No temples from Protestants, is that to their credit?

[gerry]

Yesterday evening I was watching the cable channel of TLC's travelogue documentary on Angkor Wat.

Then I got this question in my mind: No religious monuments from Protestants, is that to their credit?


Protestants have been around for well-nigh 500 years, and I am one of them, what religious monuments have they ever raised up as a visible and lasting monument to their faith?

No monuments, no saints, and no great minds either?

We are no different from Muslims, and Jews, and yes atheists, in that respect of no monuments, no saints, and no great minds at all.


What do you guys say


[ This board is on Christianity 201, I guess this is the right place for some exchange of thoughts on my question. ]




Gerry

[RBerman]

Monuments in many religions are necessary, as objects of worship, or as means through which one access spiritual powers. Christianity denies that we need such talismans; all Christians are free to address God as Father, in the name of Jesus the crucified and risen, by the power of the Holy Spirit that lives within them. Many spectacular monuments around the world were constructed with slave labor. For that matter, many of the greatest feats of European medieval and Renaissance architecture and art were funded on the backs of peasants, subjected to squalid lives so that their masters could live in nice castles with nice tapestries. I'm not against art, but we should hardly see it as a problem if Christians spend their time pursuing spiritual fruit rather than storing up treasures on earth in the form of large-scale art.

[Thoughtful Monk]

Yesterday evening I was watching the cable channel of TLC's travelogue documentary on Angkor Wat.

Then I got this question in my mind: No religious monuments from Protestants, is that to their credit?


Protestants have been around for well-nigh 500 years, and I am one of them, what religious monuments have they ever raised up as a visible and lasting monument to their faith?

No monuments, no saints, and no great minds either?

We are no different from Muslims, and Jews, and yes atheists, in that respect of no monuments, no saints, and no great minds at all.


What do you guys say


[ This board is on Christianity 201, I guess this is the right place for some exchange of thoughts on my question. ]

Gerry

Really no temples...Take a gander at Crystal Catherdal or any other several megachurches in the nation. They don't look like a Hindu temple, or European catherdal, but its the same idea. From the backs of the givers a vast building is raised up supposedly for the glory of God but more a testament of man's ego.

I agree with with RBerman's comment that Christians are better off pursuing spiritual fruit. Being human, it is no wonder they pursue earthly glory.

[hedrick]

I disagree about great minds. Luther and Calvin are both great, in different ways. There are also a lot of great current minds, though no one strikes me as preeminent.

[37818]

Christians collectively are God's temple being that Christians as a whole comprise the body of Christ.

1 Corinthians 6:10,

What? know ye [ye is plural] not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

[Rdr. Arsenios]

we should hardly see it as a problem if Christians spend their time pursuing spiritual fruit rather than storing up treasures on earth in the form of large-scale art.

O would that this were true - Yet what we see is Protestants abandoning their Churches and pursuing material and secular lives...
Europe is functionally atheistic, and membership in Protestant Churches in the US is dropping off rapidly as the old guard is getting really old...
One of our stalwart Churches is down to 25 members, most with canes and walkers, all well past retirement... Another church is not a cafe [The Yellow Church Cafe]... Another is an art gallery... And the mainliners are slowly losing their attendance...

To love the beauty of one's house of prayer, and the Services of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, is a wonderful thing...
That is why the poorest of the poor can come and call "Home" their house of worship which they could not themselves afford...

And because such beauty is scorned by Protestants [in the name of "pursuing more spiritual fruit"]
Christianity is down in the US to half, from virtually ALL, the population...
Their children are not keeping what is being handed to them, [at least in very large measure]...

The Church is your treasury, and Her beauty should be your joy...
It is an earthly reflection of the beauty of the Kingdom of God in the Heavens...

Arsenios

[T-Shirt Ninja]

Protestants have been around for well-nigh 500 years, and I am one of them, what religious monuments have they ever raised up as a visible and lasting monument to their faith?

This.

[KingsGambit]

What about Pilgrim's Progress?

[David Hayward]

Protestants have been around for well-nigh 500 years, and I am one of them, what religious monuments have they ever raised up as a visible and lasting monument to their faith?

St Paul's Cathedral?

David

[Darth Executor]

O would that this were true - Yet what we see is Protestants abandoning their Churches and pursuing material and secular lives...
Europe is functionally atheistic, and membership in Protestant Churches in the US is dropping off rapidly as the old guard is getting really old...
One of our stalwart Churches is down to 25 members, most with canes and walkers, all well past retirement... Another church is not a cafe [The Yellow Church Cafe]... Another is an art gallery... And the mainliners are slowly losing their attendance...

To love the beauty of one's house of prayer, and the Services of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, is a wonderful thing...
That is why the poorest of the poor can come and call "Home" their house of worship which they could not themselves afford...

And because such beauty is scorned by Protestants [in the name of "pursuing more spiritual fruit"]
Christianity is down in the US to half, from virtually ALL, the population...
Their children are not keeping what is being handed to them, [at least in very large measure]...

The Church is your treasury, and Her beauty should be your joy...
It is an earthly reflection of the beauty of the Kingdom of God in the Heavens...

Arsenios

Orthodox ones aren't doing much better George. You have a warped view because small religious groups tend to do better and we are a minority in the west but east europe is just as decadent as western europe, and almost certainly more decadent than north america.