tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20483025.post3858766847033790446..comments2023-10-28T10:40:36.246-05:00Comments on Without Authority: The Economist and a Defense of ChristendomThomas Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16168017369500841150noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20483025.post-28075248095219274192007-12-06T08:28:00.000-06:002007-12-06T08:28:00.000-06:00Actually, they are not even necessarily religious....Actually, they are not even necessarily religious. The church may play an important role in matters of birth and death in Sweden – but often becuase it's <I>traditional</I>, and even agnostics and atheists want rites and something to remember.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20483025.post-66354057683395312192007-11-24T10:33:00.000-06:002007-11-24T10:33:00.000-06:00What your reservations about considering the Swedi...What your reservations about considering the Swedish state church, etc., show is that they are still <I>religious</I>, not that they are still <I>Christian</I>.<BR/><BR/>Coleridge made this distinction in discussing the Church of England. As a body it was England's "national church", that is, the body of persons and property dedicated to teaching the nation what it thought to be true about life, the world and everything. As a "happy accident", as Coleridge put it, this national mindset happened to accord with Christian doctrine, and so the "National Church" was also a part of the "Christian Church." But he implicitly could envision a state where that is not so. Indeed previously it had not been so when the "national church" taught Wodenism and so on. And in Sweden I would argue that the church teaches what the Swedish nation thinks about life, the world, and everything. And while that is not pure materialism or atheism, it is not Christianity either.CPAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06803551934971285722noreply@blogger.com