Theos-Talk Archives (December 1996 Message tl00638)

>The difference between Theosophy and and Christianity is that
>Christians are reluctant to change.  They try desperately not to investigate
>their beliefs, and prefer to act on faith.

I see a lot more willingness to change and grow in liberal Christianity
(e.g., Matthew Fox) than I do in any branch of occultism, including
Theosophy. Rigidity is a problem common to most religious or spiritual
movements -- because of their interest in ideas which cannot be subjected
to rational scrutiny, they develop emotional defense mechanisms to
preserve the integrity of their belief structure. Theosophy has a very
clearly discernable set of defenses, which are already obvious to anyone
who has read much Theosophical polemic, so I need not go over them here.

One defense shared by many religions is an automatic assumption of
superiority to other religions. This works by implicitly asking a
question: "Well, maybe we're not perfect, but look at the alternatives!
Do you want us to become {Christians, Moslems, Hindus, occultists,
etc.}?" This helps to limit people's consideration of alternative
spiritual paths and to keep them from rationally weighing their own
tradition against others.

Tim Maroney