Three-in-one Re: GRGR: Gospels & stuff

[rj]

> 
> What is the Vatican saying now? What did they used to say?

Purely symbolic, I guess, but a Pope on a parapet on a *secular*
occasion joining in the call for peace last night exemplifies this
loosening of strictures. For me, at least.

Pope John Paul II's 1998 encyclical letter "to the Bishops ... on the
relationship between faith and reason" is another place to look at what
the "Vatican is saying now". See 'Fides et Ratio' at
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_15101998_fides-et-ratio_en.html

My comment addressed the assertion that "all
> > > Biblical text [is] a form of "dictation,"  from God's mouth
> > > to the scribe's pen.

*****

On "suppressed" gospels:
> 
> I've never thought of my old favorites as being suppressed. I don't imagine 
> a conspiracy trying to get rid of them. But I see rj's point

Well, no, I don't think you do. These texts were buried for safe-keeping
at a Gnostic monastery at Nag-Hammadi in Egypt nearly two millennia ago.
No other copies survived the centuries. It is not as though they simply
fell into disuse on the shelves of a library somewhere, or went "out of
print". I very much doubt that the Gospel of Thomas was "held dear" by
the early Church fathers.

*****

> rjackson wrote:
> 
> >Stick with what you know, or read more about what you
> >don't know (watching a TV documentary hardly qualifies
> >you as an expert, rj).

Well, nice try, but no, that was slothrop666, as everyone is well aware.

> I'd like to hear everyone's insights here, not just those from experts.

Goes without saying really, doesn't it?