An Interior Faith<\/strong><\/a>\nTuesday, February 26, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p>Describing his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus in his letter to the Galatians, Paul writes a most telling line. He says, \u201cGod revealed his Son <em>in <\/em>me\u201d (Galatians 1:16, JB, NIV). This high degree of trust, introspection, and self-confidence was quite unusual during a time that was more extroverted and literal. In my opinion, this is why the first fifteen hundred years of Christianity did not make much of Paul. Except for the rare Augustine and many of the Catholic mystics and hermits, it took widespread literacy and the availability of the written word in the sixteenth century to move believers toward a more interior Christianity, both for good and for ill. [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Note Paul\u2019s primary criterion for authentic faith: \u201cExamine yourselves to make sure you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you acknowledge that Jesus Christ is really in you? If not, you have failed the test\u201d (2 Corinthians 13:5). So simple it\u2019s scary! Paul\u2019s radical incarnationalism sets a strong standard. He knew that the Christ must first of all be acknowledged <em>within <\/em>before Christ can be recognized <em>without <\/em>as Lord and Master. God must reveal God\u2019s self <em>in you <\/em>before God can fully reveal God\u2019s self <em>to you.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s important to remember that Paul is just like us in never knowing Jesus in the flesh. Like him, we only know the Christ through observing and honoring the depth of our human experience and gaining new eyes. <em>When we can honor and receive our own moment of sadness or fullness as a gracious participation in the eternal sadness or fullness of God, we recognize ourselves as a member of this one universal Body<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thus, Paul shows that we too can know Christ\u2019s infinitely available presence through our own <em>inner dialogue, <\/em>or the natural law, which is \u201cengraved on our hearts.\u201d Quite daringly, he declares that even so-called pagans, \u201cwho do not possess the law . . . can be said to <em>be <\/em>the law\u201d (see Romans 2:14-15). This is surely why he spoke to the well-educated Athenians of \u201cThe Unknown God . . . whom you already worship without knowing it\u201d (Acts 17:23). Paul likely inherited this idea from the \u201cnew covenant\u201d to God\u2019s people: \u201cI will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts\u201d (see Jeremiah 31:31-33). (This idea remained largely undeveloped until a <em>natural law <\/em>was sought out by the moral theologians of the last century\u2014and now in Pope Francis\u2019 strong understanding of individual conscience.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paul merely took incarnationalism to its universal and logical conclusions. We see that in his bold exclamation: \u201cThere is only Christ. He is everything and he is in everything\u201d (Colossians 3:11). If I were to write that today, people would call me a pantheist (the universe is God), whereas I am really a pan<em>en<\/em>theist (God lies within all things, but also transcends them), as were both Jesus and Paul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christ in Paul\u2019s Eyes An Interior Faith Tuesday, February 26, 2019 Describing his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus in his letter to the Galatians, Paul writes a most telling line. He says, \u201cGod revealed his Son in me\u201d (Galatians 1:16, JB, NIV). This high degree of trust, introspection, and self-confidence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17830"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17830"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17832,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17830\/revisions\/17832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p>Describing his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus in his letter to the Galatians, Paul writes a most telling line. He says, \u201cGod revealed his Son <em>in <\/em>me\u201d (Galatians 1:16, JB, NIV). This high degree of trust, introspection, and self-confidence was quite unusual during a time that was more extroverted and literal. In my opinion, this is why the first fifteen hundred years of Christianity did not make much of Paul. Except for the rare Augustine and many of the Catholic mystics and hermits, it took widespread literacy and the availability of the written word in the sixteenth century to move believers toward a more interior Christianity, both for good and for ill. [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Note Paul\u2019s primary criterion for authentic faith: \u201cExamine yourselves to make sure you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you acknowledge that Jesus Christ is really in you? If not, you have failed the test\u201d (2 Corinthians 13:5). So simple it\u2019s scary! Paul\u2019s radical incarnationalism sets a strong standard. He knew that the Christ must first of all be acknowledged <em>within <\/em>before Christ can be recognized <em>without <\/em>as Lord and Master. God must reveal God\u2019s self <em>in you <\/em>before God can fully reveal God\u2019s self <em>to you.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s important to remember that Paul is just like us in never knowing Jesus in the flesh. Like him, we only know the Christ through observing and honoring the depth of our human experience and gaining new eyes. <em>When we can honor and receive our own moment of sadness or fullness as a gracious participation in the eternal sadness or fullness of God, we recognize ourselves as a member of this one universal Body<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thus, Paul shows that we too can know Christ\u2019s infinitely available presence through our own <em>inner dialogue, <\/em>or the natural law, which is \u201cengraved on our hearts.\u201d Quite daringly, he declares that even so-called pagans, \u201cwho do not possess the law . . . can be said to <em>be <\/em>the law\u201d (see Romans 2:14-15). This is surely why he spoke to the well-educated Athenians of \u201cThe Unknown God . . . whom you already worship without knowing it\u201d (Acts 17:23). Paul likely inherited this idea from the \u201cnew covenant\u201d to God\u2019s people: \u201cI will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts\u201d (see Jeremiah 31:31-33). (This idea remained largely undeveloped until a <em>natural law <\/em>was sought out by the moral theologians of the last century\u2014and now in Pope Francis\u2019 strong understanding of individual conscience.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paul merely took incarnationalism to its universal and logical conclusions. We see that in his bold exclamation: \u201cThere is only Christ. He is everything and he is in everything\u201d (Colossians 3:11). If I were to write that today, people would call me a pantheist (the universe is God), whereas I am really a pan<em>en<\/em>theist (God lies within all things, but also transcends them), as were both Jesus and Paul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christ in Paul\u2019s Eyes An Interior Faith Tuesday, February 26, 2019 Describing his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus in his letter to the Galatians, Paul writes a most telling line. He says, \u201cGod revealed his Son in me\u201d (Galatians 1:16, JB, NIV). This high degree of trust, introspection, and self-confidence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17830"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17830"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17832,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17830\/revisions\/17832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}