Daily Meditation: Thursday, March 18, 2004

Religion - must hold account of the evolution of mentalities

03/18/2004

To a great extent, the sacred books of the Old and the New Testaments remain foreign to the minds of Christians. They respect them, they venerate them, and they are convinced that the Bible is divinely inspired, but all these texts which were written so long ago no longer correspond to their mentality. Why? Because the founders of these great religions, the initiates of the past, were addressing a certain era. Even if some truths are valid forever, in each epoch they must be adapted to the mentality of the people. A literal interpretation only renders them incomprehensible or even shocking. Jesus himself came to further the teaching of Moses. He said: ‘Do not think that I come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish, but to fulfil.' To remain alive, a religion must take into consideration the evolution of mentalities, because it is God Himself who desires this evolution.