Some great links with more reading
Below are some short introductions. Click on the blue hyperlinked word to get more related articles.
Baptism - Baptism (from Greek baptizein to sprinkle)
Ceremonial of purification with water; one of the sacraments in the Christian churches, by which persons are initiated into the visible Church of Christ. It consists in either immersion in water or sprinkling with water, according to the practice of different churches.
In the Protestant Churches it is "the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace," accepted as a necessary preliminary to the other sacraments, and even as essential to salvation. In the Roman Catholic Church it carries remission of sin both original and actual. It existed in pre-Christian times among Jews and pagans, practiced in Chaldea, Egypt, India, Greece, Africa, Polynesia, North America, and ancient Europe, among others.
Mystically speaking, there are two baptisms: that of water and that of fire; the former pertaining to the plane of matter, the latter to that of spirit. In the New Testament, John the Baptist says: "I baptize you with water, but a greater than I shall come, who will baptize you with fire." Jesus instructs Nicodemus as to the two births: the birth of water and the birth of the spirit. Baptism was therefore a ceremonial pertaining to an inferior degree of initiation.
Isle Of Iona - ISLE OF IONA: A center of Druid teaching and gathering in the Hebrides Islands off the west coast of Scotland. In the sixth century, St. Columbus turned the island into a large center for Christian worship and study. Today many Catholics make pilgrimages to Iona to pray to St. Columbus. "In my opinion this was the emergence of Catholicism from Christianity caused by the merging of Druidism and Christianity."
Protestantism - Often used generically of all Christian churches that are neither Roman Catholic nor Orthodox, the term more specifically refers to the movement that originated in the 16th century Reformation. Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, King Henry VIII and others led efforts to correct, reform or “protest” the errors in doctrine and practice that they saw in medieval Roman Catholicism.
Voodoo - Voodoo is both a corruption of the African Fon word ''Vodou'' (which means ''spirit'' or ''mystery'') and now a powerful spiritual tradition in its own right, most associated with New Orleans and the American South.
Voodoo travelled from Africa in the hearts and souls of Africans who were transported to the Americas during the slave trade. There it became blended with the spiritual practices of the indigenous peoples, who often had a shamanic or animistic belief system, and with the Catholic religion of the slave owners. It recognises one creator-god and a pantheon of angel-like spirits (called Loa) who work on his behalf. The ancestors are a third spiritual force.
All of these spirits may be appealed to for practical help, advice, and support, through prayer, divination and magic. Herbalism also plays a major role in New Orleans Voodoo, where it is known as Hoodoo or root doctoring, and the Voodoo priest and priestess are often powerful healers, working with herbs and with more spiritual and magical healing tools.
Famous names associated with New Orleans Voodoo include Marie Laveau and Dr. John.
Indulgence - In Catholicism, a means by which the Catholic church takes away some of the punishment due the Christian in this life and/or purgatory because of his sin.
Ultramontanes - Ultramontanes Beyond the mountains, particularly the Alps. Originally used, from the point of view of Rome, to signify countries north of the Alps, but later used, from the point of view of France, to signify Rome and the Roman doctrine of Catholicism, as opposed to the Gallican or Jansenist views. The matter at issue was whether supreme authority on questions of the religious administration should rest with the Pope of Rome or should be shared with an ecumenical council or with the civil government of France. The French monarchy claimed the right to institute prelates and to exercise various other ecclesiastical functions in accordance with local and national policy; and was able for a time to extort concessions in these matters from the Papal See. But the Vatican Council of 1869-70 virtually made the principles of ultramontanism dogmas of the Church, and set the authority of the Pope above that of national churches or ecumenical councils.
Immaculate Conception - Immaculate Conception A dogma of the Roman Catholic Church that Mary, mother of Jesus, was born immaculate, that is without original sin in the Christian sense. It is a misapprehension of ancient Mystery-teachings which entered into the original Church through some of the early Fathers who had been initiated in the Mystery schools of their time. The origin of the idea is in the primordial cosmic triad or trinity of Father-Mother-Son, where the principle personified as Mother must be conceived of as immaculate both in original and in productive power and action.
From this truly sublime cosmic idea there flowed forth coordinate ideas having application to the individual human being. For the individual human triad of atma-buddhi-manas is a reflection or ray from the cosmic triad; so that what the cosmic Father is to the universe, atman is in the human triad; the cosmic Mother corresponds to buddhi; and the cosmic Son to manas. And as the humanity of an individual resides in the manas and can become spiritual and immortal, or a christos, by alliance upwards with the other two individuals of the triad, the dogma gradually became materialized to signify that a human child was born of an immaculate mother, who in her turn was immaculately conceived without sin.
Liberation Theology - A movement that attempts to unite theology with social and religious concerns about oppression.
It finds expressions among blacks, feminists, Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americans, but it is most closely identified with the shift toward Marxism among Roman Catholic theologians and priests in Latin America. Most traditional doctrines of Christianity are de-emphasized or reinterpreted.
Jesus and the Bible are defined and interpreted in light of a class struggle, with the gospel seen as a radical call to activism (or even revolution) promoting political and social answers usually in the form of classic Communism.
Absolution - In Catholicism, the act of releasing someone from their sin by God, through the means of a priest.
Vicar - A salaried Catholic priest who administers to a parish but does not receive parish income.
In the Anglican Church, a common title for a parish priest.
Nun - Especially in the Roman Catholic Church, those women who consecrate their lives to spiritual service and various religious orders. They do not marry and are normally virgins.
Catholic - Latin for "universal, all-inclusive."
Purgatory - An incorrect doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. Purgatory is the belief that there exists a place after death where some of the sins of people are purged through suffering. After a period of time corresponding to the suffering necessary for the sins committed, the person is then set free and enters heaven. "Gifts or services rendered to the church, prayers by the priests, and masses provided by relatives or friends in behalf of the deceased can shorten, alleviate or eliminate the sojourn of the soul in purgatory."
This is an unbiblical doctrine rejected by the Protestant church. It reflects the misunderstanding of the atonement of Christ as well as adding insult to the finished work of the cross. The error of purgatory is the teaching that we might perfect ourselves and remove sin through our sufferings. If that were possible, then why did Christ need to die? Gal. 2:21 says, "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" (NIV)
Additionally, on the cross Jesus said, "It is finished" (John 19:30). In the Greek, this was an accounting term which meant a debt was paid in full. If the payment for our sins was paid in full on the cross, then how could purgatory be a reality -- especially when the scriptures don''t mention it and even contradict it: "Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" (Heb. 9:27).
Logos - Logos (Greek) plural logoi. Word; expressive cosmic intelligence manifested in every rational being. With Plato, that power of the mind which is manifested in speech; its relation to nous or intelligence is not always clearly distinguished.
With reference to the logos in man, an important distinction was made by the ancients between the logos endiathetos (ideal or unspoken word) and the logos prophorikos (expressed or spoken word), the former being an unexpressed idea in the mind. The word was adopted by Christian theologians mingled with ideas taken from the Hebrews, used in the second sense, as found in the first chapter of John, where the Logos seems almost anthropomorphized.
In theosophy, logos stands for the manifested unity at the head of any hierarchy, which is the First Logos. There are innumerable such logoi in cosmic space. The Second Logos emanates from it and is dual, combining both the active and passive sides of the emanation from the First Logos, just as a word combines idea or thought with the vibratory energy of sound. The Third Logos, again, is the offspring or emanation from the Second or Dual Logos.
It is just in these three logoi, considered as a cosmic unit, that arose the original teaching of the Christian Trinity. In the original Christian idea, the Son was identified with the Third Logos and proceeded from the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Second Logos, originally in Christianity a feminine cosmic power; whereas the Roman Catholic Church made the procession of the Son come directly from the First Logos or Father, the Holy Ghost being misplaced and made the Third Logos. In later developments of Christian theology, the Logos is spoken of as the Word made flesh, the manifestation of God on earth, the Son of God, Christ, the miscalled Second Person of the Trinity. This idea was still further narrowed and debased into the doctrine of a single and special earthy manifestation of the Godhead.
After parabrahman, the one ineffable and unthinkable reality, comes the First or Unmanifested Logos, corresponding to paramatman in cosmos and atman in man, the supreme monadic self in any hierarchy; then as an emanation from the former comes the quasi-manifested or Second Logos, corresponding to cosmic and human buddhi, always envisaged as a feminine potency; and then from the former two proceeds the manifested, creative, or Third Logos, corresponding to mahat on the cosmic plane and manas in the human constitution. Thus Logos is a center of unity in a being, which may exist in an unmanifest or a manifest condition, but always derivative from the supreme mystery above it -- to which must be added an intermediate state of partial or incipient manifestation. Man is sometimes spoken of as the Third Logos, as it corresponds to manas.
"This (first)
Logos may be called in the language of old writers either Eswara or Pratyagatma or Sabda Brahmam. It is called the Verbum or the Word by the Christians, and it is the divine Christos who is eternally in the bosom of his father. It is called Avalokiteswara by the Buddhists; at any rate, Avalokiteswara in one sense is the Logos in general, . . . In almost every doctrine they have formulated the existence of a centre of spiritual energy which is unborn and eternal, and which exists in a latent condition in the bosom of Parabrahmam at the time of pralaya, and starts as a centre of conscious energy at the time of cosmic activity. It is the first gnatha or the ego in the cosmos, and every other ego and every other self . . . is but its reflection or manifestation. In its inmost nature it is not unknowable as Parabrahmam, but it is an object of the highest knowledge that man is capable of acquiring. . . .
". . . Parabrahmam by itself cannot be seen as it is. It is seen by the Logos with a veil thrown over it, and that veil is the mighty expanse of cosmic matter. It is the basis of all material manifestations in the cosmos.
". . . the first manifestation of Parabrahmam is a Trinity, the highest Trinity that we are capable of understanding. It consists of Mulaprakriti, Eswara or the Logos, and the conscious energy of the Logos, which is its power and light; and here we have the three principles upon which the whole cosmos seems to be based. First, we have matter; secondly, we have force -- at any rate, the foundation of all the forces in the cosmos; and thirdly, we have the ego or the one root of self, of which every other kind of self is but a manifestation or reflection" (Notes on BG 18-22).
On account of the universal analogies running throughout Nature, every cosmic unit, such as a solar system or a sun, is an expression in itself of a minor series of First, Second, and Third Logoi; and this primordial Triad through the Third Logos breaks into seven offspring-logoi, which become the seven solar logoi.
Dualistic Polytheism - A style of religion in which the Good Guys and Bad Guys include several major and minor deities (though they may not always be called that by the official theologians); what most so- called “monotheisms” really are. Examples would be Zoroastrianism, Catholicism, and Christian Fundamentalism.
Venial Sin - In Catholicism, a sin but not as bad as mortal Sin. It lessens the grace of God within a person''s soul.
John Wycliff - (1326-84) English Catholic reformer and theologian who inspired one of the early efforts at translating the Bible into English. A professor at Oxford, Wycliff joined controversies on the authority of tradition, on the Eucharist, and on monasticism. The "Wycliff Bible," though supported by him, was in fact authored by his disciples, Nicholas of Hereford (d. ca. 1420) and John Purvey (ca. 1353-1428).
High Church Low Church - In the Anglican or Episcopal Christian church, terms used to distinguish traditions that emphasize either its Catholic and liturgical heritage (High) or its evangelical roots (Low).
West - West The forces of the four cardinal points have each a distinct occult property, and are ruled over by the four regents.
Blavatsky states that there is occult philosophy in the early Christian doctrine, echoes of which still linger in both the Orthodox Greek and the Roman Catholic Churches, that public calamities are due to invisible messengers from the north and west, and particularly from the west, the conjunction of the two points being combined in the northwest (SD 1:123).
Most good, on the other hand, flows forth from the north and east. The Egyptian goddess Hathor is spoken of as the infernal Isis, the goddess preeminently of the west or nether world. East and west are not localities but directions, and when used in reference to localities the meaning is purely relative. Good and evil, too, are relative terms as experienced by human beings, for such messengers and influences are in all cases strictly karmic agents; and often what people in their blindness and weakness think a calamity or misfortune may indeed be a blessing in disguise.
See also CARDINAL POINTS
Purgatory - A doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. Purgatory is a place after death where some of the sins of people are purged through suffering. After a period of time corresponding to the suffering necessary for the sins committed, the person is then set free and enters heaven. It no doubt is derived from an earlier understanding of Hell or the Spirit World.
Mortal Sin - In Catholicism, a serious and willful transgression of God''s Law. It involves full knowledge and intent of the will to commit the sin. If left unrepentant, according to Catholicism, can damn someone to eternal hell. Mortal sin is more serious than venial Sin.
Astrolatry - Astrolatry The worship of the stars, planets, and other heavenly bodies, found particularly in ancient Chaldea. Used also by the Roman Catholic Church.
See also SABEAN(SABEANISM). (BCW)
|
