- Main Entry:
- prag·mat·ic
- Pronunciation:
- \prag-ˈma-tik\
- Function:
- adjective
- Etymology:
- Latin pragmaticus skilled in law or business, from Greek pragmatikos, from pragmat-, pragma deed, from prassein to do — more at practical
- Date:
- 1616
1: archaic a (1): busy (2): officious b: opinionated
2: relating to matters of fact or practical affairs often to the exclusion of intellectual or artistic matters : practical as opposed to idealistic <pragmatic men of power have had no time or inclination to deal with…social morality — K. B. Clark>
3: relating to or being in accordance with philosophical pragmatism
These days, it's very hard to define what is a Christian? Similar with the situation 2000 years ago, Christianity today has been plagued with different beliefs and practices. This is not a new thing, even though both side of Christianity tried to exaggerate theirs position. The liberal position is that the Christianity that we believe in ,is no more significance than other "Christianities" (Arianism, Ebionites, Gnosticism, Marcionism, etc). While the conservative Christians believe that the doctrine and belief of contemporary Christian stays the same for the last 2 millenniums, started out with Jesus's teaching.
What can I say about this fact (what is the original christianity is?) related to the contemporary Christianity situation is that "it does not really matter at all". From my experience of going to church (especially Indonesian church) for the last 10 or so years is that you're hardly heard the preacher talks about this kind of stuff. It maybe that the weekly service is not the right forum to discuss this matter, maybe....or maybe that....Christianity starts to adapt some of its aspect to conform with other religions, mainly that a religion does not have to be grounded on historical basis. It's never easy to discuss about religion, people get offended easily. I can understand that very well, because when you believe something to be the absolute truth, it's kind of irritating to hear other people questioning that truth. There is no way of getting around that.
Only after the exposé of the Da Vinci's code, that people start to wander about the authenticity of their belief. It is a sad situation when a badly written fiction novel serves as a catalyst for truth seeking journey. I am ashamed to admit this, but that is the case for me too. It's not that Da Vinci's code make me disbelieve everything that has been taught to me, but it did make me realise that I don't really know why I believe what I believe.
That realization 4 years ago set me on a path of constant questioning and doubting. Nevertheless, as Socrates said, ho de anexetastos bios ou biôtos anthrôpôi, The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being. From this journey I learned to become a pragmatic Christian. I use this term after I read a book called variety of religious experience by Willam James. He is one of the most widely known pragmatism philosopher aside from John Dewey. What he explained in his book matched with what I observe when attending a church or hanging out with my fellow Christians. It's that a religious experience can be considered real or truth not based on fact or historical basis, but merely on the unique experience of each person who participate in it. This conclusion bothers me a lot, because I believe that in order to believe something ,it's non-sensical to rely on experience, especially experience which cannot be verified objectively. However this conclusion explains why there are so many kind of Christianities, whose teachings can hardly be reconciled between each other. I love it when Christians justified this schism by claiming that God gives different vision to each of us, hence we have to pursue our own vision. And every time i hear that only decency that keeps me from screaming "that's a lot of bullshit". Even in Perth, you can find 15-20 different Indonesian churches.....the fact is that no one follows what ישוע (Yeshua) had taught us 2000 years ago. By following, I don't mean people who can follow completely all of Jesus's teaching. What i mean is that people have different view of who Jesus and what his teaching is. Hence you have emerging Christians, red letter Christians, dispensationalist Christians, apocalyptic christian, Bishop's Spong Christians, Unitarian Christians, LDS, and on and on and on and on. And when someone start to make noise about these difference, these well meaning and good natured Christians hush them up and tell them that what we do is more important than doctrine, moreover what is the point of arguing while millions of children died needlessly in Africa, millions of young girl are sold to be laboured as prostitutes in Asia. It does not seem like a priority isn't it ,
Thoughtful Christians does not like to use this term (leap of faith) because it implies ignorance, they said that believe in God is leap into the light, not into the dark. Personally, I don't know. What I know about Christianity is this
1. There is a lot of discrepancy and inconsistency in the bible, not just a minor one, but also a major. one You can find a book that purport to explain away all those difficulties (Gleason Archer or Norman Geisler book), but the explanation does not seem natural. It's sometimes convoluted and requires more faith to believe in the explanation rather than the question.
Or you can look at all those girls who enjoy watching sex and the city a lot, who talks about it in their blog. Who follow religiously all the episode and watch the DVD over and over again, while claiming that they are Christians. You better not telling them that sex and city is a series which do not actually promote a good christian value. They will massacre you for it with their self righteousness reply. Again they will remind you that, who are you to judge them, and as long as they are being good people, what is the harm of watching those kind of TV series. Again..they are pragmatist Christians. I am sure Jesus will weep when He saw some of his children watch TV series, whose main theme is sex, not just any sex, but kinky sex as a part of normal healthy life style. No wonder, because most of the writers are gay male hence the obsessions of the characters with penis size.
And look at some of these churches
1. City Harvest (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_harvest)
Albanian Nun, British Spy/Journalist, Irish English Professor/Writer, German Doctor/Theologian/Musician/Humanitarian, Danish Philosopher, French Mathematician/Philosopher. The motto "E Pluribus Unum", Unity in Diversity sums up what this all about.
In the end, pragmatist Christianity seems like a reasonable way to bridge these contradictions. My journey keeps on going, and I guess the curse of uncertainty will always plague all steps that I take. I hope that in the end, whatever I believe, let it be that I believe it thoroughly and thoughtfully not for the sake of practicallity and convenience.
2: relating to matters of fact or practical affairs often to the exclusion of intellectual or artistic matters : practical as opposed to idealistic <pragmatic men of power have had no time or inclination to deal with…social morality — K. B. Clark>
3: relating to or being in accordance with philosophical pragmatism
These days, it's very hard to define what is a Christian? Similar with the situation 2000 years ago, Christianity today has been plagued with different beliefs and practices. This is not a new thing, even though both side of Christianity tried to exaggerate theirs position. The liberal position is that the Christianity that we believe in ,is no more significance than other "Christianities" (Arianism, Ebionites, Gnosticism, Marcionism, etc). While the conservative Christians believe that the doctrine and belief of contemporary Christian stays the same for the last 2 millenniums, started out with Jesus's teaching.
What can I say about this fact (what is the original christianity is?) related to the contemporary Christianity situation is that "it does not really matter at all". From my experience of going to church (especially Indonesian church) for the last 10 or so years is that you're hardly heard the preacher talks about this kind of stuff. It maybe that the weekly service is not the right forum to discuss this matter, maybe....or maybe that....Christianity starts to adapt some of its aspect to conform with other religions, mainly that a religion does not have to be grounded on historical basis. It's never easy to discuss about religion, people get offended easily. I can understand that very well, because when you believe something to be the absolute truth, it's kind of irritating to hear other people questioning that truth. There is no way of getting around that.
Only after the exposé of the Da Vinci's code, that people start to wander about the authenticity of their belief. It is a sad situation when a badly written fiction novel serves as a catalyst for truth seeking journey. I am ashamed to admit this, but that is the case for me too. It's not that Da Vinci's code make me disbelieve everything that has been taught to me, but it did make me realise that I don't really know why I believe what I believe.
That realization 4 years ago set me on a path of constant questioning and doubting. Nevertheless, as Socrates said, ho de anexetastos bios ou biôtos anthrôpôi, The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being. From this journey I learned to become a pragmatic Christian. I use this term after I read a book called variety of religious experience by Willam James. He is one of the most widely known pragmatism philosopher aside from John Dewey. What he explained in his book matched with what I observe when attending a church or hanging out with my fellow Christians. It's that a religious experience can be considered real or truth not based on fact or historical basis, but merely on the unique experience of each person who participate in it. This conclusion bothers me a lot, because I believe that in order to believe something ,it's non-sensical to rely on experience, especially experience which cannot be verified objectively. However this conclusion explains why there are so many kind of Christianities, whose teachings can hardly be reconciled between each other. I love it when Christians justified this schism by claiming that God gives different vision to each of us, hence we have to pursue our own vision. And every time i hear that only decency that keeps me from screaming "that's a lot of bullshit". Even in Perth, you can find 15-20 different Indonesian churches.....the fact is that no one follows what ישוע (Yeshua) had taught us 2000 years ago. By following, I don't mean people who can follow completely all of Jesus's teaching. What i mean is that people have different view of who Jesus and what his teaching is. Hence you have emerging Christians, red letter Christians, dispensationalist Christians, apocalyptic christian, Bishop's Spong Christians, Unitarian Christians, LDS, and on and on and on and on. And when someone start to make noise about these difference, these well meaning and good natured Christians hush them up and tell them that what we do is more important than doctrine, moreover what is the point of arguing while millions of children died needlessly in Africa, millions of young girl are sold to be laboured as prostitutes in Asia. It does not seem like a priority isn't it ,
- to know when was the actual time Jesus is crucified, is it before or after the passover
- to know whether Jesus acknowledges that the holy spirit is part of the holy trinity or is it the invention of latter Christians
- to know whether Paul is a sexist or not.
And how does God's existence emerge from the proof? Does it follow straightway, without any breach of continuity? Or do we have an analogy to the behavior of the little Cartesian dolls? As soon as I let go of the doll it stands on its head. As soon as I let it go, I must therefore let it go. So also with the proof. As long as I keep my hold on the proof, i.e., continue to demonstrate, the existence does not come out, if for no other reason that that I am engaged in proving it; but when I let the proof go, the existence is there. But this act of letting go is surely also something; it is indeed a contribution of mine. Must not this also be taken into account, this little moment, brief as it may be, it need not be long, for it is a leap. - Soren Kierkegaard
Thoughtful Christians does not like to use this term (leap of faith) because it implies ignorance, they said that believe in God is leap into the light, not into the dark. Personally, I don't know. What I know about Christianity is this
1. There is a lot of discrepancy and inconsistency in the bible, not just a minor one, but also a major. one You can find a book that purport to explain away all those difficulties (Gleason Archer or Norman Geisler book), but the explanation does not seem natural. It's sometimes convoluted and requires more faith to believe in the explanation rather than the question.
What has been presented as Christianity during these nineteen centuries is only a beginning, full of mistakes, not full blown Christianity springing from the spirit of Jesus. - Albert Schweitzer2. Christianity claims to change people live. But again, people fail you. I read in some blog about a girl whose parent converted to Christianity, and how their life changes after their conversions (e.g they quarrel less, etc, you know the story). One day, their (the parents) friend tell them that they should go to Israel because it's an amazing experience to go to the holy land. The mom become "obsessed" with the Israel trip and that obsession upsets the dad. and caused some commotion. However, the mom keeps her faith and pray every day for "blessing"to come on their business so they can go to Israel. Well God blessed them. In a short time. they have enough money to go to Israel and enjoy the holy land experience to see the mount, where Jesus perform his sermon, the sea of Galilee where he walks on the water. While a small percentage of that money can be used to provide basic immunization for peasant's children across China to make sure they don't die in their first years, or basic sleeping nets for hundreds thousands children in Africa to be protected from malaria which kill half of them every year. BUT HEY!!! It's their money.....who am I to tell them what they need to do with their money.
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. - Acts 42 - 47Maybe Jesus feels sad that those people do not see where he did his ministry 2 thousands years ago, a land that is now filled with such a hatred that Palestinians parents hate Israeli more than they love their own children. Where a fight is quite a common thing in the church of holy sepulchre (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7357496.stm), not just a normal fight but a fight between clergymen. Maybe Jesus do not care about dying children. Just maybe...
Or you can look at all those girls who enjoy watching sex and the city a lot, who talks about it in their blog. Who follow religiously all the episode and watch the DVD over and over again, while claiming that they are Christians. You better not telling them that sex and city is a series which do not actually promote a good christian value. They will massacre you for it with their self righteousness reply. Again they will remind you that, who are you to judge them, and as long as they are being good people, what is the harm of watching those kind of TV series. Again..they are pragmatist Christians. I am sure Jesus will weep when He saw some of his children watch TV series, whose main theme is sex, not just any sex, but kinky sex as a part of normal healthy life style. No wonder, because most of the writers are gay male hence the obsessions of the characters with penis size.
And look at some of these churches
1. City Harvest (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_harvest)
It is the first titanium-clad building in Asia and is modeled after the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Special limestone for part of the building was imported from Europe. The front of the building has a world class fountain wall which is lit up at night. There are more than 200 parking lots within the building.
The lounge area on the first floor has plasma television monitors built into the walls featuring the local television programming or video recordings of past church services. There is a café, a rooftop garden, a children’s playground and wading pool, a baptism pool, and even a small putting green for golf enthusiasts. Cool Mist fans blast out moist air over the entire rooftop area to ward off the daytime heat. The bathroom facilities were designed by French designer Philippe Starck.
The auditorium (which is underground) covers 1,700 square meters and is totally column-free. There are two artist make-up rooms directly behind the stage. The stage was created by Dan Hess, a designer who formerly worked with Christie’s Auction House in New York. It features a bright LED screen.
2. Crystal Cathedral(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Cathedral)World-famous architect Philip Johnson designed the main sanctuary building, which was constructed using over 10,000 rectangular panes of glass and can hold 2,900 worshippers. The church is also known for its 320 rank, five manual pipe organ Fratelli Ruffatti. The instrument incorporates the large Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ built in 1962 for New York's Avery Fisher Hall. The rectangular panes of glass are not bolted to the structure; instead they are glued to it using a silicone based glue. This and other measures allow the building to withstand an earthquake of magnitude 8.0. constructed by
The first church services were held in space rented from the Orange Drive In Theatre. In 1961, the congregation moved to a new sanctuary designed by Richard Neutra. Construction on the Cathedral began in 1977 and ended in 1980. The initial estimated cost of the church was $6 million, but the final cost was over $17 million (about $55 million in 2007 dollars). One way Dr. Schuller found to help finance the construction of the Crystal Cathedral was to invite donors to give $500 for each of the 10,000 rectangular panes of glass, which raised over US$5 million by its completion. Upon moving from the old Neutra sanctuary to the new Johnson sanctuary, the congregation changed its name to the Crystal Cathedral Congregation.
Is all that necessary?!! Is all that necessary??? Is all that f**king necessary???!!!!
Then I see my 32inch Aquos LCD TV lying the corner of my living room. I see $60 Duxton pillow unused in the corner of my bedroom. I see $450 Dyson Vaccuum Cleaner that is used only on a small apartment. I see all the waste I accumulate for the last 25 years of my life. It's all seemed unnecessary......it's all seemed frivolous. I guess this frustration that turn people to become a pragmatic christian. The constant struggle between being good and staying bad....maybe the last nail to shut people to become pragmatic christian.The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Matthew 26:413.That the Hand of God guides every step that I take is a fact that I know, like I know that the sun shines every day. I seldom looks at the sun, but without it, it's impossible to see anything. Everything that I'd been through with my soon to be wife, without God, we would have been separated long time ago.
“A coincidence is a small miracle in which God chooses to remain anonymous.”4. My fascination with people like Mother Teresa, Malcolm Muggeridge, C.S.Lewis, Albert Schweitzer, Soren Kierkegaard, Blaise Pascal, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who are all Christians, who came different background and emphasize on different style of christian living. Nevertheless, they are seemed to possess the other worldliness and the uniqueness of the early church.
Albanian Nun, British Spy/Journalist, Irish English Professor/Writer, German Doctor/Theologian/Musician/Humanitarian, Danish Philosopher, French Mathematician/Philosopher. The motto "E Pluribus Unum", Unity in Diversity sums up what this all about.
In the end, pragmatist Christianity seems like a reasonable way to bridge these contradictions. My journey keeps on going, and I guess the curse of uncertainty will always plague all steps that I take. I hope that in the end, whatever I believe, let it be that I believe it thoroughly and thoughtfully not for the sake of practicallity and convenience.
And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. - 1 Corinthians 15:14
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