Jesus As "The Way"

People miss the point. Think of a bridge. You use the bridge to get to your destination which is presumably the other side. Now, under this particular bridge happens to be the great chasm between the created and un-created, so it is really not appropriate to suggest that this is a contest of religions. Other religions have different goals- the Jews and Muslims appear to understand God as perfect, but assume it is not possible for us to become perfect and are therefore content with rules- be servants of perfection and hope for a reward.

Many Christians hope for heaven, but this is largely because we are in an age of degeneracy and many of the old superstitions have returned in disguise. Most people spouting 'in the name of Jesus' are attempting word magic.

So, the game plan is to become perfect, and this God/man, the entire mystery of the Trinity shows how we will achieve it in the end; thus Jesus is the way.

This is the struggle, of which asceticism is a tool, but it should not be considered an end unto itself because Jesus said he came that we would have life and have it more abundantly. So, if we are to claim Christ, ought we not claim his intention too? In other words, your morality is for shaping the environment such that we can have more life. Sure, you can go into paroxisms about how your practices and intent are love, happy, joy, and smother us all with your warm wet blanket of sentimentality, but if you are doing it- in the end- for FEEEEEEELINGS... well, whatever you are doing, no matter how supposedly spectacular it is is for personal glory and probably amounts to nothing in the end.

There is this rather crushing reality that the unseen does have some similarities with abstractions, and much like regular sort of run of the mill abstractions (like the word cat, which doesn't refer to any particular cat, and therefore you can, if you aren't careful do things with the word that you really shouldn't do with a real cat) you ought to make sure that you can bring your abstractions back down into the concrete world, and have those thoughts and impressions that you generated midst the unseen and abstract be able to function with concrete people.