| Chungsoo J. Lee |
| A philosophic and religious corner |
| On Apostle Paul |
Paul is the essence of the West-- how he internalized Christ-event ("to die and
to live with him" without ever needing to see him physically or
personally--indeed Paul made Christianity accessible to everyone, no need to be
a Jew, no need to ever meet Christ physically but he "live with you," etc.). By
internalizing Christ, he gave birth to the Western literature long before
Augustine, Cervantes, Descartes, Freud, Kafka, etc. By appropriating
Resurrection (not the Death on the Cross) as means of our justification (Rom
4:25), he gave birth to the indomitable optimism of the West long before the rise
of science, technology, Enlightenment, Hegel, Mark, Woodstock, etc. Isn't it
wonderful to believe that all things will turn out right eventually--that the
Kingdom of God shall eventually come? The Kingdom of God is the legacy of
Judaism, which Paul appropriated, internalized, and heightened the sense
of--perhaps more intensely and far beyond Jesus (by internalizing and
individualizing it). Hinduism and Buddhism know no such things. No
optimism, no internalizing there. Good and evil simply happen. One does not
need to search one's soul to praise or blame oneself or anyone else for good or
evil that befalls on us. Rather, all is part of the cosmic One who encompasses
all things in their multiplicity like an ever flowing river that submerges all things.
Thanks to Paul, the West will never understand the East.
Oct. 2011
to live with him" without ever needing to see him physically or
personally--indeed Paul made Christianity accessible to everyone, no need to be
a Jew, no need to ever meet Christ physically but he "live with you," etc.). By
internalizing Christ, he gave birth to the Western literature long before
Augustine, Cervantes, Descartes, Freud, Kafka, etc. By appropriating
Resurrection (not the Death on the Cross) as means of our justification (Rom
4:25), he gave birth to the indomitable optimism of the West long before the rise
of science, technology, Enlightenment, Hegel, Mark, Woodstock, etc. Isn't it
wonderful to believe that all things will turn out right eventually--that the
Kingdom of God shall eventually come? The Kingdom of God is the legacy of
Judaism, which Paul appropriated, internalized, and heightened the sense
of--perhaps more intensely and far beyond Jesus (by internalizing and
individualizing it). Hinduism and Buddhism know no such things. No
optimism, no internalizing there. Good and evil simply happen. One does not
need to search one's soul to praise or blame oneself or anyone else for good or
evil that befalls on us. Rather, all is part of the cosmic One who encompasses
all things in their multiplicity like an ever flowing river that submerges all things.
Thanks to Paul, the West will never understand the East.
Oct. 2011
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