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with regard to icelandic sensibilities, there is a story (no doubt apocryphal) in which a chieftain is converted because he is told that he can have as many followers in heaven as will fit into the church(s) he builds on earth. meg > "makes me wonder how > different Christianity really felt for ordinary people. > On the ritual side, all the evidence suggests 'Not very much'." > It occurs to me that we should be careful to understand what we mean by > 'feel'. > Different people get different things and feelings from their religion, or > at least from their Christianity, which is the only religion about which I > am competent to speak. > I hesitate to generalise, because someone may well write in and say, "That's > not how I feel, at all!" But that's my point: feelings we regard as > normative may be quite alien to someone else. > Many Evangelicals, for example, experience (so I am told!) great joy from > their faith, and the feeling of having a great load of sin and guilt lifted > from their shoulders by their faith in the atoning power of Christ's death. > However, many of the Christians I have had dealings with, and ministered to, > and taught, have never been aware of carrying a load of guilt in the first > place. > Many, (though not all) Catholics have very tender and loving feelings > towards the Blessed Virgin Mary; many (though not all) Protestants do not > share these feelings. > Such feelings do not, in any case, seem to have played much part in the > conversion of either England or Iceland. Bede tells us the marvellous story > of the sparrow: "So the life of man appears but for a moment; what follows > or indeed what went before, we know not at all. If this new doctrine brings > us more certain information, it seems right that we should accept it." > Christianity appealed to the Anglo-Saxons' insecurity, their fears of the > unknown. > In Iceland, the question seems to have been rather of accepting a common law > under which all could live; Christianity is seen first and foremost as a > legal system: > "Thorgeir asked to be heard, and said, 'It seems to me that an impossible > situation arises if we do not all have one and the same law. If the laws > are divided the peace will be divided, and we cannot tolerate that. Now, > therefore, I want to ask heathens and christians whether they will accept > the law which I am going to proclaim.'" (Njal's Saga, ch. 105) > Christ is presented in many ways in the New Testament: As the Lamb of God > who takes away the sins of the world (appealing to those oppressed by a > sense of their sinfulness); as the Light of the World (appealing to those > who feel in the dark, whether through ignorance, depression or adverse > circumstances); as the Good Shepherd (appealing to those who feel lost); > as the Divine Healer (appealing to those who feel sick in body or mind); as > the Image of the Unseen God (appealing to those who feel the need to see > God), and in many, many other ways. > Just because we do not see ancient peoples experiencing the feelings we > would regard as normative for Christianity, does not mean that their > conversion was not real, or deep, or sincere. No doubt their needs were > very different from our own. > Bill. Margaret Cormack [log in to unmask] Dept. of Philosophy and Religion fax: 843-953-6388 College of Charleston tel: 843-953-8033 Charleston, SC 29424-0001 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%