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Idolatry and Christianity
- Thread starter Fool
- Start date
you don't believe christians practice anthropolatry? or you don't think christians ignore the fact that idolatry is forbidden? or you don't think christians who practice idolatry follow the Torah, OT, and/or NT?
They don't believe their religion is idolatrous.
RestlessSoul
Well-Known Member
Christianity, in particular the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic traditions, have been enriched, not corrupted, by the many pagan elements they absorbed. That’s how I see it, anyway.
Puritans obviously took a different view, and broke from those Byzantine and Medieval institutions, partly on exactly the grounds the OP refers to. Puritan soldiers in Oliver Cromwell’s army smashed nearly all the stained glass in the windows of Peterborough Cathedral, and destroyed the alter, because they considered it idolatrous. I consider this to have been an act of unconscionable vandalism. But religious puritanism and fanaticism have often gone hand in hand.
Puritans obviously took a different view, and broke from those Byzantine and Medieval institutions, partly on exactly the grounds the OP refers to. Puritan soldiers in Oliver Cromwell’s army smashed nearly all the stained glass in the windows of Peterborough Cathedral, and destroyed the alter, because they considered it idolatrous. I consider this to have been an act of unconscionable vandalism. But religious puritanism and fanaticism have often gone hand in hand.
It's a mystery that has left Jews scratching their heads for many centuries now.
metis
aged ecumenical anthropologist
No major Christian group practices idolatry, using the definition of the making and worshiping of an object.
Is there a history of people committing idolatry? Are any other people group any different? Can a person worship oneself, a car, their job? It is all a matter of the heart.
So the answer is, some Christians can and do but we are all able to do the same. So help your neighbor as yourself.
I think the kissing of icons and statues would be seen as problematic at best and idolatrous at worst. Not to mention to everyone outside of Christianity they're worshipping a dead man who they made a god.
idoaltry is simply the worship of an object, or formed, created, generated, begotten thing. not formed per se by the person but by nature, the universe, god in general.
jesus was formed, conceived.
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loving your neighbor as youself isn't idolatry. it makes your neighbor equal to yourself. so then the one is not lesser/greater than another. there in lies the difference, an object treated as greater/lesser than another is an act of idolatry
in the OT moses had the men to smash and burn everything when over throwing a city. this was done because of idolatry
I'm sorry, I must not have been clear. What I meant was that if you find someone in idolatry, help them through it by loving them.
Why not just leave them to their beliefs (unless it's a friend or kin member you feel you are responsible for) and let God help?
you can lead a horse to water but loving them isn't going to make them drink; especially when they have an addiction/attachment to something else.
suffering comes from attachment to treasures not of the heart. you can't serve self and other without altruism
metis
aged ecumenical anthropologist
There's a difference between worship and veneration as long as the veneration doesn't include worship of an object. All religious groups venerate something.
Because I am my brother's keeper?
They do, but I'm thinking from a Jewish/Torah POV this seems problematic if they claim to worship the same God.
No... I can't agree...
I loved my sister into the Kingdom of God.
Although you do have a point that you can't make them drink... but in so many cases, they are thirsty and do drink.
I've never heard this idea before. It seems to promote proselytisation.