"Nihilism equals Christianity because Jesus came into the world not to demonstrate what the "natural" order was but to demolish it in the name of charity. Loving one's enemies is not exactly what the natural order prescribes, and more than that, it isn't what naturally happens. so when the Church defends the natural order of the monogamous reproductive family against any act of charity whatever toward (naturally) gay persons or bars women from the priesthood (once again because women are supposed to have a different natural vocation), it shows its preference for the God of the natural order over the message of Jesus. It is no surprise that a church oriented that way is also "naturally" reactionary, always defending the (dis)order in place except when it fringes on the rights of the clergy...Gioacchino da Fiore was a true prophet when he taught in the Middle Ages that the history of salvation passes through moments and phases. Adapting his terminology, we could say that we are living in the age of the Spirit, which is much as to say that we are living in an epoch that through science and technology can dispense with metaphysics and a metaphysical God: a nihilist epoch. An epoch in which our religiosity can finally develop into the form of charity no longer dependent on truth. There is no longer any reason to say, "Plato a friend, but the truth a greater friend." In the past the Church (the Churches, rather) put a whole range of heretics to death for just the reason encapsulated in that phrase. There is not, an not ought to be, anything more than charity, a welcoming toward the other."
- Gianni Vattimo, A Farewell to Truth, Columbia University Press, 2011 pp 59-60
thanks to BG for this insightful post.
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