One quick thought, reliant (as ever) on Robert Bolt's wonderful play:
It seems quaint, in our great enlightened age of religious toleration -- and toleration of every other sort -- to see a man go to the gallows over his king's intention to change his wife and change his church. Then again, it was probably pretty quaint back then, too. Every age has plenty of perfectly sincere religious folks who'd swear to you that this or that aspect of doctrine or practice isn't that big a deal.
So: How does one keep the faith, simply, without falling into the opposing trap of judgmental legalism? There's a hint of it in Bolt's More, the evening he cuts ties with his closest friend:
And what would you do with a water spaniel that was afraid off water? You'd hang it! Well, as a spaniel is to water, so is a man to his own self. I will not give in because I oppose it -- I do -- not my pride, not my spleen, nor any other of my appetites but I do -- I! [Grabbing hold of Norfolk] Is there no single sinew in the midst of this that serves no appetite of Norfolk's but is just Norfolk? There is? Give that some exercise, my lord!
And later in the Tower, asked by his daughter whether he hasn't already done all that God could reasonably expect: "Well, finally, it isn't a matter of reason; finally it's a matter of love."
That's to say, when one truly puts on Christ, to deny him anything becomes as unnatural as to deny one's own self.
Yeah, can't say I've quite figured it out, either.
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