> Plus, Joy of the Heart is not an ordinary technique, and it can't be
> written down, I think, although it can be taught to those who can learn.
I disagree with this interpretation. Given that Malkionism is primarily a theology grounded in dusty old tomes and provable things, I think that 'Joy' was something that could be readily demonstrated to the satisfaction of most Malkioni. An appropiate parallel would be the existance of Plato's Demiurge or the Trinity.
'Joy' didn't get lost over the centuries because it was so difficult to understand, it was discarded because the God Learners replaced it with something _better_ (the One Mind spoken of in the back of Enclosure#1) so they could kick butt for the Invisible God.
But when the Doom befell the God Learners, the Malkioni thought that there was something that had strayed from and that is how the idea that Hrestol's teachings had been lost by the God Learners got off the ground. But when they still lived, the concept that they had forgotten Hrestol's message would have seemed laughable to the God Learners themselves.
>>>> IMO the RW parallel [to the Perfecti] would be to say that the
>>>> gospels are completely wrong and that Jesus said something different
>>>But many people *have* indeed believed just such over the centuries.
>> Yes. But they are still wrong from a mainstream christian PoV
>Which mainstream christian POV? There is no static christian POV in History,
>AFAIK. The evolution of the currents of thought which make up christianity
>*depends* I believe on Jesus having said something different from what we were
>previously led to believe.
Which within mainstream christianity depends on the interpretation of the gospels themselves and not on the position that the gospels are "completely wrong".
>The Divinity isn't tied down to a single culture in Malkioni thinking,
>surely, and so what I suggested originally re: the Presence of the
>Divinity (called Joy of the Heart), and which filled Hrestol being a
>form of illumination is hardly alien to Malkioni theology IMO.
But since Joy was approachable and understandable by Malkioni in the first age from a materialistic PoV, does it make sense to talk about Joy being 'a form of illumination'?
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