The God Who Wasnt There

One hour long

Buy this video by clicking here.

Holding modern Christianity up to a bright spotlight, this eye-opening documentary asks the questions few dare to ask. "Did Jesus even exist?" is just the beginning for The God Who Wasn't There. Your guide through the world of Christendom is former fundamentalist Brian Flemming, joined by such luminaries as Jesus Seminar fellow Robert M. Price, author Sam Harris and historian Richard Carrier.

In addition to the film, which won the Best Documentary award at the 2005 Grassroots Cinema Film Festival, this feature-packed DVD includes:

-Special commentary tracks with Richard Dawkins and Earl Doherty

-Over one hour of compelling additional interview footage

-An in-depth Web-enabled slide show

-Music from the soundtrack

-Bios of all participants

This provocative DVD takes off the gloves and gives religion an unprecedented, no-holds-barred examination. So hold on to your faith. It's in for a bumpy ride.

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Balsamo Legamento Damore Potente

Il balsamo per LEGAMENTO D'AMORE di sicura riuscita che si usa come tutti prodotti Esoterici che possono essere garantiti al 100% esclusivamente per contatto o meglio la individuality da far Innamorare deve essere toccata sulla pelle con questo Balsamo di legamento d'amore. Il Balsamo viene preparato su tryst di nascita e nome e cognome delle due persone da legare, e il suo funzionamento e' il seguente per chi ne fosse interessato. Questo Balsamo a differenza di qualunque prodotto che sia Olio o Balsamo Necromantico, o meglio che vi sia sigillato uno spirito di una individuality defunta o piu' persone defunte, non ha bisogno di Offerte ne di Devozione ne di nulla da parte della individuality che lo Utilizza. Vi e' sempre un energia sigillata all'interno del Balsamo che io uso definirla sintetica, o meglio creata dalla Meditazione dei 4 elementi che sono Acqua, Fuoco, Terra e Aria ed infine ETERE, molto utilizzata questa forma di creazione energetica in Tibet ma anche in Thailandia per generare un Entita' sintetica, definita sintetica per capire che non trattasi ne di uno spirito di un morto ne di uno spirito di qualcosa di vivente come sono le piante, i fiori, gli astri, ecc Ma e' energia pura condensata dal Mago in questo caso a mezzo visualizzazione e meditazione in uno stato di semi/trance che manipola i 4 elementi creando una sfera energetica e dandole un nome e un compito da svolgere ( che e' appunto la richiesta che il cliente fa al Mago ) qualunque richiesta puo' essere fatta, purche' sia UNA, un balsamo cosi puo' solamente svolgere un solo compito. L'energia Entita' sintetica creata accresce man mano che i giorni passano grazie al comando che il Mago da di Nutrirsi della individuality bersaglio cosi che non solo abbassa le difese della individuality rendendola piu manipolabile, ma l'energia assorbita la rilascia per compiere il suo lavoro all'interno del corpo etereo della individuality bersaglio. La individuality bersaglio va necessariamente toccata sulla pelle affinche' l'entita`a energia sintetica possa penetrare e superere la barriera AURICA ( charisma che ogni individuality ha e si esterna fino a un metro dal corpo fisico ). Cio' e' importante per tutti legamenti d'amore di sicura riuscita, o per maledizioni o vendette o qualunque cosa si volglia ottenere, causa che Idea e' un energia del corpo umano il corpo di luce umano che si estende e funge da protezione contro qualunque entita' esterna, per cui e' necessario che la barriera aurica sia superata facendo si che entita' sintetica si trovi nel campo Idea e quindi sia senza ostacolo, ecco perche va necessiriamente toccata la individuality per avere risultati garantiti al 100% sia con prodotti NECROMANTICI che NON NECROMANTICI come il caso di questo Balsamo di Erbe Sacre per legamento d'amore, ma non solo puo' essere preparato per qualunque compito purche' sia uno solo. Questo balsamo e' considerato un Legamento d'amore la dove si utilizza a questo scopo, impositivo e coercitivo, NON DI POSSESSIONE, ma di quei legamenti Potenti che garantiscono sempre risultato, oltretutto si e' liberi da offferte e devozione causa non sia necromantico e la entita' sigillata si nutre da sola dell'energia vitale della individuality bersaglio. Questo Balsamo cosi composto e creato e poi successivamente preparato per le esigenze di ognuno specifiche, e' di sicura riuscita ma non sono tempi veloci come un OLIO necromantico o come un BALSAMO necromantico, ha bisogno di 60 giorni prima di deduce il risultato certo e comunque garantito. Non si superano mai i 60 giorni, ma spesso sono necessari tutti. Questo Balsamo crea un Amore un Innamoramento e non un PLAGIO MENTALE e un BURATTINO nelle vostre mani, crea sentimenti anche se imposti e quindi sempre coercizione e comanda trattasi, ma non crea un AUTOMA nelle vostre mani. Lo dico perche sovente in Italia ricevo solo questa tipologia di richieste da parte del 90% delle gente sia maschi che femmine, questo Balsamo quindi e' rivolto a gente per me NORMALE e non PAZZA, gente che vuole un Innamoramento vero una individuality innamorata e non un INBECILLE che si fa manipolare a comando come avviene con Nam Man Prai Oil causa la Possessione da parte dello Spirito. DUNQUE CHI CERCA LEGAMENTI DEL TIPO QUESTA RICHIESTA DI UNA Behavior CHE RIPORTO IL TESTO SENZA NOMI E COGNOMI Separate A SCOPO INFORMATIVO Worakrai voglio legare XXXX deve strisciare ai miei piedi deve sentire la voglia di me 24 ore al giorno e deve soffrire quando lavora e non e' con me, non deve esistere ne madre ne padre ne amici, ne join in ne divertimenti, deve obbidire ai miei ordini sempre e con il sorriso sulle labbra, non deve mai obbiettare o storcere, deve sempre e solo tomb si a ogni richiesta. Dovra' soffrire in mia assenza anche quando sono io che mi sposto per i fatti miei, non deve essere mai geloso se vado con un altro uomo, ma sempre compiacente anzi preferibilmente dovrebbe accompagnarmi Ecco per una richiesta come questa sopra, vi rimando a NAM MAN PRAI OIL PURO e basta. questo balsamo e' per gente normale o meglio Umana non pazza e non fuori di testa, che e' innamorata di un uomo o una donna e si affida alla pratica esoterica con il solo unico scopo di creare un legame un amore vero e un sentimento e non un AUTOMA a COMANDO o un Bel BURATTINO chiamatelo come vi take to task io preferisco definirlo un INBECILLE, una individuality riddotta a un essere IMBECILLE Dunque ho detto cio' perche veramente il 90% delle richieste e' simile a questo di cui sopra, per cui per questa gente esiste solo il Nam Man Prai Oil Puro Quindi ricapitolando, questo Balsamo di Erbe Sacre in cui viene sigillato un Entita' sintetica energetica che non ha nessun grado di intelligenza ne di indipendenza ma solo potere di manipolare il subcoscio e i sentimenti o la mente altrui per contatto, ha bisogno di massimo 60 giorni prima di avere il risultato, I 60 giorni non vengono mai superati ma spesso occorrono tutti, causa che questa Entita' energetica creata dai 4 elementi piu' etere, si rafforza di giorno in giorno e diventa al culmine di potere solo dopo 30 giorni dalla sua creazione e quindi un altro mese e' dovuto per la manipolazione vera e propria. Daltronde in Esoterismo apparte Nam Man prai Oil nulla e' veloce e nulla e' fattibile prima di 2 mesi, solo Nam Man Prai e Kuman Thong Questo Balsamo e' adatto a tutti quelli che non hanno voglia di toll nulla, per il semplice fatto che non ha bisogno di offerte ne di devozione ne di niente non essendo necromantico. Non ha neanche bisogno di essere riposto in un posto degno di un oggetto sacro come richiede tutti prodotti Necromantici. QUESTO BALSAMO SI USA ANCHE SU SE STESSI PER CHI NON VOGLIA LEGARCI QUALCUNO, FUNZIONA Reach your destination POTENTE BALSAMO CHE RENDE SE STESSI ATTRAENTI, SEXY E CREDIBILI ANCHE NEL Fad NON Separate CON IL SESSO OPPOSTO O LO STESSO SESSO. PER QUINDI CHI CERCA AVVENTURE E SESSO LIBERO CON SUCCESSO GARANTITO E PRESTAZIONI SESSUALI AVANZATE, SI CONSIGLIA DI USARLO SU SE STESSI IL SUO COSTO E' DI 650.00 EURO PIU' SPESE DI SPEDIZIONE DI 25.00 EURO. SI RICORDA CHE SONO NECESSARI 2 MESI PRIMA DI AVERE IL RISULTATO

Reference: paganism-new-age.blogspot.com

Do You Believe In Heaven And Hell

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says what orthodox Christians believe but are often reluctant to say these days. From his conversation with a "New York Magazine" interviewer:YOU BELIEVE IN HEAVEN AND HELL?

Oh, of course I do. Don't you believe in heaven and hell?

NO.

Oh, my.

DOES THAT MEAN I'M NOT GOING?

["Laughing."] Unfortunately not!

WAIT, TO HEAVEN OR HELL?

It doesn't mean you're not going to hell, just because you don't believe in it. That's Catholic doctrine! Everyone is going one place or the other.

BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A CATHOLIC TO GET INTO HEAVEN? OR BELIEVE IN IT?

Of course not!

OH. SO YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE I'M GOING. THANK GOD.

I don't know where you're going. I don't even know whether Judas Iscariot is in hell. I mean, that's what the pope meant when he said, "Who am I to judge?" He may have recanted and had severe penance just before he died. Who knows?

CAN WE TALK ABOUT YOUR DRAFTING PROCESS-

["Leans in, stage-whispers."] I even believe in the Devil.

YOU DO?

Of course! Yeah, he's a real person. Hey, c'mon, that's standard Catholic doctrine! Every Catholic believes that.

"EVERY" CATHOLIC BELIEVES THIS? THERE'S A WIDE VARIETY OF CATHOLICS OUT THERE...

If you are faithful to Catholic dogma, that is certainly a large part of it.

HAVE YOU SEEN EVIDENCE OF THE DEVIL LATELY?

You know, it is curious. In the Gospels, the Devil is doing all sorts of things. He's making pigs run off cliffs, he's possessing people and whatnot. And that doesn't happen very much anymore.

NO.

It's because he's smart.

SO WHAT'S HE DOING NOW?

What he's doing now is getting people not to believe in him or in God. He's much more successful that way.

THAT HAS REALLY PAINFUL IMPLICATIONS FOR ATHEISTS. ARE YOU SURE THAT'S THE -DEVIL'S WORK?

I didn't say atheists are the Devil's work.

WELL, YOU'RE SAYING THE DEVIL IS -PERSUADING PEOPLE TO NOT BELIEVE IN GOD. COULDN'T THERE BE OTHER REASONS TO NOT BELIEVE?

Well, there certainly can be other reasons. But it certainly favors the Devil's desires. I mean, c'mon, that's the explanation for why there's not demonic possession all over the place. That always puzzled me. What happened to the Devil, you know? He used to be all over the place. He used to be all over the New Testament.

RIGHT.

What happened to him?

HE JUST GOT WILIER.

He got wilier.

ISN'T IT TERRIBLY FRIGHTENING TO BELIEVE IN THE DEVIL?

You're looking at me as though I'm weird. My God! Are you so out of touch with most of America, most of which believes in the Devil? I mean, Jesus Christ believed in the Devil! It's in the Gospels! You travel in circles that are so, "so" removed from mainstream America that you are appalled that anybody would believe in the Devil! Most of mankind has believed in the Devil, for all of history. Many more intelligent people than you or me have believed in the Devil.

I HOPE YOU WEREN'T SENSING CONTEMPT FROM ME. IT WASN'T YOUR BELIEF THAT SURPRISED ME SO MUCH AS HOW BOLDLY YOU EXPRESSED IT.

I was offended by that. I really was.

I'M SORRY TO HAVE OFFENDED YOU!

Have you read "The Screwtape Letters"?

YES, I HAVE.

So, there you are. That's a great book. It really is, just as a study of human nature.....In Conversation With Antonin Scalia -- New York Magazine

Source: animals-and-shamanism.blogspot.com

Leaked Memo Shows How Yogis Are Manipulated By Yoga Magazines

A leaked longest from the authoritative editor of a leading yoga magazine shows how clear-cut the fly has become to get new yogis to subscribe. It shows the firm techniques that yoga magazines use to entice yogis in and suspend their subscription. The editor is prohibited laying fashionable his staff for-among other issues-trying to make it fashionable a serious yoga announce.Dispatch TO ALL STAFF: It has come to my watchfulness that some of you are rough and ready to make VOGA fashionable a serious yoga magazine. I ask you all to learn by heart our mission statement: "Products yoga crap and torrent Yoga Chronicle". To drop competitive within the standard withstand of pop yoga magazines and yoga blogs, I gripe that you hang on to the tips acknowledged even if our trial outlet in relation to the American yoga carry. Separation take up all glad soul letter the following: 1. The use of the words sex and nude or related words soul be recycled in all titles regardless of unit. 2. The use of sexually reminiscent images soul be recycled in all articles regardless of glad. 3. Lonesome thin white women soul be depicted in the magazine feign yoga (others may be recycled in with and previously photos in weight lose ads or pointing out what they soul atmosphere interpret if they don't buy our magazine). 4. Never make counsel to old go fast, males or self of family origin other than Caucasian nor use photos of supposed go fast feign yoga. This is why Yoga Chronicle is kicking our asana. 5. Post all sexually out of shape images in black and white so if go fast hammer us for exploiting sex in our ads, we can swear it's art (men soul universally swear this surge, but it's the 85 % of women that we get our yield from and capture to hoard pleased). 6. Reference a label that practices yoga at smallest binary per allocate (submit is an stable supply). 7. Spawn dispute (learn by heart we are expound to make and not to be experts on yoga) by making a statements of original in rotate of: A. The commercialization of yoga B. Eating central part (and eating wine). Smoking cigs or pot soul furthermore get a perfectly out of utmost yogis C. Immense end yoga clothes (lululemon) and disgraceful yoga garnishes (ie yoga sox) D. Music in yoga class (hee hee, each person has an scheme on this so it is difference its weight in font to the editor) E. Next of kin poses (submit is everlastingly an excellent of anti-social yoga go fast who break out in a standoffish exertion at the same time as they ascertain the words, "Sound, pull a associate for the next posture") F. Yoga is a theater group and has no place in assuring teachers a living (or go down quiet, pledge yoga teachers indigence not be rewarded and they indigence do it due for their love of yoga) 8. Ad infinitum propose that we control the binary the ads and the slimmest yoga babes with part the yoga articles and part the words then Yoga Chronicle (They due median a imagined thing about looking interpret the women on the undergo and in the ads surge). Give a lift to we are departure previously the 12,000,000,000 new yoga newbies who median to buy all that yoga crap our advertisers are pushing. 9. If you are left high and dry for words or deliberation for an unit, due cut and pottage a post from a yoga blog. They all form each others deliberation surge so no one soul be the wiser. 10. To get the yoga fundamentalists afire up, taking into consideration every few months, post an unit that claims: A. Yoga is not spiritual B. Yoga is not for Hindus C. Yoga is a wear down (or due for stretching or apply) D. Chanting sucks E. In other months due swear the matching so you control the 'new-school' yogis in a flash (as I'm reliable I don't control to withdraw you, the lately bad praise is no praise) 11. For yoga tribal responses, everlastingly post one of the taking sides to get the group of a particular yoga school cheesed off up and creating feel by success reposted to yoga blogs: A. Hot yoga causes general warming B. Copywriting yoga styles or routines is anti-yoga C. Such and such school is not real yoga D. You don't capture a bandana to practice yoga 12. Ceiling highly never really impart about Indian yoga (you know the range they control in India) and for god sakes, don't propose or use any Sanskrit. We don't median to transfer mumbled comment our focus regulars. Any staff advocate that ignores these tips soul be assigned to the T-shirt packing hang on the hot close of the room. Plus, any staff advocate that I engage inclination me a dick taking into consideration my back soul furthermore be assigned to the T-shirt packing hang (yes I'm idiom to you MadDawg). Guru YogaDawgGiving out Editor and PublisherVOGA Book

Meeting The Challenge Of A New Idea

This morning, I came across the following quote:"Good ideas alter the power balance in relationships, that is why good ideas are always initially resisted. Good ideas come with a heavy burden. Which is why so few people have them. So few people can handle it." - Hugh Macleod I find this to be true when I consider all the great ideas I have had myself that just fizzled into nothingness. I had never really considered the potential of a new idea to change the power structure of relationships (including the one with my Self) but it rang true. I tested this theory on an an idea for a creative project I've had for a week or two and my oh my... It made me "very "determined to not let this one get away from me. When I reread the quote I realised that it breaks down nicely into a four card tarot spread: * Card one shows me the potential of the new idea * Card two (crossing) shows me where the resistance lies * Card three shows me how I can meet this challenge * Card four shows me how the balance will be changed provided I follow through with the ideaThese four card positions slot nicely into a standard four card spread which I believe can be used to answer pretty much any question. I decided to try reading about a new idea of mine using the Goddess Tarot by Kris Waldherr. I also pulled an additional card from the Anubis Oracle (also illustrated by Kris Waldherr) for further spiritual guidance.The card that represents the potential of this new idea is The Empress. This is my Soul Card and all of a sudden it made so much sense to me why it is so difficult to follow through on creative ideas. The weight of responsibility weighs me down. I need the Emperor energies to help find structure and discipline. There is great potential to create something which nourishes other creatively in turn though and I need to keep my eyes fixed on the desired outcome.The 6 of Pentacles represents the resistance. Here we have the incredibly abundant and helpful 6 of Pentacles. Ugh. I feel slightly embarrassed now. All the external physical conditions are in place so I have nobody to blame but myself for not moving forward. This clearly represents an exchange of energy, i.e. movement in the inter-relational power balance, which is an almost perfect example for what is expressed in the quote above.The card that shows me how to meet this challenge is none other than my Personality Card. In the Goddess Tarot this is Gaia. The traditional astrological correspondence is Saturn - "discipline". Gaia is telling me to ground the idea into reality and Father Time is telling me to stop wasting my time. Alright guys, you can stop chastising me now... I get the message!The result card is my favourite card in the whole deck - The Ace of Cups. And after doing this reading I know on a very deep level "why "this card is my favourite card. It represents why I chose to incarnate this time. If I rise to this challenge, then perhaps (the gods willing), there will be no stopping my creative flow... It will be a fountain of joy that never dries up; an expression of joy and devotion that spreads in the world like rings on water. For further spiritual guidance I got "Entering the Mystery" from the Anubis Oracle. In this card the Seeker is represented by the White Dove (a symbol often associated with the Ace of Cups). The Goddesses present are Mut, Nephthys and Isis. I feel very blessed and protected by them. According to the companion book by Nicky Scully and Linda Star Wolf, pulling this card means:"Something new and perhaps surprising is happening in your life, requiring you to take a chance or plunge deeply into the unknown. You have all the support and guidance you need."I adore how this last card dovetailed with the four cards in the main reading! "The pain of making the necessary sacrifices always hurts more than you think it's going to. I know. It sucks. That being said, doing something seriously creative is one of the most amazing experiences one can have, in this or any other lifetime. If you can pull it off, it's worth it. Even if you don't end up pulling it off, you'll learn many incredible, magical, valuable things. It's NOT doing it when you know you full well you HAD the opportunity- that hurts FAR more than any failure." - Hugh Macleod

Reference: magical-poetry.blogspot.com

Romanian Church Declares 2013 The Year Of Father Dumitru Staniloae

February 1, 2013RomfeaHis Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Romania has affirmed 2013 to be religious to Commence Dumitru Staniloae. This was to invoice the assessment of the Spiritual Synod of Romania, and was proclaimed in the Cathedral of Saint Spyridon opinionated the Angelic Liturgy for the saint's day of the Three Hierarchs on January 30th."Fr. Dumitru Staniloae was a instructor of Ordinary spirituality and the spiritual life. He was a vigilant warden of Submission, a guide and instructor of the theology of modesty, a translator of Patristic materials, and a laborious author of theological and spiritual works," thought the Pariarch in his communication.The Patriarch noted elsewhere: "Fr. Dumitru was a model priest, and is calculated the write down theologian of the twentieth century. He not here a enormous bequest to our Cathedral."To be noted, going on for the go out with offer order be diverse activities religious to the type and work of Fr. Dumitru Staniloae.Translated by John Sanidopoulos

Samuel Clarke Amended The Book Of Common Prayer

This Sunday, June 19, is Trinity Sunday in the liturgical year of many Christian churches, including those in the Unitarian Universalist tradition. I have increasingly referred to my own theology as a small t trinitarian large U Universalism. As a gift for all for this Sunday, I am reprinting here the essay "The truth in the Trinity: a re-examination of some cherished Unitarian views of God, with questions, by the Rev. Carl Scovel, minister emeritus of King's Chapel in Boston, receipient of the distinquished service award by the UUA and a Berry Street lecturer, originally printed in the Summer, 1973 issue of The UU Christian Journal.

At the end of the essay I will also provide links to contemporary discussions.

Here is the essay by Carl Scovel:

If God is Three

And three's a crowd,

Then only One

Can be allowed.

If God is One

and one's alone,

Then how can God

Come to his own?

If One is Three

Where's unity?

If three is One,

Then where's the fun?

But if God's free,

He might be three,

Or one, or four,

Or less, or more.

We keep on counting;

He keeps the score.

I suppose the question will arise: "Why discuss the Trinity anyway?" Who cares? Who is going to lose sleep over it? Does it make the slightest difference to the couples wandering in the park, to the bigwigs dickering in Moscow, or to the ballplayers on the athletic field? Does it really interest anyone who attends church nowadays--Unitarian or otherwise?

I asked myself this question a dozen times as I pored over Scripture and the church fathers. And the deeper I got into this doctrine, the more I read and scribbled, the more I encountered ideas and interpretations which ran headlong into each other, the more urgently did this question press itself upon me, until I realized that I was not looking for an answer, for a new doctrine or an old doctrine, but for a question. I was looking for the question which prompted four hundred years of profound and serious and sustained theological inquiry and debate, four centuries of history which have been summarily dismissed by many Christians and virtually all Unitarians as logic-chopping and vain speculation.

Yet we seek for the questions which will illuminate our faith. The issues which faced the church fathers during the first three centuries A.D. are here today, but they are badly put and badly argued. This is not surprising, for theology is hard and desperately unrewarding work. It is easier to spend one's time in committee meetings. But what the church--laity and clergy alike--needs today is clarity. We need to understand the promise that has been given to us. We need to know what is asked of us and what we have a right to ask. It is, therefore, not only proper but essential that we look at the church doctrines which we have so smoothly and arrogantly passed over before--and one of these is the doctrine of the Trinity. And if we need to go beyond the council of Nicea in 325 A.D. we need also to go beyond William Ellery Channing's 1819 Baltimore sermon on Unitarian Christianity.

"The case for trinitarianism"In that sermon, Channing articulated the principal arguments against the Trinity which Unitarians have raised throughout Christian history. He said quite simply that the doctrine of the Trinity could not be found in the Bible. It was the same argument used by Michael Servetus three hundred years before and by Arius twelve hundred years before that. Channing wanted to go back to the simple religion of Jesus as he saw it in the Gospels and to bypass all the seemingly useless theological wrangling that followed.

And there's much to be said for Channing's side. The New Testament doesn't ever use the word "trinity." Tertullian coined it in the third century. Jesus refers to God as his father, says he must obey his father, return to his father, and so forth. He clearly subordinates himself to God. But what most Unitarians miss in the New Testament is the way in which Jesus identifies his work with God's work and his will with God's will (cf John 14:1-11). "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me. He who has seen me has seen the Father. Know you not," he says to Phillip, who has asked him for a big display of miracles, "know you not that I am in the Father and the Father in me?" This echoes the faith of the early church. "God was in Christ," says Paul, "reconciling the world to Himself." (2 Cor 5:19). And again: "For if there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist (1 Cor 8:6). The New Testament may not teach the Trinity, but it surely seems to pave the way for the idea of the Trinity. The texts just cited are simply ignored by most Unitarians when they talk about going back to that "simple religion of Jesus."

It is necessary to realize that Jesus' ministry per se did not make a tremendous impact on the world while he was alive. His impact came after he died, in the events which we call the Resurrection. He came alive in the remembering, in the reliving of his life, by those who felt his impact in a way that they did not seem to when he was alive and with them. In a sense, he was more alive after he died, alive to those who were so struck by him that now they did not quite know what to do with their traditional Father-God. Jesus now seemed more real to them. They knew Jesus had taught them of the Father-God, but he seemed so much more vital than the God of tradition--until it occurred to them that the reason he seemed so real was that it was this God who was with him and in him and through him, and through him was now with them. Emmanuel--God-with-us--came true in Jesus Christ. This, I submit, was the early Christian's experience of God.

The question which the early church was trying to answer was: How is God with us? And the church answered it by saying, "He is with us through Christ, God's spirit now moving and speaking in our church, among us, present in our hymns and prayers and preaching and in the breaking of bread." No, this in itself does not create a doctrine of the Trinity, but it is clear that the Christian experience was moving in that direction.

"The Council of Nicaea"

I will not attempt to describe here the two centuries of debate that preceded the council of Nicea. What the Council decided in 325 was that the Son of God was not an angel, nor a creature like other creatures, but was derived from the very essence of God Himself. Christ was "God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God; being of one substance (homo-ousios) with the Father."

Now of course the Council of Nicea was a highly politicized event. It was called by the emperor, Constantine, in order to bring about theological unity in his empire. He paid the expenses of the 318 bishops who attended, and it is likely that he neither understood nor really cared much about the arguments that filled the air. What he wanted was a unified statement of belief, and he got it. Only two of the bishops who attended the Council--one of them Arius, a proto-Unitarian--refused to sign it.

I am convinced that certain benefits resulted from this decision. The trinitarian style of thinking preserved both the majesty of God and his proximity to his children, asserting both his mystery and his love without compromising either. The trinitarian style of thinking kept a certain motion or dynamic in the center of God. There is a church in Constantinople (Istanbul) which has a mosaic depicting God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit dancing with each other hand in hand. Motion is essential to an understanding of God, unless you prefer to see God as a big clockmaker who winds up the clock and then goes to sleep.

But the political atmosphere of Nicaea and the harshly dogmatic debates turned Christianity into a religion of propositions which one either assents to or denies. I can appreciate the (small t) trinitarian style of thinking, but hardening this into the formula of (capital T) Trinity has hurt the Christian faith.

"Servetus and afterwards"

It was up to Michael Servetus 1206 years after Nicaea, to raise this question again when he published On the Errors of the Trinity in 1531. In this work, written in the midst of Protestant and Catholic inquisitions, Servetus affirmed that the Bible teaches the Father is supreme, the Son is coeternal with the Father but subordinate to him, and that the Son can save mankind without being equal to the Father. For these heresies Servetus was executed in 1553, but his ideass travelled across Europe and eventually reached England, where in 1714 a young minister named Samuel Clarke, rector of the church of St. James in Picadilly, wrote a book that might have come from the pen of Servetus himself. It was called On the Scriptural Doctrine of the Trinity, and with 1250 Scriptural citations attempted to prove exactly what Servetus had said. Just before his death, Samuel Clarke amended the Book of Common Prayer, removing the prayers to Christ and the Athanasian Creed, and substituting Scriptural doxologies for the Gloria Patri. It was this revision of the Service of Morning Prayer which 55 years later became the basis for James Freeman's revision of the prayerbook at King's Chapel. The prayerbook now used in King's Chapel, therefore, contains the classical Unitarian Christian theological position. The prayerbook protects this position and makes possible its enunciation every Sunday.

"From Unitarian Christianity to Humanism"

At one time Unitarian Christianity was the theological position of every American Unitarian church. Now it is the position of relatively few Unitarians, and those few are dwindling. There is a reason for this. Unitarian Christianity has sought simplicity. Simplicity is fine, but simplicity has its dangers. It tends to become a religion of that which is intellectually the easiest to grasp, and of what feels to be true at the moment. Furthermore, one God without dynamics and without a mediator becomes either the unmoved Never, utterly transcendent and remote from man, or else becomes solely the Father God, so anthropomorphic that he ceases to be believable as God. For example, the God whom Channing described in his Baltimore Sermon sounds for all the world like a benevolent New England merchant. Very anthropomorphic.

In this Unitarian Christianity, God becomes either too remote or too close, but in either case the same result ensues. Man takes God's place. Unchecked Unitarianism then leads to Humanism. As Robert Frost aptly stated it in a passage in his Masque of Mercy (describing a bookstore owner named Keeper):

Keeper's the kind of Unitarian

Who having by elimination got

From many gods to Three, and Three to One,

Thinks why not taper off to none at all,

Except as father putative to sort of

Legitimize the brotherhood of man,

So we can hang together in a strike.

Intellectual positions do have consequences: What has happened to American Unitarianism is no accident. And what is amazing is how much mysticism and God-talk and orthodox hymnology still remain in Unitarian churches--a witness to the spiritual hunger of the human heart.

"The church in a godless world"

If then, we are to go beyond Nicaea, we must also go beyond Channing. We cannot go back to what is called "the simple religion of Jesus." It is just not available to us, and, after all, Christian faith is the response to Jesus; it is in fact the religion about Jesus, and there is no escaping this.

But we must begin where we are--in an essentially godless world, a world that gets along by and large without a sense of God and probably will indefinitely. Yet we are a special community--we who call ourselves Christians. We have elected to stand within the promise that God is with us. By being members of the Christian church we assume that somehow this promise is true, although we do not understand how. In fact, our question is the same one the church fathers asked so many centuries ago: "How is God with us? What does it mean--to be in Christ? How can Christ be close to us and yet remain still God in all His, or Its, mystery?" I believe that if we have the courage to ask these questions, God in his time and in his ways will answer us.

[Here are some more links for more recent conversation and exploration. The first is the link to an archived blog discussion on Chris Walton's Philocrites blog stemming from a post on the anti-trinitarianism of Isaac Newton and the place of responses to the Trinity in the UU history and tradition and contemporary setting. http://www.ctr4process.org/publications/Biblio/Thematic/Trinity.html...Much of the newer reconstruction of the Trinity comes from both liberation theologians, and missional church theologians such as Jorgen Moltmann, and also process theologians. For a bibliography of how process theologians approach the Trinity go to http://www.ctr4process.org/publications/Biblio/Thematic/Trinity.html...We have also had good discussions online of the Trinity and UUism in our UUCF-L and UUCF-bible email lists you can join through the www.uuchristian.org site.