A World at War with Itself
The podcast will be for a year, where Julie Finch-Scally, writer and broadcaster can interview people about life and the current situation of the world. She will discuss how so many things have changed over the past 80 years since her birth, and what the world needs to change to improve and save the planet from ourselves.
A World at War with Itself
Christianity
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Julie has discussed Judaism, Buddhism and Islam. In this episode she finds out more about Christianity. What is different with this monotheistic belief to the other faiths? There is a difference, but there is also a lot of similarities.
Hello there, this is Julie Finch Scalli with another Wednesday episode of A World at War With Itself. Great to have you with me again. This week I am continuing with the category of religion and speaking about Christianity. Now we discussed Judaism and Islam and the third religion in this group of monothetic belief is Christianity. I have in the studio with me Michael Classens, a committed Christian. Well, Michael, it's so nice to see you and you for you to come in today.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for having me, Julie.
SPEAKER_01In my discussions about Judaism and Islam, it turned out the basis of the religions originated in the Middle East. Jesus was also born and lived in that area. The same time the Roman Empire was in this heyday. Would I be correct in thinking that possibly the worshipping of Jesus and Christianity began in Rome more so than in the Middle East?
SPEAKER_00Judaism was the belief of the religion of Jesus and he lived in Israel. It was occupied by the Romans at the time, so it was part of the Roman Empire. Later, after Jesus died and rose from the dead, he missionaries were sent out, one of among which was Paul, and he took Christianity to Rome in a few years after death and resurrection.
SPEAKER_01What were the ideals of Christianity then, and are those ideals still the same?
SPEAKER_00I think the centre of Christianity, in a sense, is that it's based on one thing the death and resurrection of a living man, a man who died and rose from the dead. The whole religion you could say is built around this one event, and that remains uh something that's not compromised on by people who who follow Christianity.
SPEAKER_01And that's the one that's focused on most.
SPEAKER_00What distinguishes Christianity from other religions is this love of God that's is seen most clearly in complete emptying of self, even to the extent of loving people who want your destruction.
SPEAKER_01Islam considers Jesus a prophet. What does Christianity say about Jesus? Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
SPEAKER_00Christianity is quite clear that we believe that he is the Son of God, he is God Himself as part of the Trinity and a person of God and is imbued with the other spirits of God. So he is a human being at the same time divine. Your explanation of the Trinity, which is the Spirit as well as I try to understand the Trinity uh uh something that was revealed by Jesus himself, that God is three persons in one, and in a sense, for love to be expressed it needs a communion, and therefore there's a communion of of persons.
SPEAKER_01I know there is a creed and rules that Christians abide by. Were they taken from the teachings of Jesus or set by the Church?
SPEAKER_00The most important ones were set by uh Jesus himself in the record of of what he spoke and preached throughout the time he was alive. But there's a continuity with what was taught by Judaism, which was the law, and the Old Testament culminated in the Ten Commandments. But he took the Ten Commandments and took it to a a more higher, more demanding level, which is the Beatitudes. So it's a much tougher standard than one that early Christianity wrote down.
SPEAKER_01And are those rules still the same as when they were drawn up around two thousand years ago?
SPEAKER_00Aaron Ross Powell I think so. Of course, there are rules that churches have which they need to regulate the community and how the community operates, the practical things, and that changes through time and through the the style of church or the variety of Christianity you're talking about. But in the end, the fundamentals do unite all the Christian denominations, and those are certainly the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes, and among most mainstream churches the the sacraments.
SPEAKER_01I'm going to ask you what Beatitudes are.
SPEAKER_00The person who has been transformed by the Spirit of Jesus. There's a sermon given by Jesus on on the Mount of Beatitudes, and it's it paints a picture of this person who certainly loves their enemy, but also whose love is sort of boundless. They c they forgive things that are done to them. They're at the service of other people and don't hold grudges.
SPEAKER_01The word cathedral is used by many European countries for a large building of Christian worship, and then there is the word church, which has a similar pronunciation in other European nations. What is the difference between a cathedral and a church?
SPEAKER_00The cathedral is the mother church of a location, of a diocese, or sometimes a country, and the smaller churches, the parish churches, where smaller groups of congregations come together. The church is a is a practical need. It was built on the bones, you might say, of of the paganism in the Roman Empire.
SPEAKER_01In the 11th century, the Knights Templar were a formidable group of Christian soldiers that helped protect Christians making pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Pilgrimages were a big thing for Christians in those days. What were the reasons for those pilgrimages?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, pilgrimages are a physical means that Christianity encourages people to undertake to help their interior spiritual life. So for instance, Santiago de Compostelo is a is a pilgrimage route in northern Spain. And so it's a a way to connect to Christians that have preceded us people's real life, not in a book. And it's so it crystallizes facts. To do a pilgrimage is to risk a little bit physically, you have to get out of your comfort zone.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Many difficulties.
SPEAKER_01And I've talked to people who've done that. They say it was a magnificent experience.
SPEAKER_00That's right. I I've done a little bit of it back a long time ago when I was 19 or 20, managed to get to the church. Yeah, I suppose it's it refreshes. I know that even most cynical people, even if you're not Christian, I think m uh people who are looking for answers in their lives to do a pilgrimage of the university.
SPEAKER_01That's what I thought with the person I know who did it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So it's doesn't call for faith, but it actually often leads to faith.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh just by being there and being immersed in the world.
SPEAKER_01When everybody else you talk to, I suppose, got a lot to do with it. When you're talking along the road, you you talk to everybody.
SPEAKER_00Exactly, yeah.
SPEAKER_01In the 16th through to the eighteenth century, as colonization took place around the world by European countries, more and more missionaries went out to convert the local inhabitants into Christianity. Even my great-great-grandparents went to Christmas Island as missionaries. Is there some degree in Christianity that encourages people to do this?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00I think at its heart, Christianity is something that you can't keep to yourself. You're kind of compelled internally and in different ways to share what's happening in your life with other people. It's not to proselytize and not and if it is done with that spirit, it is wrong. Because it's never been about force, it's about proposing, not imposing a belief or a religion. And so Christianity is it has a fermenting effect on other people. It's not about bringing everybody into a church. Going to the missionary experience, I think, yes, as European nations expanded throughout the world, missionaries went with them. You saw missionary orders there, like the Franciscans that came out from St. Francis and and others, Jesuits and others, who really went there with one only one intention to to to spread the s good news of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01Most religions have prayers and sermons, but Christianity also has a communion where bread and wine is blessed and everyone has a small portion. Is this just a symbolism?
SPEAKER_00The original Eucharist, as we call it in the Mass, came from a Passover meal being celebrated by Jesus Christ. So it was on the night of the Passover where Jews gather. Their way of of of celebrating their their entire life and the history of their people is to have a family meal throughout the night. So Jesus being a Jew, he was not Christian, Jesus, he was actually a Jew, celebrated the Passover one night, and with but he he changed the the sense of it. Instead of saying we passed over, we escaped Egypt from the slavery of the Egyptians. He said, I am the Passover. If you believe in me, I'll bring you in your personal life. That Jewish Passover, they use bread and they use wine. And those elements of that came through into the Catholic mass. I think in the end, though, what's most important is that this communion created.
SPEAKER_01Like all holy books, they are written many years after the death of the person whose life everyone wants to follow. Christianity's New Testament promotes the stories of Jesus and his life, but the church still tells stories of the Old Testament. How important is the Old Testament in regard to the New Testament?
SPEAKER_00There's lots of things you could say. One thing that came comes to my mind though is that what's most interesting is that there are so many people in the Old Testament who were like images of what Jesus was going to be. King David was a direct physical descendant of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01Ancestor.
SPEAKER_00Ancestor, that's right. And uh sorry, yeah. The key thing is that there were people, even Joseph, you know, Joseph in the technical coloured dream coat, he was rejected by his family through envy of his brothers, sold into slavery in Egypt, eventually because of his talent was reckoned it became very important in Egypt and saved all of Israel in image of what Jesus did. So Jesus sort of fulfills this Old Testament scripture and the two combined. I've been to meetings with Jews, rabbis and others among many friends. It's beautiful to see this continuity of Judaism and Christianity. But in fact, there's this beautiful continuity. Without the Jews and Judaism, we there would be no Christianity. Exactly. Yeah. It was like a sacrificial lamb.
SPEAKER_01Many years ago I was told that the printing press arrived on the scene so the church could print and promote the Christian Bible. In those days only priests and learned people could read. Who would have transcribed the Bible as we know it today? And are there many versions?
SPEAKER_00Starting with your last uh question, I th yes there are many. Uh different scholars from different traditions and and different branches of Christianity have translated into, I think, just about every language on on earth. In those days it was largely confined to the Latin or Greek, and only the learned could could read Latin or Greek.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And could not fail to mention the Reformation. So the Reformation started with Luther. One of the ways that they thought was wrong, and the Bible was in the hands of the people, it was kind of kept among the the elite or the clergy. So they used printing presses to get the Bible out in the vernacular for the very first time to everybody. So that was a very interesting development that that just through a historical moment this it became much more widely available. But in the end, uh for Christianity itself, it's it's a it's it's a living thing. It's a living thing. It's not and it's in people's lives.
SPEAKER_01Like many religions that get adopted by other nations, many of the social mores of that country find their way into the practice of the new religion. Is this a problem for Christianity?
SPEAKER_00Again, I think it's it's outside my Bailey Week, but I I have an opinion, and that is in different times and in different cultures people feel the need to adapt religion to a different need. And and certainly Christianity has the ability to adapt, and that's why it continues to this day after 2,000 years. We're not better than anyone else, that we should be together. It's a scandal that today the Christians are not united, one. And and most Christians today have a a different spirit to even fifty years ago.
SPEAKER_01What do you personally search for with Christianity and what do you look forward to?
SPEAKER_00I think most of all forgiveness. Everyone makes mistakes. I think there's times in my life with a lot of regret about things I've done or said or should have done. To be forgiven is just beautiful. It's not an excuse for bad behaviour or for doing the wrong thing, but it's redemption. Not to say I've gone back to more rubbish and made mistakes, but I do know that there's a place where love really exists.
SPEAKER_01So for that will you say that love is the most important thing in this world?
SPEAKER_00For everybody at the end of the day.
SPEAKER_01I've I've always believed that. Anyway. Look, many thanks, Michael, for coming in today. I feel sure many of our listeners will be thinking deeply about what you have been telling us. I've been speaking today with Michael Classens, a strong follower of Christianity. I hope you found many things of interest. And that's the end of this week's episode on religion. Until next Wednesday, this is Julie Finch Scally wishing you well from a world at war with itself.