ali reviews a book on authenticity which identifies these markers pointing out they would make for a good church...
1. Real means ethical.
2. Real means natural.
3. Real means honest.
4. Real means simple.
5. Real means unspun.
6. Real means sustainable.
7. Real means beautiful.
8. Real means rooted.
9. Real means three dimensional.
10. Real means human.
Authenticity (Greek: αυθεντικός, from 'authentes'='author') is the truthfulness of origins, attributions, commitments, sincerity, and intentions; not a copy or forgery.
Webster's 1913 dictionary defines authenticity as
1. the quality of being authentic or of established authority for truth and correctness.
2. Genuineness; the quality of being genuine or not corrupted from the original.
In later writers, especially those on the evidences of Christianity, authenticity is often restricted in its use to the first of the above meanings, and distinguished from genuineness.
So much of Church, Inc. (tm) seems about mimicry, a species that has evolved to appear similar to another successful species in order to dupe predators into avoiding the mimic, or dupe prey into approaching the mimic. The prey - the other species in this case - humankind, the unchurched. Yet I find myself often more interested in that than the mimicry I espouse.
Ho hum, back to studying - hope you are staying warm.
Posted by: Bob C | April 28, 2005 at 06:43 PM