Blake A04 Flashcards
What did he believe the organised church did?
He believed organised religion changed spirituality into a system of moral laws which bound people in shame or fear of punishment. An this therefore made people obedient to society’s laws and rules.
Why did blake reject organised religion?
Blake rejected spiritual religion because he saw the Christianity of his day as being a distortion of true spiritual life.
Blake felt that what should have been a message of love and brotherhood had become one of cruelty.
What did he believe organised religion was?
An agent of social control, instead of a source of life and liberation and therefore binds it’s adherents to the will of those in control.
Instead of believing in a transcendent god, what did blake believe in?
Blake focused on the presence of Christ’s Holy Spirit as a principle of each persons inner life and the reality of divine imagination.
Did blake accept or reject the old testament god? Why?
He rejected the Old Testament stereotype of god as being vengeful and punitive. He felt people used this idea to justify their own revenge, bloodthirsty ness an desire for land and power.
What did traditional Christianity teach about gods justice?
Traditional Christianity taught that gods justice required the sinfulness of human behaviour to be paid for. This was therefore achieved when the sinless son of god- Jesus - was crucified as a sacrificial substitute for humanity.
What was Blake’s opinion of the traditional Christian approach to the sacrifice of Christ?
The approach of the sacrifice of Christ was a payment required by his own father to pay for the sins of humanity was abhorrent to blake.
What did blake believe about the fall of humanity?
He believed it was the ‘mind-forged manacles’ made when people ‘fell’ into their separate selfhood that led people to interpret the world solely from the point of view of experience. That was that they developed a view of god that was actually an image of themselves - jealous, possessive and tyrannical.
In Blake’s opinion, how was this ‘repressive tyrannical’ god of traditional Christianity forged?
After the fall blake believed that people started seeing the world solely from an experience point of view and therefore expressed a vision of god that was actually and image of themselves - jealous, possessive and tyrannical.
Why did blake reject the traditional view of the garden of Eden and the fall?
Blake rejected the traditional interpretation of the fall from garden on Eden as he rejected this view of god whose will is law and binds people to prohibitions
According to blake, what did the fall of Adam and Eve lead to if not into sin?
He believed it was a fall into a distorted way of seeing god, the world and the self.
What did Blake’s opinion do the fall leading to a distorted way Of seeing result in?
The fall according to blake led to the distortion of seeing god, the world and the self, which resulted in the development of the image of god in humankinds image, who was this perceived as being vengeful, Punitive and bloodthirsty.
How did blake perceive people seeing themselves after the fall leading to the distorted perspective of god?
He believed this distorted vision led to people to see themselves as isolated and separate rather than a unified creation.
How did Blake’s belief of a distorted view lead to a separation between the sexes?
Blake’s opinion of the fall creating mans distorted view of god, the world an humankind, led people who had created this image of god reflecting their own vengefulness to have a need to blame something for the cause of the fall and therefore the blame was put onto all womankind.
Interior division where there should be unity.
What did blake believe about the suppression of desires?
He believed that the organised church repressed desires through their distorted perspective of god.
He believed that the repression of sexuality in particular caused personal unhappiness and social ills such as prostitution which in turn led to poverty and venereal disease.
