In praise of an Evangelical upbringing

[insanetimbo]

evangelical
adjective
of or according to the teaching of the gospel or the Christian religion.
• of or denoting a tradition within Protestant Christianity emphasizing the authority of the Bible, personal conversion, and the doctrine of salvation by faith in the Atonement.
• zealous in advocating something.

Right through my young adult life, the

Comments

[curieuse]

I think the one thing I am still deeply grateful for in my similar upbringing is that it left my mind open to the magic of God. I didn't categorize all spiritual things in with the witches and fairy tales and easter bunnies as my enlightened church of england husband's family did.

[insanetimbo]

yes! I'm in a C of E church now that has somehow managed to combine rock solid theology with profoundly boring, disengaged and uninspired praxis. You said it - God is magical (and a mystery, and on tour!)

Hey, on another note, I've just embarked on a Research Masters in Performance Studies, focussing on narrative and spirituality. At the moment I'm reading around all over the place - narrative theology, historiography, theatre history, ontology etc But just off the bat, does anything spring to mind that you think I should read? Stuff about personal/communal catharsis, investigation of the metaphysical through art/ritual/collective gathering, historical narrative as a means of forging identity etc etc.
I know that's, like, half a million books I should read there, but still.. anything spring to mind?

[bellarapture7]

personally, i think i'm most grateful for the fact that growing up in a Christian home gave me a foundation to stand on. The church helped me make that ground a bit stronger, just in that i consistently went and when i was paying attention, i did learn things here and there and fellowship with other Christians was, for the most part, good. But... i didn't feel alive in my faith until i got outside of my home and outside of the walls of my church.

Square one doesn't seem like such a bad place to be, y'know.. so long as the foundation is good, right? Honestly, it sounds like an exciting place to be, to me.