Re: LCC and TS
May 26, 2005 01:11 AM
by prmoliveira
--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, gregory@z... wrote:
> Pedro's claim of the Liberal Catholic Church that "Its theology is
indebted to
> Neo-Platonism and also to two prominent early Church fathers,
Clement of
> Alexandria and Origen. Over the decades after 1929 the Church gained
its own
> identity independent from the theosophical discourse" is, shall we say,
> misleading. The books officially endorsed by the General Episcopal
Synod of
> the Church as representing its theology are the key works of
Leadbeater,
> together with Besant's "Esoteric Christianity" and such like. Having
read
> virtually everything ever published by the LCC, I've never seen
anything that
> could be said to be related to Neo-Platonism, Clement or Origen
(read, for
> example, Leadbeater's work, "The Christian Gnosis" - simple Adyar
Theosophy).
Few of his readers perhaps know that Dr Tillet was a Clergy in Minor
Orders (Cleric) in the Australian Province of the LCC for several
years and contributed articles to its magazine ("Communion"). In view
of his opinion expressed above, it is interesting to note that works
by two past Presiding Bishops of the Church do mention Neo-Platonism,
Clement of Alexandria and Origen as relevant to the Church's theology.
In THE PARTING OF THE WAYS, first published in 1927, F. W. Pigott,
third Presiding Bishop of the LCC and the one who succeeded Leadbeater
in that office, wrote:
"There is some reason for believing that the teaching, Oriental rather
than Semitic, of the divinity of all men and man's continual progress
or evolution through countless ages of time from the One to the One,
had its place in the Christian teaching in the first few centuries of
our era. It was the teaching promulgated by some of the Gnostic
teachers, and to some extent by such teachers as Origen and Clement of
Alexandria, though little of this teaching has survived in documentary
form." (chapter six)
"The Gnostics truly so-called seem to have had the light of the true
knowledge, the deeper teaching already referred to, and, when excluded
from the Church, the Gnostic tradition seems to have been handed on,
somewhat furtively because of the persecutions, from generation to
generation in such sects as the Albigenses, Knights Templars,
Rosicrucians and others. They were generally persecuted by the
Catholics but, even in the days of bitterest persecution, the light
was never finally extinguished throughout the dark and the middle
ages. Much of the Gnosis was also embodied in the noble Neo-platonic
philosophy of Plotinus in the Third century and his successors
Porphyry, Iamblichus and Proclus and was handed on through Dionysius
and S. Thomas Aquinas to the Christian Mystics. Even in the Church
itself, there have usually been some teachers in every generation who
have known the esoteric teaching, but their voices have rarely been
heard above the din of those theological controversies from which the
Church since its first beginnings has never been entirely free. It is,
perhaps in the providence of God, one of the functions of the Liberal
Catholic Church to recover the lost Gnosis, and to establish it in its
rightful place as true teaching and, therefore, essential to the
Catholic religion - the original *depositum*, perhaps; the Creed
within the Creeds and the Gospel within the Gospels." (same source as
above)
In PARTAKING IN THE CHRISTIAN MYSTERIES, published in 1989, Sten H. P.
von Krusenstierna, also a former Presiding Bishop of the LCC, wrote:
"There is enormous variety in the teachings of the gnostic schools, in
their mythology and in the way they explain things. Matter is regarded
as evil, in opposition to spirit. The duality is emphasised between
light and darkness, between spirit and matter, between good and evil.
We generally do not see it that way. For manifestation these opposites
are needed. God is as much matter as He is in Spirit; this is the
Liberal Catholic teaching. Much of creation is yet imperfect. That is
why there is evolution, spiritual and physical. But the Gnostics were
much inclined to this particular conception, which presumably came
from Zoroastrianism, where there is a strong idea of duality.
There is another type of duality in Christianity which it has
inherited from Judaism. That is the idea that God is out there and
totally, utterly different from man. That is the Jewish idea; He has
created man but He is completely different from and above His
creation. That concept we find still in Christianity, but not with
Liberal Catholics. We say that God is not only transcendent but He is
also immanent. He is both beyond and within His creation. Everything
that is is God; we are parts of God. There is a little divine spark in
each one of us, as Meister Eckhart used to say. A similar concept we
find in Plato and the Neo-Platonists, that the highest in man is
divine." (chapter iv)
"The Church Father Origen (c. 185-254 A.D.) was the most prominent
theologian of his time. With Plato and the Neo-Platonists, Origen held
the concept of the pre-existence of the soul. All souls had been
created before the worlds were created. They had been created equal
and endowed with free will. Some became angels, some "lapsed" and
became human beings or daemons. "In the temporal world which is seen,
all beings are arranged according to their merits. Their place has
been determined by their conduct" (*De Principiis* 3.3.5). Here we
have already the Liberal Catholic idea, we say the same." (chapter v)
At no time have Besant's and Leadbeater's books been declared OFFICIAL
literature of the Church, although some of them were recommended
reading like, for example, some editions of the Bible. From its
inception, the LCC has had only four official documents: The Statement
of Principles, Summary of Doctrine, General Constitution and Code of
Canons. Even its Liturgy, which is the basis for its many services, is
not among its official documents.
pedro
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