Oh come all ye faithful.

Born again is a term used primarily in the Fundamentalist, Evangelical, and Pentecostal branches of Protestant Christianity, where it is associated with salvation, conversion and spiritual rebirth...

The idea of being born again carries with it the theological idea that a Christian is a new creation, given a fresh start by the action of God, freed from a sinful past life and able to begin a new life in relationship with Christ via the Holy Spirit. John Wesley and Christians associated with early Methodism referred to the born again experience as 'the New Birth'.

In recent history, born again is a term that has been associated with evangelical renewal since the late 1960s, first in the United States and then later around the world. Associated perhaps initially with Jesus People and the Christian counterculture, born again came to refer to an intense conversion experience, and was increasingly used as a term to identify devout believers."

Questions I have always wanted to ask the religious.



1. Are all "born-agains" (christian, I mean...I don't know if other religions get born again???????...well, I guess people who believe in reincarnation do, but not in the same way)of necessity fundamentalists, or are there different brands, as it were?

dlowan wrote:

Questions I have always wanted to ask the religious.



1. Are all "born-agains" (christian, I mean...I don't know if other religions get born again???????...well, I guess people who believe in reincarnation do, but not in the same way)of necessity fundamentalists, or are there different brands, as it were?

Yeah, people who describe themselves as "born again" can reasonably be described as fundamentalists. Branding one's obsession is not germane, all of those who obsess about being "born again" are dedicated to a contention that scripture contains inerrant, divinely inspired truth, and you ain'ta gonna git no more fundamental than that.

I read a lot of religious tomes in my day, back then based on my own religion, roman catholicism. Doubt and rehab from doubt a continuing theme. Thomas Merton, a best seller born again in a way.. Not to mock him, I still have respect, not that what I respected when I read Seven Story Mountain would hold up for me now, but that I respect the journey.


But, he wasn't a fundy as such.

Merton actually had a second conversion, osso, which liberated much of his Catholic doctrinal beliefs. He espoused liberal Catholicism (I chuckled the first time someone told me they were a liberal Catholic -- didn't know it was possible).

...I don't know if other religions get born again???????...

ossobuco wrote:

I read a lot of religious tomes in my day, back then based on my own religion, roman catholicism. Doubt and rehab from doubt a continuing theme. Thomas Merton, a best seller born again in a way.. Not to mock him, I still have respect, not that what I respected when I read Seven Story Mountain would hold up for me now, but that I respect the journey.


But, he wasn't a fundy as such.

Merton actually had a second conversion, osso, which liberated much of his Catholic doctrinal beliefs. He espoused liberal Catholicism (I chuckled the first time someone told me they were a liberal Catholic -- didn't know it was possible).

Born again usually refers to a first conversion -- accepting the concept of Original Sin, the crucifixion of Christ as redemption for OS and salvation through faith rather than works.

Second conversion refers to moving past all that and accepting a relationship with the divine without constrict to dogma (a la Merton, the Dali Lama, Rumi, and other mystics).