What is dualism and how does it affect contemporary Christians? How did dualism become so prevalent?

Question

What is dualism and how does it affect contemporary Christians? How did dualism become so prevalent within Christianity?

Answer 1

Contemporary Christianity and Western society are soaked in it... Christianity is the "father" of modern Western society by force and therefore the philosophy pervades every corner of it, even though most don't realize it. Western science, medicine, behavioral studies, philosophy all stem from it and it's taught in our schools, our churches and hospitals... good vs. evil, us vs. them, patriotism vs. unpatriotic thinking, and so on ad nauseum.

The arrival of monotheism on the scene, from what I understand from my studies of the history of religions, is where it got it's first big nod.

When you delve into the Eastern philosophies and Buddhist studies you begin to see where the differences become glaringly apparent.

_()_

Answer 2

It stretches back to the Indo-Iranians and Avestan religion, became pronounced with Zoroaster, was transmitted to Babylon, picked up by the Jews in exile and brought with them to Judea along with other Babylonian (Persian) concepts like resurrection of the dead, heaven and hell which the Jews previously knew nothing about. The Biblical Sadducees were traditional Jews who did not believe in resurrection or life after death, devils etc. The Pharisees were Persianized Jews who picked up the notion in Babylon along with the notion of a good god and an evil god at war with each other. Since Judaism is the basis of Christianity, and most Christian doctrine was written by a Pharisee named Paul (Saul of Tarsus) dualism is part and parcel of the Christian cosmology.

Answer 3

Dualism as I know it, is Good vs. Evil, but can also refer to any set of opposites. In the Good vs. Evil, It came from Zoroaster and that affected Judaism which affected Christianity. It's the reason pastors talk so much aobut the devil and hell.

Answer 4

It became prevalent when the Church ran into the heresies of the Gnostics - who believed that Spirit and Matter could not co-exist (i.e. the Person of Jesus Christ, both man and God) Gnostics believed in a monistic way.

There are many dualities in Christianity: Light and Darkness, God and Satan, etc.

Answer 5

If it's not in the Bible, it can only have an effect on Christians who look beyond the Bible for guidance. For fundamentalists, this is not commonly true. Churches are very commonly encouraging their members to read the Bible and join discussion groups.

Outsiders to Christianity, of course, won't know this and are susceptible to any criticism of the church, honest or not.

Answer 6

uh the person above me is very naughty.
i really dont think christians even understand dualism fully because everyone i talk to always just talks about jesus