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Notes -
How do you think religion in the West will interact with the Culture War in the next few elections, and in the future? Up until recently, the religious right seemed to be a mainstay of at least American politics. In Europe of course, Christianity is mostly an irrelevant force (though theoretically Catholics should have some weight?).
However, the evangelical right has been losing quite a bit of power and cultural cachet, and we're seeing the rise of more traditional versions of Christianity such as Catholicism and to a lesser extent, Orthodoxy. Buddhism has also made inroads in a more serious way, as well as Islam mostly via immigration of Muslim peoples.
In the future, how will these religions impact politics? Personally I see a fusion of Buddhism x Christianity already happening, and expect a sort of Christian orthodoxy mixing in Buddhism mental techniques as the most successful religion of the 21st century. That being said, I feel it could shake out in many different areas on the political spectrum - ironically, many of the Orthodox priests I know personally are surprisingly liberal.
One area we could see a resurgence is in monasteries, and the potential downstream impact in local communities. Within the Catholic community (and Orthodoxy in the U.S.) there has been a groundswell lately of pushes for more monasteries, and revitalizing the monastic order in general. We'll see how it shakes out.
Tell me, what do you think religion will do to the modern political landscape?
What things do you think that Buddhism offers that Christianity does not?
Mostly a set of techniques to help settle the mind from the vast distractions in the modern world. A more direct praxis for us to enter states where we can perceive the spiritual world of angels, demons, etc, and get in touch with God.
The ancient Christians recommended meditation or watchfulness before entering into any prayer whatsoever. In the modern world I believe that almost none of us truly are in that mental state due to our myriad distractions. I think Buddhist meditation and understandings could be quite useful for revitalizing direct, contemplative experience of the divine amongst Christians.
Are you familiar with the rosary? Or the Jesus prayer? Or prayer beads?
I am familiar, I the Jesus Prayer and occasionally prayer beads. I still think meditation in the Buddhist view is more flexible and able to look into different things, such as focusing attention on the body, or the breath, areas and objects of attention which are useful in the Christian path.
All of those things exist and are practiced within Catholicism.
There is a sortof eastern-mysticism/orientalism that is left over from the 70s where westerners seem to think that eastern versions of this are different, but they're not.
Luckily, that is fading quickly, perhaps largely because of social media/travel. People have been able to travel to the places where these things are popular, and the picture is...not pleasant.
Somatic meditation, breath meditation, and other forms of attentional work are practiced in Catholicism? Do you have sources? I'd be quite curious.
I'm Orthodox and while we do have hesychasm, more.... fluid forms of attentional practice are often frowned upon. I haven't done an exhaustive dive though.
I think you’re getting into some semantics here.
Repetitive prayer certainly exists in Catholicism (and its online offshoot: Eastern Orthodoxy), as does meditation.
The belief that Buddhists have discovered some mystical magical thing in meditation, or “mantras” or “breath work” is just orientalism.
https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/prayers-and-devotions/meditations
I'm not saying they have discovered anything. I'm saying the techniques are more salient in the Buddhist tradition and easier for the modern mind to understand. Prayer and meditative prayer is an extremely confusing concept comparatively, in my opinion. It's also not nearly as popular in Christian circles.
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