I'm reading Pike's Morals and Dogma, critically, as I am a Christian, but I deeply am drawn to the esoteric and find a lot of what he's written in the early chapters (I'm early on, this is a big undertaking) fascinating and well reasoned. Has anyone else read this as a Christian? I'm a poor fit for my religion, I find Faust sympathetic, like a mirror to me, I read shit like Enoch, frankly I dispute the veracity of certain books like Revelations, I also reject the Old Covenant as anything more than history, I reject The Church, so I understand I'm not exactly a model believer, but I'm torn between the radical beliefs that God prefers us ignorant, or wants us to use our faculties to find Him.Anyways, if anyone else has read and wants to discuss I'd be happy to. So far it's worthwhile alone for his comparison of God's revelations to man being staggered in the same way Solon only gave the Athenian people the best laws they were fit to receive at the time. It's a brilliant comparison
>>25274154You can be a "christian" and be a mason, you just can't be catholic and be a mason.
>>25274174Is that so? Catholicism is the "no oaths" group specifically? That's fair, though I think there's clearly ideas a good Christian would need to reject even at the lower levels of masonry
>>25274154Of course you would find it fascinating and well reasoned. He's fundamentally just writing about the same stuff Christian writers do insofar as they are influenced by Platonism. Also, Pike is good and all, but I think your time would be better spent reading Eliphas Levi if this sort of stuff interests you.
>>25274178Wasn't oath taking part of legal frameworks now and then? How would the courts protect Catholics against charges of perjury?
>>25274174Why are masons associated with Scots?
>>25274185Levi is good and all, but I think your time would be better spent reading Jozef Maria Hoene-Wronski if this sort of stuff interests you.
>>25274185Wonderful, absolutely wonderful, how clear and concise he words something so important "to think being to speak inwardly". I appreciate the rec and will read>>25274191Thank you as well, I'm unfamiliar with this too
>>25274185>>25274191>In 1852, shortly before his death, he did find a willing audience for his ideas: the occultist Eliphas Levi who met Wroński and was greatly impressed and "attracted by his religious and scientific utopianism." Wroński was "a powerful catalyst" for Levi's occultism.
>>25274154>Anyways, if anyone else has read and wants to discuss I'd be happy to. So far it's worthwhile alone for his comparison of God's revelations to man being staggered in the same way Solon only gave the Athenian people the best laws they were fit to receive at the time. It's a brilliant comparisonLicit to believe as a Catholic and Christ endorses this.>I'm reading Pike's Morals and Dogma, critically, as I am a Christian, but I deeply am drawn to the esoteric and find a lot of what he's written in the early chapters (I'm early on, this is a big undertaking) fascinating and well reasoned.I have not read it but freemasonry will cause a blood curse on your descendants. You cannot join them without their ritual. Why?>I'm a poor fit for my religion, I find Faust sympathetic, like a mirror to me,Emotional dispositions aren't a sin>I read [woops] like Enoch,Morally licit if you acknowledge it's not canonical. Pope Benedict cited the Gospel of Thomas in Jesus of Nazareth while pope.>frankly I dispute the veracity of certain books like Revelations,Revelations is a fever dream of a Scripture book. It's canon, but Scriptural inerrancy is spiritual and for salvation and not about how clear a metaphor is.>I also reject the Old Covenant as anything more than historyIt is not longer in effect so it is historical.>I reject The Church,Here's your problem!>so I understand I'm not exactly a model believer,You have reasonable doubts and fair questions. I would say that's fine. Blind belief is worse than understanding where you're in the dark about things.>but I'm torn between the radical beliefs that God prefers us ignorant,We are limited in our natures but we enter into full Communion with Him and surpass our own bare nature.>or wants us to use our faculties to find Him.I mean yeah of course he does. Said bluntly, you seem to not understand what a good or a bad Christian is. You have reasonable quibbles, other than outright rejecting His Church, that can be clarified and are to be expected in our current environment. Faust is our cultural figure; it'd be a little weird if you found him totally unsympathetic given our cultural time.
>>25274322are you a priest?
>>25274190Supposedly when the knights Templar were broken up, one of the places they found refuge was in Scotland where the Scottish Rite was eventually founded.
>>25274154>Has anyone else read this as a Christian? I'm a poor fit for my religion, I find Faust sympathetic, like a mirror to me, I read shit like Enoch, frankly I dispute the veracity of certain books like Revelations, I also reject the Old Covenant as anything more than history, I reject The Church, so I understand I'm not exactly a model believer, but I'm torn between the radical beliefs that God prefers us ignorant, or wants us to use our faculties to find Him.Gnosticism is the devil's counterfeit Christianity that targets individuals who want to be members of the Esoteric Elite in much the same way the Prosperity Gospel targets people who want to be materially wealthy
>>25274468meanwhile, in the Bible:>With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.
>>25274468OP here, I agree with you. I guess when I say "reading this stuff as a Christian", I mean examining it without buy-in, but you've correctly identified that the interest is a buy-in in and of itself. Anyways, I can't seem to turn my brain away from pursuit of knowledge, not just esoteric, but as a general matter, it's something I'm deeply stuck on in my late 30s. Intelligent people, as you appear to be, know plainly that knowledge is a proxy for power
>>25274322>I have not read it but
>>25274424I hate being Scottish sometimes. I feel like the global south's pincushion.
