Comments on: Neophilia [3] | Christian Fantasy Cycles and Stages of Faith

By: paul thomson

paul thomson — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 07:02:53 +0000

remarkably similar to ‘addiction’ and ‘alcoholism’cycles -
religious, worship or God addiction is possibly the most serious because it is as yet unrecognised among most church practitioners and because it is so deeply attached to the core of ones identity – it can cause great pain to detox.
how to tell the difference between addiction TO God and real relationship WITH God – or an addiction to an ideal of x than a relationship WITH x is not exactly part of the curriculum.. (x can = God, ideas, cosmic security, worship, church, projects, love, leadership roles, community, new waves of christianity..turning them into ‘objects’ ie idols)
although x as aspects of creation are more popularly focused on.. food, chemical effects, shopping, sex..
those ideals above are far more difficult to detox from.. because 1. they are seen as ‘good’ and therefore addiction to them is not possible, forgetting that ‘we’ are the ones who are the addicters… something inside us
makes us want to ‘objectify/idealise’ stuff- rather than the challenge of relating with stuff – long after we have outgrown childhood
linking this with stages of faith theory- what would the Father prefer from his children who are growing up .. worship or friendship ? links with paul’s ‘love chapter’ also – moving from fantasy/ideal of this Jesus stuff – to the real
mcKoojie

By: DAMNFLANDRZ

DAMNFLANDRZ — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 19:04:18 +0000

Ah but without fantasy it is difficult to realise what our most basic desires are.
Fantasy and desire are only negative if they replace reality; but reality can be so boring, tiring and finite!
Fantasy should inspire reality, I suppose. Can we have both? A Fantasy-cycle and a Reality-honda-civic?

By: Kester

Kester — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 06:46:26 +0000

I agree…. and describes so much of life too. It links well with much of the ‘Sine’ work we did at Vaux: repeating, oscillating cycles of positive through negative.
I’ll hopefully be posting on how Booker sees a way out, and what that might tell us for our situations.s Will try to do something later today.
Hope you’re well,

By: Jason Clark

Jason Clark — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 06:12:21 +0000

I think this cycle describes the path of so much of emerging church. Does booker, or you have an alternative, what stops this relentless and mostly inevitable progression? Thanks for all your hard work posting.