Christian Cosmology: a first look.

Terrifying.

Welcome to Christian cosmology. The Book of Revelation.

          I have a body, but I am not my body.

Who am I? Who is the one that knows I have a body?

Where does I go when I die? What happens to the me that is not my body? Does my essence cease to exist when my body dies?

Looking for a Christian answer to the questions? We come to the Book of Revelation, the only place in the Bible containing more than a hint about what's to come after death.

About which I can only say, after thousands of years of writers far more sophisticated than I, who the hell knows what it could possibly mean?

The best treatment of this piece of literature I've seen is by Elaine Pagels, a professor of religion at Princeton University.

          REVELATIONS: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation

My personal experience with this book, I will write about at another time. I will say here that I believe the book addresses archetypal energies, universal forms. Doing so, it has value and is worth exploring, studying, pondering and understanding. Not an easy or a simple slog, and perhaps not achievable except under states of altered consciousness.

A tiny, even miniscule slice of existence, Revelation makes no attempt to portray the story of the soul, in all its forms and levels of existence. It's the story of a battle.  As such it's not much of a framework to hang your hat on for forming a coherent story of the Journey of the Soul. If  you do happen to go to the Book of Revelation seeking guidance, be prepared to be immersed in a nightmare of blood and gore and violence and evil.

Yet Revelation contains the only writings in the Bible that come remotely close to talking about other layers of existence. Since the writings of the Bible are the sole basis of the Christian faith, this is it.

Where does that leave the Christian with fundamental questions about human existence? To struggle alone, without institutional support, without a cumulative history, without traditions, without ritual or ceremony.

If one of the purposes of religion is to guide people through the mysteries of existence, I have to conclude, from what I've seen and experienced to this point in my life that Christianity is an abysmal failure.

When it comes to matters of the Spirit, it is silent.