kenyon

You weren't being combative in the least. I've enjoyed every bit of each conversation we've had. The length of my comments will take care of themselves this week, my sis & brother-in-law are in town & we've got all sorts of plans.
I forgot to address the miracles/magic/superstition topic and I want to. The simple answer is that I feel religious language is necessarily symbolic. Religion is there for us to address and relate to things and ideas we really could not otherwise relate to. I am fond of saying, although I'm not sure I've thoroughly thought it out "either everything is a miracle or nothing is a miracle." It's my opinion that an actual occurance in time and space that breaks (Gods) physical law could only be destructive. As such, it would have to fall on the "demonic" side of the coin. Which is really quite strange (on the surface) considering how chock full 'o miracles the Bible is. But return to understanding religious language as symbolic and they all shuffle around and find their place back within God's plan. Next time you open the New Testament, keep a watchful eye out for Christ speaking literally about any physical sort of attribute of divinity. The Father is like... The Kingdom of Heaven is as... If there's been anyone who more fully embraced the use of metaphor, I haven't found him

On the above topic, this little 127 page book is massive. Paul's greater "Systematic Theology" means everything to me but the funny thing is, he's very disliked by people I respect and loved by people I can't much stomach. Possible points of interest from your perspective: He was a unitarian preacher and spent a good deal of time in the last ten years of his life studying buddhism in Japan. Please don't think I'm posting a link because I think you should go and buy the damn thing, not at all.