Haha, you can't win them all! Parousia is the Greek word for what's sometimes called the Second Coming, the Consummation (like the wedding between God and creation described in Revelation). When God comes to be fully with us, all-in-all. The church will be no more because we won't need the mediation of sacraments or even prayer. Wow.
I really liked this post--thanks. Would love to hear more about the Beatific Vision and (vs.?) Parousia. (I'm tempted to try to work "Parousia" into an everyday conversation sometime...but probably shouldn't).
I also really like the brief mention about the dimension of time at the Parousia--and makes me wonder about the point at which time comes into contact with eternity. Pretty mind-blowing, to me at least.
Re the comments around individualism (best exemplified by Ayn Rand at an extreme) vs. collectivism (which maybe starts off as a nice thought but seems to inevitably devolve into dictatorship and atrocities): I had not heard about Personalism before, but am glad to know about it now--and look forward to learning more about it.
Finally, one song that has always had very spiritual overtones to me is Bridge Over Troubled Water. Maybe this could be a discussion subject sometime?
Cool post. Can I get a definition of Parousia for those of us who didn’t go to a fancy backwoods theological school?
Haha, you can't win them all! Parousia is the Greek word for what's sometimes called the Second Coming, the Consummation (like the wedding between God and creation described in Revelation). When God comes to be fully with us, all-in-all. The church will be no more because we won't need the mediation of sacraments or even prayer. Wow.
I really liked this post--thanks. Would love to hear more about the Beatific Vision and (vs.?) Parousia. (I'm tempted to try to work "Parousia" into an everyday conversation sometime...but probably shouldn't).
I also really like the brief mention about the dimension of time at the Parousia--and makes me wonder about the point at which time comes into contact with eternity. Pretty mind-blowing, to me at least.
Re the comments around individualism (best exemplified by Ayn Rand at an extreme) vs. collectivism (which maybe starts off as a nice thought but seems to inevitably devolve into dictatorship and atrocities): I had not heard about Personalism before, but am glad to know about it now--and look forward to learning more about it.
Finally, one song that has always had very spiritual overtones to me is Bridge Over Troubled Water. Maybe this could be a discussion subject sometime?