"We see then a 'new' Christian emerging in this fiction. No longer ostracized, alienated, and old-fashioned, the new Christian is wealthy, technologically savvy, and exerts a powerful cultural influence" (36). -- Amy Frykhom
Frykhom writes this on the last page of her text that was assigned for Monday. As soon as I read this, I made a connection to the Second Great Awakening. We discussed in class Friday how during the Second Great Awakening, religion came to be less about intellect and rationality as it became more about morality and emotionality. I got the impression from the Noll reading that those who were "reformed" were saw as wealthy. And maybe this was not a monetary wealth, but a spiritual wealth. Frykhom's writing gives me the impression that the idea of the rapture encourages Christians to have monetary wealth, but more importantly, spiritual wealth (a.k.a very strong in one's faith). Furthermore, the more individuals evangelize and spread this want to be spiritual beings, the better (relating to Frykhom's "...exerts a powerful cultural influence").
So maybe the Second Great Awakening can, in a way, be paralleled to the idea of the rapture, in terms of how people reacted to both. Except, in the Second Great Awakening, people were becoming spiritually revived for themselves, for their own good and for the good of their culture. Whereas, with the idea of the rapture, people are becoming spiritually revived for fear of what will happen if they are not "faithful servants of the Lord" when the rapture happens. To me, the big difference here is in the idea of self-interest: to better oneself because of individual desire to please God (Second Great Awakening), versus fear of what will happen if one does not better himself (Rapture). Is one better than the other? And if so, is this up to us as humans to decide? Or should it be a decision that God gets to make? And furthermore...how do we know the basis on which to judge the difference between these two types of self-interest?
So maybe the Second Great Awakening can, in a way, be paralleled to the idea of the rapture, in terms of how people reacted to both. Except, in the Second Great Awakening, people were becoming spiritually revived for themselves, for their own good and for the good of their culture. Whereas, with the idea of the rapture, people are becoming spiritually revived for fear of what will happen if they are not "faithful servants of the Lord" when the rapture happens. To me, the big difference here is in the idea of self-interest: to better oneself because of individual desire to please God (Second Great Awakening), versus fear of what will happen if one does not better himself (Rapture). Is one better than the other? And if so, is this up to us as humans to decide? Or should it be a decision that God gets to make? And furthermore...how do we know the basis on which to judge the difference between these two types of self-interest?
No comments:
Post a Comment