Post #4022953

2026-07-23 00:29 UTC

#Science in "the West" has been afflicted by an especially bad tendency to what I've sometimes thought of as "magic pixie dust" thinking--one which coexists with an extreme degree of scorn and performative execration heaped upon the abstractions and intangible entities postulated by non-Western peoples. While Christianity does have its mystical side, that mysticism has slowly been beaten and squeezed and persecuted out of mainstream Christian practice. This started from the earliest centuries of Christianity: Roman-era Christians in general wanted to be successful and respectable citizens of Roman society and this shaped Christianity in a dry, dull, bureaucratic sort of direction. Mysticism was too wild and woolly for those businesslike Christians. (cont'd)

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@mxchara@seattle.pink 2026-07-23 00:36

Hence the early Church drove Gnosticism underground and took a dim view of folk-Christian syncretism, although there clearly was a lot of that going on; many Christians saints are thought to be derived from pagan deities and heroes, given an indirect continuity through the Christian faith in order to keep converted pagans more likely to stick with Christianity. It was easier for mystical Christians to find some kind of place in Christendom so long as Christianity remained cloistered and associated with monastic life. But as Europe became more densely populated and urbanized after the post-Roman doldrums, the notion of having a life devoted entirely to spiritual service vanished into the furthest recesses of a Christian faith that had grown ever more secularized and institutionalized. (cont'd)

Open ##4023051