Sublime
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Perhaps the most notable Bogomil after the movement’s founder was the heresiarch Basil the Physician, who was active in the latter part of the eleventh century. It is said that his ministry lasted for 52 years before he was unmasked during the anti-heretical campaigns of the Byzantine emperor, Alexius Comnenus (1081–1118).
Sean Martin • The Cathars: The Most Successful Heresy of the Middle Ages
Christ is always willing to die and resurrect himself, while Satan isn’t willing to die. It’s a metaphor to contrast two opposites: constant transformation (or, perpetual “molting”), vs., desperate ego-clinging. It’s about shedding frames vs. clutching frames.
Funny how this is embedded in the root of Christianity, yet the surface-level practice of
... See moreThe spiritual kind of rescue was a genuine need with him. There may be coarse hypocrites, who consciously affect beliefs and emotions for the sake of gulling the world, but Bulstrode was not one of them. He was simply a man whose desires had been stronger than his theoretic beliefs, and who had gradually explained the gratification of his desires i
... See moreGeorge Eliot • Middlemarch
Jack Tanner
Angelism regards the human person as a spirit imprisoned in the body. We are the angels that fell from heaven. Our task is to raise our spirit back up again, not to make it happy with its prison and its gaoler (the Devil!).
view. For instance, in the mid-1700s David Hume wrote a lot about the “natural benevolence” of human beings. And a century later, even Charles Darwin himself attributed an “instinct of sympathy” to our species. But
Dalai Lama • The Art of Happiness, 10th Anniversary Edition: A Handbook for Living
Sir Godwin’s rudeness towards her and utter want of feeling ranged him with Dover and all other creditors – disagreeable people who only thought of themselves, and did not mind how annoying they were to her. Even her father was unkind, and might have done more for them. In fact there was but one person in Rosamond’s world whom she did not regard as
... See moreGeorge Eliot • Middlemarch
St Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556), founder of the Jesuits, who went so far as to proclaim that he would have counted it a cause for pride had he been of Jewish extraction.
David Bentley Hart • The Story of Christianity
Hatred and persecution of Jews goes back to biblical times. It was continued by the Greeks and Romans. It found a special place in Christian theology.
Jonathan Sacks • A Letter in the Scroll: Understanding Our Jewish Identity and Exploring the Legacy of the World's Oldest Religion
He may be described, briefly, as a combination of Einstein and Mrs. Eddy. He founded a religion, of which the main tenets were the transmigration of soulsIII and the sinfulness of eating beans. His religion was embodied in a religious order, which, here and there, acquired control of the State and established a rule of the saints. But the unregener
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