolation" with the other Christian denominations. Have you ever wondered about the unity that exists in Islam in regards to their theological understanding and interpretations within their own religion? Aside from the relatively minor differences between sunni and shi'a Islam, their differences pale in comparison to ours as Christians. Why is that? Sure, we can cite many reasons but perhaps it comes down to a very basic characteristic of humanity -- language. The language of Islam from day one was and remains Arabic. As you know, they would not tolerate its translation into any other language.
We, the Aramaic-speaking churches were thinking in Aramaic while the
Greek-speaking churches wanted to argue theology about an Aramaic -speaking Christ and his apostles from an Indo-European perspective. You are bound to have significant misunderstandings in translation. Islam never had this problem to their gain. Granted, they were able to enforce it with the sword while Christianity was never the religion of a powerful state until after the time of Constantine some 300 years after its founding. 300 hundred years was more than enough for the Greek-speaking world to muddy the waters, so-to-speak, of a simple Semitic-thinking religion. And as long as they remain stubborn in accepting the fact that Christianity can best be understood in a Semitic mindset, their theological arguments will continue and we can never truly be in "full communion". I'm sorry to say. Afterall, wasn't the confusion at the tower of Babel a result of the division of a single language?
As a member of the CoE, I want to briefly comment on references made in that article on the issue of the CoE being in "full communion" and "isolation" with the other Christian denominations. Have you ever wondered about the unity that exists in Islam in regards to their theological understanding and interpretations within their own religion? Aside from the relatively minor differences between sunni and shi'a Islam, their differences pale in comparison to ours as Christians. Why is that? Sure, we can cite many reasons but perhaps it comes down to a very basic characteristic of humanity -- language. The language of Islam from day one was and remains Arabic. As you know, they would not tolerate its translation into any other language.
We, the Aramaic-speaking churches were thinking in Aramaic while the
Greek-speaking churches wanted to argue theology about an Aramaic -speaking Christ and his apostles from an Indo-European perspective. You are bound to have significant misunderstandings in translation. Islam never had this problem to their gain. Granted, they were able to enforce it with the sword while Christianity was never the religion of a powerful state until after the time of Constantine some 300 years after its founding. 300 hundred years was more than enough for the Greek-speaking world to muddy the waters, so-to-speak, of a simple Semitic-thinking religion. And as long as they remain stubborn in accepting the fact that Christianity can best be understood in a Semitic mindset, their theological arguments will continue and we can never truly be in "full communion". I'm sorry to say. Afterall, wasn't the confusion at the tower of Babel a result of the division of a single language?