Modern Spiritualism

Originally Posted by Juanita

Faairyana, aren't most spiritists christian? Some spiritulists are, but many are not.....

Christian Spiritualists accept the Nazarene, Jesus, as their redeemer and leader and hence can be seen as 'Christian'.

Modern Spiritualists don't see Jesus in such a way and hence would probably not think of themselves as 'Christians'.

Originally Posted by mac

Christian Spiritualists accept the Nazarene, Jesus, as their redeemer and leader and hence can be seen as 'Christian'.

Modern Spiritualists don't see Jesus in such a way and hence would probably not think of themselves as 'Christians'.

thank you, but I was asking about Spiritists, not spiritulists...

Originally Posted by Juanita

thank you, but I was asking about Spiritists, not spiritulists...

I was leaving it to Fairyana to respond about the Spiritist position.

I was simply explaining that 'Christian Spiritualism' and 'regular' Spiritualism are two distinct 'branches'....

And I started the thread originally, of course, to explain what 'Modern Spiritualism' is.

Originally Posted by mac

For me, too....

Wish we had a like button LOL

Originally Posted by mac

I was leaving it to Fairyana to respond about the Spiritist position.

I was simply explaining that 'Christian Spiritualism' and 'regular' Spiritualism are two distinct 'branches'....

And I started the thread originally, of course, to explain what 'Modern Spiritualism' is.

Well, I must disagree with you.. The Spiritulists that I know consider themselves as Modern Spiritulists--some believe in Jesus and some do not....

Originally Posted by Juanita

Well, I must disagree with you.. The Spiritulists that I know consider themselves as Modern Spiritulists--some believe in Jesus and some do not....

I should have stressed that what I'm presenting is the situation in the UK. That in the USA is almost certainly very different.

Belief in Jesus has nothing to do with the issue. Of course Jesus existed - belief isn't needed about that but it's his role that's seen differently by Christian Spiritualism than regular or Modern Spiritualism - the plain vanilla Spiritualism of the UK.

In Spiritualism's approach, Jesus is a healer, teacher and medium and perhaps the most spiritually evolved entity to have taken on human form in our recorded history. For Christian Spiritualists, Jesus has a role similar to that taught by mainstream Christian religion. Church services, teaching and icons are likely to reflect that position.

These are not my opinions or views but a simple statement of the fundamental differences between the two philosophies as found in the UK.

Originally Posted by mac

I should have stressed that what I'm presenting is the situation in the UK. That in the USA is almost certainly very different.

Belief in Jesus has nothing to do with the issue. Of course Jesus existed - belief isn't needed about that but it's his role that's seen differently by Christian Spiritualism than regular or Modern Spiritualism - the plain vanilla Spiritualism of the UK.

In Spiritualism's approach, Jesus is a healer, teacher and medium and perhaps the most spiritually evolved entity to have taken on human form in our recorded history. For Christian Spiritualists, Jesus has a role similar to that taught by mainstream Christian religion. Church services, teaching and icons are likely to reflect that position.

These are not my opinions or views but a simple statement of the fundamental differences between the two philosophies as found in the UK.

Yes, I was talking about the U.S., but you have just opened up a whole new subject... "of course, Jesus existed.". Truly, there is a lot of hearsay, but not one shred of evidence that Jesus ever existed...

Originally Posted by Juanita

Yes, I was talking about the U.S., but you have just opened up a whole new subject... "of course, Jesus existed.". Truly, there is a lot of hearsay, but not one shred of evidence that Jesus ever existed...

I'll leave the issue of Jesus for others to discuss but I'm glad I cleared up the US cf. UK Spiritualism scenes....

[Fairyana]

I just came back from vacation, so sorry if I took long to respond. In Brazil, the spiritist (not spiritualist) philosophy does take into consideration the moral teachings of Jesus and does study specific passages of the Bible in which his teachings are found (Gospel According to Spiritist). So spiritist do consider themselves to be a branch of Christianity, or as a reformed Christianity because they take the teachings of Christ to heart, where as spiritualists see themselves as something else. But Spiritism is different from Christianity because there are no churches, no rituals, no clergy, no worship... Here's a video that describes Spiritism in Brazil.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvBd0ARo6Zs

Originally Posted by Fairyana

I just came back from vacation, so sorry if I took long to respond. In Brazil, the spiritist (not spiritualist) philosophy does take into consideration the moral teachings of Jesus and does study specific passages of the Bible in which his teachings are found (Gospel According to Spiritist). So spiritist do consider themselves to be a branch of Christianity, or as a reformed Christianity because they take the teachings of Christ to heart, where as spiritualists see themselves as something else. But Spiritism is different from Christianity because there are no churches, no rituals, no clergy, no worship... Here's a video that describes Spiritism in Brazil.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvBd0ARo6Zs

Re the video, the presenter could have substituted 'Spiritualism' for 'spiritism' for most of the presentation and still been accurate.

Only where Jesus was brought in briefly was there any significant difference between the two persuasions.

Question 4 of the presentation series explains spiritism's approach to reincarnation and when I was new to 'the spooks' Kardec's compilation of communications found in 'The Spirits' Book' greatly influenced my ideas.

Later I found the ideas no longer resonated for me in the way they had originally and the prescriptive way that reincarnation was portrayed no longer rang true.