Thursday, February 24, 2005

Detachment, Relinquishment, and Surrender

Yesterday I was in the Barnes and Noble reading. The book I was interested in was Zen and the Art of Throwing the Elephant by Stanley Bing. It is about "managing up". A lot of the things he said made a LOT of sense. In the introduction he commented that this Zen philosophy was compatable with any faith.

That in turn got me to thinking....what are the similarities and differences between Zen, the Muslim concept of surrender, and the Christian discipline of relinquishment or submission. Obviously one difference in the undergirding theology behind each of these. But on a practical level, how are they the same and how are they different? What can Christians learn about submission and relinquishment from Zen? What can we learn from the Muslim attitude of surrender that informs our faith?

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