Thursday, March 05, 2009

Zodiac Christ?

Anyone following this site will know that i think we can explore spirituality through the beliefs, practices and experience of all paths and traditions and as Christians find parallels and places we recognise form our own encounters with God through Jesus as the one who opens up the way to God. An area i have often found myself exploring at places like Mind Body Spirit fairs is the way personality types in things like Astrology or Tarot relate to ideas of growing into wholeness as Jesus expressed it, coming to Love God with all our strength, mind, heart and spirit.

The Re:Jesus website is designed to be a place that opens up exploration of Jesus from a range of perspectives, historical, artistic, spiritual etc so that people from any spiritual path or religion or none can enter into that journey. i was recently asked to put my experience of discussing personal development and spirituality with those exploring astrology as a similar path into a monthly blog series looking at the links between Jesus and the personality types associated with star signs. you can have a look ans see what you think by following this link http://www.rejesus.co.uk/site/module/zodiac_christ/

i am not surprised that this has raised questions for some Christians who have posted comments on the site after the march/Pisces edition. i think these questions are worth exploring and so thought I'd add a blog here where the issues can be raised and discussed at what ever length people wish.

i am always aware when i explain my approach to other beliefs, of whatever nature that some christian will view all other belief systems as a deception. For me centuries of Christian tradition and the biblical texts they are based on tell me God is found in many paths and spiritualities. not that they are all the same, they clearly are not, and therefore not everything in every tradition can be right. some post-modern thinkers might disagree with that. for me if there is a God then ultimately that limits truth to that which is consistent with God so not all things can be true. But not only do i think most spiritual paths have genuine insights of God, i am also aware that if even my Christian faith is true in seeing God most fully revealed in Jesus that is very different i saying i have all the answers or fully understand God. i am rather aware of my humanity and the limits it sets to my understanding. i think some of the concerns raised on Re:Jesus are around this issue

however even if you accept my view here i want to raise a question about how we come across and how context may change that. i think this issue is also present in some of the comments on the site. does it change the apparent message when i move from a discussion with people exploring astrology to a post on a christian run website? is this use of Astrological types a form of deception? i am i likely to be read as supporting interpretations of Astrology i may not actually hold to?

no doubt you can think of other questions, so please do raise them!