… The message of Easter the churches forgot – Mark Vernon.
Religions and wisdom traditions, including Christianity, offer paths that awaken the eternal perception. They’re tricky – the road less travelled, the narrow gate, as Jesus put it. And that’s because they require a kind of death. “Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it,” Jesus is recalled teaching. To see the timeless, the time-bound has to be regarded with an artful combination of curiosity and disinterest. “Sacrifice” is the Christian term; “detachment”, the Buddhist.
This is certainly worth remembering. But I don't feel it requires that one reject the doctrine of Christ's redemptive act. At least I feel no such need. If we're going to use the ancient outlook as a touchstone, it may well have been that outlook enabled so many people so quickly to accept Christianity in the first place. I am also unaware that either Augustine or Meister Eckhart rejected the doctrine of Redemption.
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