Limbo
Well, the waiting is over. The Catholic Church has done away with Limbo. No, not the game where drunk people struggle to walk under a stick - nobody would be so cruel as to banish that practice.
I'm talking about the place where the unbaptized dead can go to wait a decent interval until the Big Guy decides they're fit for heaven. Or the place where Plato and Socrates (and Moses for that matter) await judgement day. And no, not the WWE Judgement Day featuring Ray Mysterio and Booker T. The for-real Judgement Day where spiritual luminaries (literally) of the Catholic Church will get together and render their decision on the ultimate disposition of the souls under their care (which is all of them, including yours).
Apparently, Limbo was not part of the bedrock rules of the Church. It was the Medieval Church's best guess at what to do with all the un-Baptized babies and all the pre-Christ people who never had a chance at salvation.
I kid the Church, sure. As a (non-practicing) Jew, it's not my place to make fun of other religious. Hell, I still keep a modicum of respect for Zeus and Odin (just in case). If people believe in a religion with true faith, and that religion does not call for harming oneself or others, than it deserves respect.
On the other hand, since my people did suffer a millennia of death and destruction at the hands of the Church and its vassals, I do feel as though Jews have some standing in the matter. Plus, the Limbo of Fathers is supposed to contain the spirits of many, many Jews. So I'd like to have some say as to their ultimate destiny, even in the context of a belief system I don't adhere to.
I'm of the mind that any human guessing at the details of a divine system is a waste of parchment, paper, or pixels. Any guesswork of this kind is not only bound to be deeply flawed, but is equally valid with any other guess.
For example, if I hold a deeply-felt belief that the universe is run by an omnipotent Cat and the earth was created as a celestial litterbox, it's just a valid as anything St. Thomas Aquinas ever said.
That's why, in most religions you need a central authority to decide this stuff. If there was no Pope, there might still be a Limbo. And the fish on Friday thing would still be with us (as George Carlin said: "I bet there's still some dudes doing time in Limbo for eating a hot dog on Friday).
Elaborate constructions about the spiritual world are worse than a waste of time - they can cause real trouble in the real world. Look at what the promise of 72 virgins can do in the Muslim world. The entire context of radical Islam is the rejection of material things and the primacy of the spiritual. Which somehow results in suicide bombings.
Part of the reason for the murderous acts of extreme Islam is their lack of a unified leader. Sure, there's the official Saudi state religion - Wahhabi - which is as full of hate for non-believers as anything Osama believes. But there's no Sunni or Shiia top dog to lay down the law.
Plus, in the Muslim world, religion is politics. We can see that in the Iraq mess - political positioning tracks 100% with religious affiliation.
Fortunately, most Christian religions have given this up. There are no longer Catholic or Protestant political parties in most countries outside of Ireland. And the Church itself is no longer a 'conversion by sword/crusader' group. They've settled down to simply provide theological guidance to their flocks. Since they do have a central authority, they can be sure that no extremist groups over-ride the decision and crusade on their own.
Good for them.
And part of that is doing away with the overly harsh construction of Limbo. I haven't seen anything that says whether Limbo has ceased to exist, or whether it officially never existed.
Either way, I don't think anyone will miss it. Is Purgatory next?
I'm talking about the place where the unbaptized dead can go to wait a decent interval until the Big Guy decides they're fit for heaven. Or the place where Plato and Socrates (and Moses for that matter) await judgement day. And no, not the WWE Judgement Day featuring Ray Mysterio and Booker T. The for-real Judgement Day where spiritual luminaries (literally) of the Catholic Church will get together and render their decision on the ultimate disposition of the souls under their care (which is all of them, including yours).
Apparently, Limbo was not part of the bedrock rules of the Church. It was the Medieval Church's best guess at what to do with all the un-Baptized babies and all the pre-Christ people who never had a chance at salvation.
I kid the Church, sure. As a (non-practicing) Jew, it's not my place to make fun of other religious. Hell, I still keep a modicum of respect for Zeus and Odin (just in case). If people believe in a religion with true faith, and that religion does not call for harming oneself or others, than it deserves respect.
On the other hand, since my people did suffer a millennia of death and destruction at the hands of the Church and its vassals, I do feel as though Jews have some standing in the matter. Plus, the Limbo of Fathers is supposed to contain the spirits of many, many Jews. So I'd like to have some say as to their ultimate destiny, even in the context of a belief system I don't adhere to.
I'm of the mind that any human guessing at the details of a divine system is a waste of parchment, paper, or pixels. Any guesswork of this kind is not only bound to be deeply flawed, but is equally valid with any other guess.
For example, if I hold a deeply-felt belief that the universe is run by an omnipotent Cat and the earth was created as a celestial litterbox, it's just a valid as anything St. Thomas Aquinas ever said.
That's why, in most religions you need a central authority to decide this stuff. If there was no Pope, there might still be a Limbo. And the fish on Friday thing would still be with us (as George Carlin said: "I bet there's still some dudes doing time in Limbo for eating a hot dog on Friday).
Elaborate constructions about the spiritual world are worse than a waste of time - they can cause real trouble in the real world. Look at what the promise of 72 virgins can do in the Muslim world. The entire context of radical Islam is the rejection of material things and the primacy of the spiritual. Which somehow results in suicide bombings.
Part of the reason for the murderous acts of extreme Islam is their lack of a unified leader. Sure, there's the official Saudi state religion - Wahhabi - which is as full of hate for non-believers as anything Osama believes. But there's no Sunni or Shiia top dog to lay down the law.
Plus, in the Muslim world, religion is politics. We can see that in the Iraq mess - political positioning tracks 100% with religious affiliation.
Fortunately, most Christian religions have given this up. There are no longer Catholic or Protestant political parties in most countries outside of Ireland. And the Church itself is no longer a 'conversion by sword/crusader' group. They've settled down to simply provide theological guidance to their flocks. Since they do have a central authority, they can be sure that no extremist groups over-ride the decision and crusade on their own.
Good for them.
And part of that is doing away with the overly harsh construction of Limbo. I haven't seen anything that says whether Limbo has ceased to exist, or whether it officially never existed.
Either way, I don't think anyone will miss it. Is Purgatory next?
posted by fiduciary at 7:53 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home