From: Robert Schneider (rjschn39@bellsouth.net)
Date: Mon Sep 22 2003 - 17:28:52 EDT
Blake writes:
>
> To the contrary, I think the concrete Jesus of
> Nazareth is the greatest hope (and promise) that God
> will join His nature with ETs who are in need of
> redeemption, too...
>
Blake and Steve,
Your exchange picks up on a topic that George Murphy and I touched on
over a year ago. The question, which was raised rather early in Christian
theology, was this: would the Incarnation have happened if there was no
sin, or no "original sin"? There is a tradition in theology that answers
that question in the affirmative, that sees the Incarnation as a final step
that brings God's self revelation to human kind to its most intimate level
through the divine sharing in humanity, and, without abandoning the notion
of forgiveness of sins through Christ's actions, sees Christ as the model
of human perfection to which imperfect humans can commit themselves to
follow. In eastern Christianity, incarnation is linked to the concept of
"theosis," as Athanasius put it in his treatise "On the Incarnation": He
[Christ] was made human in order that we might be made divine."
I see no reason why such a notion of Incarnation may not be entertained
by a Christian not only for the Christian life on this planet, but also
extended as a possibility for intelligent and self-reflective life on the
millions of planets in our and other galaxies on which they may exist.
Further, I see no difficulty in supposing that God might manifest Godself in
a like intimate Incarnation through what would be the equivalent of the
female of such species.
It is fun to speculate on such matters in a spirit of friendly
back-and-forth. And I am with Howard in wishing to receive a message from
intelligent beings from another planet to observe its effect on believers
and their various theologies, and what such beings might teach us about The
Sacred.
May the Energia be with us,
Bob Schneider
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