Androcles and Shaws Faithfull Kitten (SUPERSATURDAYEDITION)

"(Pauline Christianity's) enchantment is produced by its spurious association with the personal charm of Jesus, and exists only for untrained minds. In the hands of a logical frenchman like Calvin, pushing it to its utmost conclusions, and devising "institutes" for hardheaded adult Scots and literal Swiss, it becomes the most infernal of fatalisms; and the lives of civilized children are blighted by its logic whilst negro piccaninnies are rejoicing in its legends."

-George BernaRd Shaw "Androcles and the Lion"


The 'Charm of Jesus', obviously derisively intended as is any mention of christianity in Shaw's works (Nietzsche never went so far as to condemn Christ himself, just Christians themselves), that Shaw is referring to is what many people have troubled over when confronted with any kind of Truth to be found in scripture.

"Yes yes, but what does it mean to actually have a man named Jesus Christ?"

Well, it is good intentioned, as if one were to worship such a Messiah, one would logically ask about the man himself... not even to question what parts of the new testament were more or less accurate than others, but to simply ask - "scripture aside, who was Jesus Christ?"

The very question itself, which I found myself both advancing as a query as well as venturing that perhaps I, as in ME the ONE, I had the answer to more than anyone else in classic youthly vigor, is nothing more than the first test of faith for Protestantism.

And this view comes from a very literal interpretation of literacy in conjunction with Christian faith.

One can only know jesus, truly know jesus, through scripture. You can imagine what it may have been ;like to be there when he was on the cross. You can dream of what sort of mood may have been wavering through the crowd when P{ilate brought Him forth for judgement. You can even speculate as to how tremendously historical it must have felt to be one of the early followers of Christ...

...but the ONLY way to know Jesus Christ is through scripture, and any 'imaginings' of the above kind preceeded by a want of knowledge of the authentic, genuine article (as have been done ad infinitum on PBS and elsewhere) and are merely a solid piece of evidence showing a distinct lack of 'faith'.

I'm sure Shaw and his contemporaries thought of the notion of 'Faith' with disdain and cankerous blasphemic anti-christian sentiment, but little did they know that the very idea of faith would become the cornerstone of the 'end of philosophy' as such, in a sense, and the beginning of the 'end of post-structuralism'.

Through much trials and travails of which a southern gentleman such as myself is loathe to mention, I happened across this key verse of scripture from which to understand faith in a philosophical sense -

(paraphrase) Faith is the Temporal Unseen.

Well, certainly this is no discovery of any import until we apply it to the Shaw's view of the relationship between Pauline Christianity and Calvinistic Christianity - with, let's hope, a keen sense of George Bernard's kitten like amusement with religion itself.

Shaw, like a kitten (and probably with much help from academic oxen), paws about his subject - prodding and poking it, crippling it, letting it go and watching with rapt attention it's flutterings and flailings and 'infernal' failings - gnaws on it a bit, and then let drops it on the ground, mush and all, eyes it for a moment, and ambles off to satiate his next loathsome dialectic - only to later come back and drop down his teethed maw down upon the subject with a loud 'Gulp' (which in this case is Christ), internalizing it entirely.

So perhaps one philosophy student, in the good-hearted name of literality, might venture that God is 'Time'.

But of course, those of us with any connection to christian tradition in our hearts know the musings of such a student would be a lackluster Socratization of christianity - one which scholar Hubert Dreyfus pointedly marked as beyond dead - pushing philosophy into post-deconstructionism.

Any understanding of faith is faith in the 'unseen' -

Hence any number of cliche's should spring to ones mind, and we are again assaulted, hopefully, by a culture that has turned christianity on it's head and made it nothing more than a predetermined 'rejoicing of piccaninnies' devoted to Saul but stricken with 'unseen' Calvanism and it's... just... a... mess/////////////////////////////////////

We are a chosen generation, We.
How are we to have any kind of relationship to Christ and God and Ourselves in an age where many god-fearing christians believe going to church to be (and I quote Muller) "Too Dangerous".


The answer I've received is from this simple passage from Hebrews Chapter 13 verse 8:

Jesus is today as he was yesterday and will be tomorrow.

That means that jesus, whether we live in a post-christian nation now as Mike Huckabee dangerously declared upon the New Year or not, is eternal.

The Temporal is Eternal.

The best understanding we have of temporality comes from the beginning of the end of philosophy, in which it was declared that the 'everyday' understanding of time is the correct one.

I would venture a conclusion from this line of logic, and I'd be happy for you to make your own - however, the 'populism' of the 'everyday' understanding of time keeps me from doing so; perhaps I'll just venture a post-deconstructionist account of Christ and how we are to serve him.





Are you ready?














Marx once called Christians, the middle class, workers, and anyone else who wasn't part of the communist party "useful idiots'. This sentiment is widely pervasive today, and shows the broad influence of proto-marxism, especially in industry, academia, and social 'scenes'.

But to worship Christ today, we need to quote "crucify ourselves". We need to be "persecuted for righteousness sake knowing we are sinners". We need to serve Christ so fully, that we are willing to throw ourselves upon our ancestors swords one at a time, until we are not only sanctified by Christs' blood sprinkling our skin - but we are sanctified by christs blood touching our blood.

We need to sacrifice ourselves - christ demands it of us... If we don't, however born again we may be - however sober and religious and chruchgoing we may be- however wise we may be~

It won't matter because Time, in the case of the philosophy student, will simply say - "I know you not" when your chaff settles under an unmarked grave.

Time will say, he did nothing to stand athwart history but wimply held on, desperately clinging to complicity. He did not shout "NO" until he was in bondage. He did not evangelize and make himself a leper amongst those who would claim to be wise. He did not crucify himself, and allow his own blood to actually make direct contact with the blood of christ.

No, all he did was drink a little wine, eat a few wafers, and sit back and watch the world end.

"I know you not" will be the last words you'll hear before plummeting to your fate as a fallen angel.