Glory, Grace and Gehenna
Three “G’s” that are worth exploring
In times when pre and post-election political anxiety saturates the headlines, a small detour of spiritual reflection may just be a well-timed bowl of chicken soup for the soul. Perhaps, dear readers, you too have wondered about the words “Glory”, “Grace” and “Gehenna” and will find this exploration enlightening.
Glory
“Glory” is one of those terms whose meaning has continued to elude me, especially each time I listen to Christian prayers, Sunday sermons, or reading scripture from the Old and New Testament. My lack of understanding perhaps comes from the many ways that the word glory or its related verb , “to glorify” are used in language.
This has motivated me to do some digging, and embark on a short exercise to clarify and investigate things.
Let’s start by setting some boundaries. There is “glory” in the context of God, and then there is worldly “glory”.
The word “glory” in a worldly sense is more or less straightforward. I found it easy to grasp its secular sense by recalling the phrase “Gold, God and Glory” that described the motivation of the imperialist conquistador. These men of the past sought gold, riches for the empire they represented, that funded their missions of exploration. They sought to convert or retain throughout…
