/lit/ - Literature

>>19785925
buy a lottery ticket

>>19785925
Read the Bible

>>19785925
There is no God. He doesn't respond because he doesn't exist. Please do not fall down the chud religion rabbithole. Read Sartre or Camus. You literally have no need for a God

>>19785987
https://www.milligazette.com/news/Opinions/16321-why-did-jean-paul-sartre-turn-a-believer-prior-to-his-death/

>>19785932
This is the demiurgos talking, read the secret book of John instead, OP.

>>19786000
based

>>19785925
Have you ever gone to Church? If not, go. Also check out some mystical literature. There's a thread on Catholic mysticism up.

>>19786064
i've not gone to church recently.

>>19785925
VeggieTales

>>19785925
I'm not a Christian, so I don't really know. But it seems to me like reading books is a fairly small part of Christian life or any kind of life really. A big theme in Christianity is charity work. Go out and try and take care of the poor or the sick. Surely you have some time to volunteer. You can probably find some Christian-flavoured organisation that does this but you can always just volunteer at a homeless shelter or something. Oh and I guess you can read something by Saint John of the Cross. I've got a collection of his works and his poems are pretty charming.

I thought about Jesus to cure my nasty hangover so I guess I have to go back to church.

>>19786194
Thanks. I think that is a good cause. But how does that help me have faith?

>>19786316
Isn't charity and compassion for the sick and poor a core tenet of Christianity? It doesn't make sense to me for someone to try and develop faith without living the way of life demanded by that faith. thought that's distinct from life doesn't amount to much. It's like if I told you I believe in fitness but I'm fat as shit and not working out.

Praying only started to work for me when I stopped expecting or requesting signs for myself and just started praying "outwardly" for goodness in the world and for others. Praying for already existing goodness and miracles I am thankful for was also helpful. I do feel a presence now when I pray, almost like something is nudging and guiding my thoughts in a higher direction and revealing things that were always there but that I would have missed by myself. It also feels like a presence and a kind of loving "help" that I can't compare to anything else.

But that didn't happen for me right away, it happened after a long period of trying to focus on goodness in the world and trying to make a serious commitment to being on the side of that goodness. When I was more agnostic I told myself that even if God doesn't exist, I'll behave in a way that brings forth or "attunes" to a divine goodness that would be worthy of being called God. I still struggle with the problem of evil but over time I have become less agnostic and more hopeful and somehow certain.

The only thing I can compare it to is Plato's concept of eros or the Christian concept of agape. Praying and "seeing" with the heart too instead of the head alone. I really liked Origen's account of "the inner man and the outer man" (see the beginning of Bernard McGinn's anthology of Christian Mysticism).

>>19785925
Why do you want to believe?

>>19786475
Not op but thanks for the thoughts and suggestions friend.

>>19786194
>A big theme in Christianity is charity work. Go out and try and take care of the poor or the sick.
You're right. Lately I've been struggling because I've seen so much filth and I can't stand how fake everything has become. Beggars make more money than I have to live with. When I put this into perspective with people who gave everything up to become Christian I wonder if I'm even capable of practicing this religion. The moment I step into the world I just hate people, there's not an ounce of piety in me.

To answer your question:

>>19785925
>what do I read?
The Holy Bible, from start to finish. After the Bible you start reading writings of the saints.

>>19786643
This is a great compilation, but I wouldn't delete the atheist books. Including Revolt Against the Modern World is good because OP will not only learn why the modern world is degenerate but also how ancient societies functioned and their dogmatic views.

>>19786643
He can just read Nihilism directly.

>>19786660
The atheist books are there to sum up the ideology of modernity. They aren't just anti-theist, they are pro-modernist.

>>19786662
Nihilism is a negative book. He needs a positive understanding of spirituality, and a framework for understanding the nonmaterial. So many Christians struggle because they try and reconcile their beliefs with a materialist worldview, and end up relegating God to the gaps, and Christ to metaphor and allegory. This is what the path provides.

>>19785925
>>19785987
there's no God OP, or if there is he doesn't want you to believe in him.

>>19786660
RATMW is particularly good because it explains the dual nature of Christianity -- being both lunar (democratic, radical, anarchistic, 'Jesusist', quakerist, liberationary, pacifist, etc) and solar (triumphal, conquering, traditionalist, victorious, militarist, etc).

>>19786628
Answer me you bitch. Why do you want to believe?

>>19786475
Thank you!

>>19786577
Because I feel like it's true and that it's me who is the barrier. I feel like I have to try.

>>19786694
I love how you describe Christianity and the terms like solar, did you make those up?

If you want to know about Jesus Himself, in addition to reading the Bible you can read Pope Benedict's Jesus of Nazareth series. They're a look at Jesus in the Gospels, and how Jesus' story is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Also, they're not dense theology; I've found them pretty easy reading. Very prayer-filled, too.

>>19786928
But why do you feel it's true? That's just another way of saying you want to believe. I always find it confusing, when people who feel no connection to God, even after trying, still want it so badly.

>>19785925

Ok, but what do *you* do? you will not receive any reciprocation from divinty if you are pusillanimous, and/or morbidly codependent; do you know your true form? what colour are your wings?

>>19785925

Ok, but what do *you* do? you will not receive any reciprocation from divinty if you are pusillanimous toward adversity, and/or morbidly codependent; do you know your true form? what colour are your wings?

>>19786938
No, those are Evola's own terms.

>>19786647
>from start to finish
It would be much better for him to start with the Gospels, or with a dedicated reading plan, than going cover to cover. If he doesn't have a lot of experience with religious literature then he'll get burned out by the time he reaches Exodus, and stuff like Numbers will just make his eyes glaze over. Starting with the core of Christianity, the life of Jesus, will help him a lot more.

>>19786628
>I wonder if I'm even capable of practicing this religion
But that's the charm of it though isn't it?
>"You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ... If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
That's and the other "you have heard it said" lines show the potential for moral radicalism that I find to be incredibly compelling. But this line in particular I think is very relevant. I also hate the state of the world we live in for many, many, reasons, but I also think that the tremendous damage our political, social and economic order inflicts on our bodies and souls is not irreversible and that there is something worth love underneath all the metaphorical bruises and scars. I don't know how to do this, but I don't know of any alternative. I'm growing tired of surrounding myself with cold dead things.

>>19786916
I'm not that anon. I want to believe that it isn't all for nothing.

>>19787355
And Christianity is the only way for that to be the case?

Mere Christianity -> Holy Bible -> Imitation of Christ

>>19787220
If he truly wants to believe in Christianity then OP needs to read from start to finish. There many nuances in the Old Testament that would underpin his understanding and developing faith once he reaches the New Testament. Worked for me, not that it would work for everybody.

>>19786703
I read the first third of RATMW but then I threw it into the trash. I liked the information provided but there was something sinister in his writing I couldn't put into words, and his blatant hatred for Catholicism didn't make it better.

>>19786194
That WebM is not of the Orthodox Christians but of the schismatic "Old Believers", commonly posted about here to give a false impression of Orthodox Christianity.

>>19787451
You guys are such pussies about this stuff. "Oh the vibes were off he said mean things about the pope"

>>19787464
I read other books that were anti-Christian but otherwise benefited greatly from them. In the case of Evola, there is something evil in his writing, like there is a spell on it. The information is alluring but I could not sense any goodwill; after all, he was a Satanist, as much as he tried to put himself beyond categories, this is what he was.

>>19785987
God doesn't respond because our universe is the same as a science project you threw in the closet at age 12 and never looked at again

>>19787419
CS Lewis is great

>>19787463
If you say so. I put a note in the filename for next time.

>>19787500
Thanks anon :)

>>19787500
These practices of putting organs or bloody clothes from saints into water and drinking it was pretty common. Not exclusive to Orthodox or Catholic. I read the biography of St. Philip Neri and after his death people went insane for getting something from him: his hair, pieces of cloth, shoes and parts of organs, and all of them worked miracles years after he was taken up to God.

>>19787400
Yes. I've concluded so after a long time.

>>19787451
He doesn't have blatant hatred for catholicism; he appreciates its solar aspect.

Throwing it in the bin is a little childish.

From the Christian perspective, yes, he is sinister -- a man given over to demons and the occult, in whose worldview Love is utterly absent. But from the materialist and nihilist perspective of the meekly modern man his uncompromising aristocracy is a breath of fresh air.

>>19786643
Evola was against christcucktianity in that book

>>19787594
You are extremely dense. The list has fucking Dawkins in it.

>>19787594
>Every book in the pathway designed to lead you to Christianity must itself support Christianity

>>19787580
>Throwing it in the bin is a little childish.
I do this with every book that has no benefit and can harm somebody spiritually.

>in whose worldview Love is utterly absent
Yes, it reminded of Ayn Rand a lot. Utterly repulsive and Satanic. I've read historical and scietific writings with more love than anything Evola has produced; he manages to make something beautiful ugly.

>>19785925
You should read the parts of the bible where Christ unambiguously said that he would come back within a generation.

>>19785925
>believing in Christianity
why don't you go back to redd1t?

>>19787635
But Christ can make of even this our fallen world something sanctified and suffused with Love, for with his sacrifice he defeated death, achieved victory over Satan, and glorified the ground itself -- and washed in the blood of the saviour, even works so raw and rotten as this can lead the seeker to that greater truth. It is only by questioning the soporific sentiments of a mind-numbing age that we can break free and see the Light that shines from the spaces between the clouds.

>>19787643
Jesus told his disciples,

"Truly I tell you, this generation [greek: genea] will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."

—Matt. 24:34-35; Mark 13:30-31; Luke 21:32-33
The most common English translation of genea is "generation",[6] which lead some to conclude that the Second Coming was to be witnessed by the people living in the same generation as Jesus. For instance, according to historian Charles Freeman, early Christians expected Jesus to return within a generation of his death and the non-occurrence of the second coming really surprised the early Christian communities.[7]

In most German Bibles, genea is instead translated as "family/lineage" (geschlecht).[8] Likewise for Danish, Swedish and Norwegian (slægt, släkte and slekt, respectively).[9][10][11] The Danish linguist Iver Larsen argues that the word "generation" as it was used in the King James Version of the Bible (1611) had a much wider meaning than it has today, and that the correct translation of genea in the context of the second coming is "kind of people." (specifically the "good" kind of people; the disciple's kind of people, who, like the words of Jesus, will endure through all the tribulations). In Psalm 14, the King James version uses "generation" in this wide and outdated sense, when it declares that "God is in the generation of the righteous."[12] According to Larsen, the Oxford Universal Dictionary state that the latest attested use of genea in the sense of "class, kind or set of persons" took place in 1727. Larsen concludes that the meaning of "generation" in the English language has narrowed considerably since then.

Nope.

>>19787486
Like I said, you're a huge pussy

>>19785925
What I'd rec depends on what you want

>If you want something really well-known to resonate with your personal interest in Christianity
Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton (the title doesn't have to do with the Orthodox denomination btw so don't think it's some console wars shit)
>Want something a little less well-known but will give you insight into your attempts at prayer
When the Well Runs Dry by Thomas Green
>Want something a little more historical/academic for perspectives on prayer
The Cloud of Unknowing

>>19787419
Based and seconded
Read 2nd and 3rd, but know Lewis is great

>>19787643
The Bible cannot be read in English as literal truth alone, unless you're some poorly educated American protestant.

The Truth is held within scripture as read by the Church -- that original Church, who traces her lineage to the Desert Fathers, to the Apostles, and to Paul.

The Gospels themselves are inconsistent. Literalism is absurd.

>>19785925
reading is not enough, its like trying to become a master cook by just reading and never cooking. You gotta get experience, and most importantly become loving
in the depth of time many peasants went to heaven, infact more peasants per peasant went to heaven than among the intellectuals and even the clergy. most of those peasants couldnt read. So reading should be supplementary rather than primary

>>19785925
I pray for God to show himself to me, to have mercy on me and to give me a sign. Years. I haven't felt a thing. Unironically nothing has been worse for my faith than praying daily.
Have faith. For you await the Lord to show Himself before you, yet you dwell in the world that is all His. You are made in His likeness, as is all mankind. He sees all, He made all things seen and unseen. The Lord listens. Do not turn away from Him. Do not tempt Him.
You want Him to speak to you or show before you, yet He is always around. You merely need to put your faith in Him. Live in Him, unwaveringly, blindly, meekly, and He will live in You.

>>19785925
https://biblehub.com/hosea/10-12.htm
https://biblehub.com/psalms/27-14.htm

Walk by faith, not by sight. Choose this regardless, place no demands. I was in my late 20s before I received solid signs. It is different for everyone, but dedicate in earnest, unconditionally. TRUST that as you do so you are following His voice to the best of your ability. Whenever you do think you might be hearing His voice, absolutely obey it and He will lead you.

Memorize these and pay very close attention to every line and word.

Psalm 23
Proverbs 3:5-8
Matthew 6:9-13

>>19787799
>Whenever you do think you might be hearing His voice, absolutely obey it and He will lead you.
This is well put, I think cultivating your own voice of shame over even small misdeeds and petty actions is a nice way to approach faith. I think Nietzsche understood the nature of virtue in always going beyond what is "reasonable," obvious, or formulaic, and genuinely striving to live a virtuous life.

>I love him who loves his virtue: for virtue is the will to down-going, and an arrow of longing.

>I love him who reserves no share of spirit for himself, but wants to be wholly the spirit of his virtue: thus he walks as spirit over the bridge.

>I love him who makes his virtue his inclination and destiny: thus, for the sake of his virtue, he is willing to live on, or live no more.

>I love him who desires not too many virtues. One virtue is more of a virtue than two, because it is more of a knot for one's destiny to cling to.

>I love him whose soul is lavish, who wants no thanks and does not give back: for he always gives, and desires not to keep for himself.

>I love him who is ashamed when the dice fall in his favor, and who then asks: "Am I a cheat?" -- for he wants to perish.

>I love him who scatters golden words in advance of his deeds, and always does more than he promises: for he seeks his own down-going.

>I love him who justifies the future ones, and redeems the past ones: for he is willing to perish through the present ones.

>I love him who chastens his God, because he loves his God: for he must perish through the wrath of his God.

>I love him whose soul is deep even in the wounding, and may perish through a small matter: thus he goes willingly over the bridge.

>I love him whose soul is so overfull that he forgets himself, and all things are in him: thus all things become his down-going.

>I love him who is of a free spirit and a free heart: thus is his head only the bowels of his heart; his heart, however, causes his down-going.

>>19785925

>>19785925
read pascal, then cs lewis, then read aquinas, then read augustine, and then read the bible

>>19787659
>γενεά doesn't mean generation
You can look at the uses of γενεά in the bible
https://biblehub.com/greek/1074.htm
It nearly always means generation. And given the context of the Olivet Discourse it makes no sense for Jesus not to mean generation--he is telling his followers what the signs of the second coming will be. But even if you want to pretend that Jesus didn't mean generation when he said generation, it's ultimately irrelevant because of Mark 9:1, Luke 9:27, and Matt. 16:28 which say:

"And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power."

Those verses don't use the word γενεά and they explicitly say that people with Jesus at that time will see the Second Coming.

>>19787687
Maybe it doesn't matter for you if your religion is inconsistent. But it does for me.

>>19787863
John was the last Apostle to die and he saw the Kingdom of God come with power and told us all about it with Revelation.

>>19785925
Drink one glass of water with a drop of myrrh tonight and he will come

>>19787863
That's the point -- those who accept the salvific power of Christ do not taste of death.

The grammar of the Greek, itself a record of a sentence in Aramaic, now expressed in English, will inevitably confuse.

That's why the Truth cannot be found solely within scripture, but as read by Christ's Church.

The problem is that you are a modern, and as such want everything to be neatly parcelled out and presented in clean English in a coherent manner. But the conclusion of the work of Godel, and Wittgenstein, and the authors of those texts featured in the Path to Christ, is that the universe just isn't like that. We do not have a complete and consistent system of mathematics -- let alone a language through which reality can be directly apprehended.

That's why the Path is important -- this is something you have to experience for yourself, and part of that is undoing yourself through the meditative exercises mentioned in the texts.

>>19788072
The forced schizo meme is boring.

>>19788072
Big reason why Orthodoxy makes sense to me.

>>19786000
>Le Deathbed conversion

>>19785925
>I'm someone who's been struggling with faith for years. I kid you not, for years now I have been praying every single day before bed. I pray for God to show himself to me, to have mercy on me and to give me a sign. Years. I haven't felt a thing. Unironically nothing has been worse for my faith than praying daily.
Saint Paul of Tarsus can answer that.
13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
1 Corinthians 13

Actions without love are empty but also don't feel bad about having trouble believing, even the apostles struggled even though God was with them, but they always prayed and they did it with heart and soul.

It is not the miracle of God we are talking right now trying to help you believe, it is not His will the fact you want to keep trying and believe. Believe starting with your heart and the rest of you will follow.