Tuesday, 17th October, 2006

Experience of the human and transcendent

I just read the follow up reading CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE AND THEOLOGY. Then I had to look up Ontology
This subject means a lot to me and makes so much sense. We learn by receiving what we perceive to be truth, if this is taught by man I know by my experience in the reason session, it is possible to frame something to be perceived as “The Truth”. The perceived truth is often deemed from the perspective one is looking from. As I mentioned in my beggar example a fact is only a small piece of a jigsaw puzzle, and to see the whole picture one needs to collect and assemble all the bits!

My faith has grown over many years, the “Truth” that I am beginning to see comes from the culmination of a lot of parts of a bigger picture, a picture that is growing with every step I take. It is a picture that slowly develops and changes as you look more deeply into it. It may never be complete but with the support of the Gospels and the grace of God it is a map for living in this world, and promise of the next. As I grow I receive little pieces of the jigsaw, nourishing my God given life, building the puzzle, and realising God.

We discussed experience, and I made a stance that we could only experience an event by having an understanding of that event. Paul did reflect on a south sea scenario of a ship coming into port and the native inhabitants not noticing the ship because they didn’t understand it. We can not describe an event as an experience until we have reflected on it. “What happened?”, or “Did you see that”? You only exclaim it’s relevance if you understand the impact it had. If an event happens, but it appears to have no impact, does it become a definable experience? Do you even notice it? It was mentioned by another class member that things must follow the law of physics, there are set rules that most things follow. If you expect things to follow that rule and they don’t these are remembered experiences. Mundane things that happen as they should are more often not even noticed. Even things that are not recognised often pass without event.

Addition - 24^th November

When I do my Chaplains Assistant rounds at the hospital, I regularly speak to people with dementia. But one thing that strikes me is the memory they have for experiences in church, especially as a child. One woman in her late eighties, who I was expected not to get any sense from, articulacy, described a memory as a child. While standing high above, she watched over the Salvation Army band as they passed by Old Portsmouth barracks towards the garrison church. She was dressed in her Sunday best, ready to go into church. It was an event of great impact that has stayed with her.