I use the King James translation like most people. Again, you miss my point which is based on one simple and unassailable observation: only the Gospels purport to give an account of the life and sayings of Jesus. The Old Testament doesn't, nor do the Acts of the Apostles, nor Paul's epistles. Ever since the Biblical canon was closed (4th century or so), there has been a long and often respected tradition of focusing on the life and sayings of Jesus (to be sure, Giordano Bruno was burned for it and today's evangelicals reject it). It was especially prominent in the 18th century Enlightenment, e.g., Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson (who went so far as produce his own version of the Bible based strictly on the Gospels). It has more recently gained renewed prominence with the discovery of previously unknown texts purporting to be the sayings of Jesus, e.g., in the work of Elaine Pagels. And I'm hardly the first to notice the close resemblance between the teachings of Jesus and those of the Buddha. Joseph Campbell is just one prominent example.
You find my prose dense? Ah well. I try to be as clear as possible and I think I usually succeed. Would you prefer that I write in loose fragments? Would that be easier? The burden of communication may be on the communicator but he shouldn't be required to assume a complete lack of effort on the part of the reader. For example, I write "Theologically, I am an agnostic pagan; ethically, I try to be a Christian." What could possibly be clearer than that I am making a distinction between theology and ethics? How could I be make that distinction clearer than by the contrast of "theologically" and "ethically"? Yet somehow you repeatedly missed that distinction. Since it requires only the most minimal effort, I disclaim all responsibility for your failure to recognize it; I made it more than clear enough.
I too have better things to spend mental effort on than LJ, For one thing, I do enough reading so that simple prose like mine (and it really is pretty simple) doesn't seem dense and I don't miss elementary contrasts.
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Date: 2013-05-22 02:40 am (UTC)You find my prose dense? Ah well. I try to be as clear as possible and I think I usually succeed. Would you prefer that I write in loose fragments? Would that be easier? The burden of communication may be on the communicator but he shouldn't be required to assume a complete lack of effort on the part of the reader. For example, I write "Theologically, I am an agnostic pagan; ethically, I try to be a Christian." What could possibly be clearer than that I am making a distinction between theology and ethics? How could I be make that distinction clearer than by the contrast of "theologically" and "ethically"? Yet somehow you repeatedly missed that distinction. Since it requires only the most minimal effort, I disclaim all responsibility for your failure to recognize it; I made it more than clear enough.
I too have better things to spend mental effort on than LJ, For one thing, I do enough reading so that simple prose like mine (and it really is pretty simple) doesn't seem dense and I don't miss elementary contrasts.