Meeting Jesus Again For the First Time--Chapter 1 Definitions
Definitions
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Term |
Definition |
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Agnostic |
A person who holds
the view that any ultimate reality (as God) is unknown and probably
unknowable; broadly : one who is not committed to
believing in either the existence or the nonexistence of God or a god. |
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Agonist |
One that is engaged
in a struggle. |
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Atheist |
One who believes
that there is no deity. |
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Avatar |
1 :
the incarnation of a Hindu deity (as Vishnu)
2 a : an incarnation in human form b : an
embodiment (as of a concept or philosophy) often in a person
3 : a variant phase or version of a continuing basic
entity |
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Epiphany |
1 : January 6
observed as a church festival in commemoration of the coming of the
Magi as the first manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles or in the
Eastern Church in commemoration of the baptism of Christ
2 : an appearance or manifestation especially of a divine
being
3 a (1) : a usually sudden manifestation or perception of
the essential nature or meaning of something (2) : an intuitive
grasp of reality through something (as an event) usually simple and
striking (3) : an illuminating discovery b : a
revealing scene or moment |
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Eschatological |
Of or relating to
the end of the world or the events associated with it in eschatology |
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Eschatology |
1 : a
branch of theology concerned with the final events in the history of
the world or of mankind
2 : a belief concerning death, the end of the world, or
the ultimate destiny of mankind; specifically : any of
various Christian doctrines concerning the Second Coming, the
resurrection of the dead, or the Last Judgment |
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Fideistic |
Reliance on faith
rather than reason in pursuit of religious truth. |
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Gnosis (literally
knowledge) |
Esoteric knowledge
of spiritual truth held by the ancient Gnostics to be essential to
salvation. |
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Gnosticism |
the thought and
practice especially of various cults of late pre-Christian and early
Christian centuries distinguished by the conviction that matter is evil
and that emancipation comes through gnosis |
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Immanent |
remaining or
operating within a domain of reality or realm of discourse :
INHERENT; specifically : having existence or effect
only within the mind or consciousness |
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Morality |
1 a :
a moral discourse, statement, or lesson b : a literary or
other imaginative work teaching a moral lesson
2 a : a doctrine or system of moral conduct b
plural : particular moral principles or rules of conduct
3 : conformity to ideals of right human conduct
4 : moral conduct : VIRTUE |
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Moralistic |
1 :
characterized by or expressive of a concern with morality
2 : characterized by or expressive of a narrow and
conventional moral attitude |
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Nature mysticism |
See below. |
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Numinous |
1 :
SUPERNATURAL, MYSTERIOUS
2 : filled with a sense of the presence of divinity :
HOLY
3 : appealing to the higher emotions or to the aesthetic
sense : SPIRITUAL |
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Transcendent |
1 a :
exceeding usual limits : SURPASSING b : extending
or lying beyond the limits of ordinary experience c in
Kantian philosophy : being beyond the limits of all possible
experience and knowledge
2 : being beyond comprehension
3 : transcending the universe or material existence |
Nature Mysticism
Nature mysticism can be -- but is not necessarily -- experienced as a
sense of being in the presence of the divine. Seneca wrote: “When you enter
a grove peopled with ancient trees, higher than the ordinary, and shutting
out the sky with their thickly inter-twined branches, do not the stately
shadows of the wood, the stillness of the place, and the awful gloom of
this doomed cavern then strike you with the presence of a deity?” There is
something about woodlands, mountains and deserts that evokes awe and
religious sentiments.
Nature Mysticism through Quotes:
“We invent nothing, truly. We borrow and re-create. We uncover and
discover. All has been given, as the mystics say. We have only to open our
eyes and hearts, to become one with that which is.” Henry Miller
“When I would re-create myself, I seek the darkest wood, the thickest
and most interminable and to the citizen, most dismal, swamp. I enter as a
sacred place, a Sanctum sanctorum. There is the strength, the
marrow, of Nature.” Henry David Thoreau, Walking, 1851
“If not ignored, nature will
cultivate in the gardener a sense of well-being and peace. The gardener may
find deeper meaning in life by paying attention to the parables of the
garden. Nature teaches quiet lessons to the gardener who chooses to live
within the paradigm of the garden.” Norman H. Hansen,
The Worth of
Gardening
“There are sacred moments in life when we
experience in rational and very direct ways that separation, the boundary
between ourselves and other people and between ourselves and Nature, is
illusion. Oneness is reality. We can experience that stasis is illusory and
that reality is continual flux and change on very subtle and also on gross
levels of perception.” Charlene Spretnak
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