Discussing the Great Faiths - David Bentley Hart

David Bentley Hart talks about Sikhism and his understanding of Religion more generally.
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[@shanegfenwick]

Amen. Brilliant as always.

[@grace_alone_toward_repentance]

You are so deceived. 🙄🙄

[@bayreuth79]

What is the virtue of religio that Hart talks about here? And how are we all practicing it?

[@JoshMcSwain]

Is this an old interview or new one?

[@LoveUnrelenting]

Fairly new, I suppose. It was recorded on April 21st.

[@wedi-set577]

@2:44, What books?

[@wordscapes5690]

Ah, come now David - we all know you are Theravada Buddhist at heart. ;)

[@drewcoope]

How can you be a Christian and say that you'd be equally at home religiously as a Jew? Genuinely curious. He who denies the Son has not the Father.

[@drewcoope]

@@ethanf.237 He said that his answer to the question of what other tradition would you convert to would be Sikhism or, if he were to answer on another day, would could have just as easily have said Orthodox Judaism. I can understand appreciation for other traditions, especially the Eastern religions that do not explicitly deny Christ and have a much more charitable view of Christian claims. Orthodox Judaism, however, has a downright blasphemous view of Christ. So I just find it curious that one can be a Christian but at the same time say that Judaism has an equally legitimate claim to truth. Obviously I know that admiring other aspects of differing faiths does not equate to denying the son.

[@paddypibblet846]

​@@drewcoopeThat's because Bentley has a very modern, new age, and globalist world view on Christianity. Those same views that have negatively affected and weakened Christianity. The most unchristian Christian theologian of our times. (Well, besides the openly gay homosexual Christian preachers dressed in drag), but he's not far behind if you ask me. To him Christianity is more of a philosophical allegorical vessel for how mankind should behave, and his views on the "magical" aspect of Christianity are very Eastern and similar to Buddhism. He admits to not really going to church or being involved in the religion. In many ways he's like Jordan Peterson, a "Christian" who doesn't believe in Christ. He's a well read man but has the tendency of clever men to continue to try to argue a point he himself no longer really believes. He's more interested in "being right" than actually being right. The guy should have been a lawyer.

[@Danobot11]

⁠@@paddypibblet846hatever rot you see in the modern liberalisms of the west, know that it is still essentially the child of Christian culture and philosophy. Most of its flaws (overt individualism, cancel culture, authoritarianism, rationalism) are simply a reflection of Christiandom’s own failings. His tone is often uncharitably dismissive l’ll admit, but your demands for a strict ideological purity is the same kind of attitud the globalist nightmare of a one-world-order seeks: a tyrannical narrow minded regime that cancels anyone or anything that dares to explore alternatives. @drewcoope I reckon Hart is saying that denying Christ is less about denying belief in his mere existence and more about failing to live like him and integrate what Christ represents. Namely- loving thy enemy, sacrifice, and overcoming the fear of accepting divine grace. Jews do this in their own way- and many do so despite being trapped in the fear of serving God in a slightly different way.

[@mburumorris3166]

@@paddypibblet846 globalist world view of Christianity ? Should Christianity not be global ? DBH is a believer unlike Peterson

[@Chomper750]

Jesus was a Jew. The apostles were Jews. None of them abandoned being Jews.

[@dylan3456]

The Christian religion has boundaries, namely the body of Christ. That doesn’t mean we don’t presume too much about where He is or isn’t, but that’s another matter. DBH is imperfect and gets over his skis here. He wants you to believe that he has read everything and read it better than you, but he hasn’t. Don’t be too tied to one man’s struggles to understand instead of walking the Way yourself.

[@Danobot11]

I’d agree that it’s wise to not be too tied down to one man’s views. I’d extend that further and say to not be too tied down to any doctrinal particularities that motivates us to find differences that are non-existent or irrelevant. The perenialist intuition is not so much about erasing boundaries as it is about seeing them as redundant. Hart sees the fruits of Christianity in the values of other “religions,” a word he sees as more akin to “devotional liturgy” than “a series of doctrinal premises.” Dictionaries in different languages often share many of the same definitions. Some differences truly are untranslatable, and this is where perennialism can become arrogant; it can dismiss real uniqueness. However it is equally deceptive and destructive to obscure similarities that unite us. This behaviour is the hallmark of institutions that compete for ownership and control over the common language and the minds of the masses- whether that’s Christian dogmaticism, modern left-wing revisionism, or the old desert politics of Buddhist-Mongols. People like DBH (and me) are just fucking tired of people that see the acknowledgement of these similarities as a threat to their spiritual nation-state, a system where power replaces truth and stifles honest inquiry . The thing is, people rarely abandon their mother tongue when they learn a new language, so let the linguists do their thing.

[@travisa2455]

I don't think we should presume that the Logos of God has any boundaries. Quite the opposite, in fact.

[@AlexStock187]

Do you want us to believe that you have “read everything and read it better than” DBH?

[@harrydaniels1942]

Spot on. I do find his presumption that we will believe he has studied everything better than his opponents frustrating. I think it’s his major flaw. Harold Bloom was the same, and I love both of them.