CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

A bit of a random topic compared to all my others^^ But here's something only recently that I randomly thought of...

Ok, so some symbolism that Christianity now uses today were borrow from once pagan-made things. The trinity symbol for example was never originally Christian because of its pagan roots with their form of trinity. So after watching through some Fushigi Yugi I just thought of something: the pheonix can make an AWSOME symbol for the trinity^^ Chinese mythology, but just interesting how it can fit together:

God: the flames of the bird, flames which can represent burning compassion and love and well, God if often thought of a consuming fire.

Holy Spirit: the image of the bird itself. Sadly enough, it wasn't until a few months ago that I figured out that the image of a white dove was for the Holy Spirit^^ Yeah... took me a bit there^^

Jesus: the idea that the bird consumes itself in the flames (which represent the burning compassion and love) and rises up, reborn from the ashes.

I don't know, I just sort of thought it was neat^^ Been contemplating on a possible tattoo for sometime in the future (if I even ever decide to) and always thought that the pheonix was an awsome image, but wanted something to show me who I am, sort of thing (aka Christianity in some way). So with that I thought it was sort of neat^^ I just have a fascination with wings^^ ...but uh, what do you guys think? Does it sound blasphemous in any way? I'm always trying to avoid that as much as possible :/.

rii namuras wrote:
(I don't think it's anything blasphemous - actually, I've only seen phoenixes associated with Christianity, almost exactly like what you said.)

Really? I myself have yet to really see anything like that^^ I just think it's an awsome image^^ And it would make SUCH a great tattoo cause I've seen some pretty good ones^^

Hm...I do know that God uses many things to reveal stuff to us, and it's different for everyone.

In the 2nd century, and for some time afterward, phoenixes _were_ referred to by Greek apologists as an analogy for Christ. So your intuition is good there.

Besides, the analogy is in scripture, too! Can anyone remember where?! (Fun test here {g} Don't feel bad if you don't recall it; the ref is slightly hidden, but it's there and obvious once the connections are recalled.)

Quick edit 1: It's a very well-known analogy, but the language doesn't say "phoenix" so people don't always know to draw the link.

Although you really should be careful how you use the symbolism as the way you described it could be said to come close to the heresy of Modalism.

Though overall the Phoenix as a sign of Resurrection is not a bad one,just be careful of how you phrase things when you use symbols to talk of Christian theology.

mitsuki lover wrote:Although you really should be careful how you use the symbolism as the way you described it could be said to come close to the heresy of Modalism.

Quite true; but only a problem if one is trying to make an _argument_ _from_ analogy. {ultra-orthodox g!}