T
TheAtheist
Guest
Strange.
My 5th cousin once removed married a Sikh (he’s an adherent of Shiva Nataraja. And if you want to complicate that tree even more - his daughter is a Syro-Malabaran (or Malankaran? Which one is the one associated with Orthodoxy proper?) who married a Protestant whose parents are a Sri Lankan Buddhist and a follower of Devi.
Yeah I know what your thinking. And my response is simply thus:** Its India, not the West.** and I asked that very same question.
Now, i’m hardly an expert on Orthodox Christianity, but I believe you 2 share some commonailities in terms of how to describe the concept of God.
From Islam, one can see the influence of the insistence that God is One. God is also described a Creator, itself being uncreated, but the source and origin of all things.
As far in terms of “mechanics” that I got for how God accomplished this task, apparently the Universe is not an Ex Nihilio creation nor was developed from some basic “stuff” that existed with the deity. Its more like an Emanation - very similar to how Neoplatonics and certain Kabbalistic traditions view the creation of the universe at least to my understanding of their philosophies.
So their idea of God is both Transcendent and Immanent if I might borrow that terminology for your benefit.
Creator, Eternal, One. That seems to be the portfolio if you will.
But in terms of the manner in which God’s attributes are described - they follow a path quite close to Nirguna Brahmanism or your own Via Negativa.
Frustratingly enough for me given my radical empiricism as a scientist, God essentially can’t be adequately described in their tradition. The only things that can be stapled down is that the being in question is said to be immortal, omnipotent, merciful, Kindness/Love, Grace, etc. etc. etc.
Pretty much the manner in which Western-Semitic religious traditions defines God.
But you really don’t get much more than that.
On the deity’s whim? pleasure? laid out plan?, it can adopt manifested qualities for the purposes of teaching, communication, etc. etc. That being said, its never manifested a la Christ or Vishnu, or insert favorite divine figure.
I am kind of surprised however, that many of the Orthodox here don’t know too much about Sikhism. Its always been related to me at least that in terms of spiritual paths, Orthodox Christianity garners much respect from the segment of their community that deals with interfaith relations.
At the other end of the spectrum sits evangelical Protestantism for well…
info-sikh.com/PageEvan1.html
In terms of indigenous religious traditions, South Asia and if I am to believe my Chinese colleagues, east Asia as well, generally has a very very very very low opinion of Evangelical Christianity for things like the link above.
Actually if I had to place a peg on this one, Orthodoxy seems to have a much stronger appeal to the sensibilities of South Asia than most other forms of Christianity.
Catholicism seems like an odd middle ground, due to its push for social justice yet existence of a spiritual type of life that appeals to that same sensibility.