Just some free associating, i.e., spontaneous and undirected thinking out loud...
In his The Form of Transformed Vision, our late unknown friend James Cutsinger touches on what we Raccoons call the "dual-track" vision of God, one we must always bear in mind -- whether explicitly or implicitly -- when grappling with the trans-empirical world.
First,
Whatever else it may involve and however its distinguishing characteristics are described, knowledge means relationship: a relationship, bond, or bridge between a knowing subject and a known object (Cutsinger).
Or subject, I might add, for not only is there intersubjectivity, it would appear -- or so we have heard from the wise -- that ultimate reality is an irreducible intersubjectivity of Persons. Nor do we need to flesh this out, since the Second Person already has.
Within this dual-track approach is "an element of continuity and an element of discontinuity," which might be characterized as "liberal" and "conservative," respectively.
A liberal-continuous approach will "tend in the direction of immanence and availability" (of God), whereas a more conservative-discontinuous approach will "characteristically emphasize the divine transcendence or sovereignty."
We could say that the continuous approach is more mystical, intuitive, and experiential, while the discontinuous is more objective, dogmatic, and obediential. To say we need both is to state the obvious, and indeed, one can't really exist without the other, for this is one of those primordial complementarities we can never eliminate.
Nevertheless, of these two, the continuity must be ontologically prior, since it can account for discontinuity, whereas no amount of discontinuity -- no matter how small the gaps -- adds up to continuity. Digital is not and cannot be analog.
So, just because each perspectival vector is necessary, it doesn't mean one of the two doesn't take precedence. Take Christianity, for example. Behind all the objective doctrine is nevertheless a Person and a community of Persons. It's a continuous party up there!
This must be one of the reasons why Protestants ditched the -- discontinuous, so to speak -- Magisterium, liturgy, and sacraments in favor of a direct and unmediated relationship with the divine person; in so doing, they embrace continuity ("me & Jesus") while seemingly forgetting about the discontinuity, although they import all sorts of new discontinuities through the back door, e.g., sola scriptura, total depravity, devaluation of reason and intellect, etc.
(There's also a misunderstanding at the heart of this, for it is difficult to conceive of any divine-human contact more direct and continuous than Holy Communion.)
Each of these ruptures (and others) means there can never be any continuity between man and God from our side of the divide. Rather, any continuity is completely owing to God's initiation and accomplishment, which was fully worked out even before we existed: you're either one of the elect or you'r not, and there's not a thing you can do about it.
Some people apparently find this complete powerlessness to be a relief. Luther no doubt did, for it helped him overcome his obsessive and guilt-ridden scrupulosity. I find it... troubling. But then I don't have OCD.
For Luther, we are totally passive in the face of sola gratia, just as our intellect is wholly impotent in the face of sola fide. For that matter, even (or especially) our will -- AKA freedom -- contributes nothing to the unfolding of a rigid predestination.
For Luther man is continuous, alright -- a continuous trainwreck: nor is Luther completely wrong, just 50% right. Let's see if we can spot the errors:
original sin has left in humanity such consequences that the latter cannot do anything that does not represent sin. Because of the wound created by the sin of Adam, human beings find themselves in such a condition that whatever they do, even the good, is always sinful.
The human being is thus completely excluded from grace, cannot cooperate with it and, thus, cannot cooperate in his or her own salvation. The only attitude that is possible for the sake of being saved is total passivity (Gagliardi).
Looks to me like a straight-up Kafka trap, for whatever we try to do from our side "would be a sin that would be an obstacle to grace," and for Luther, our "absolute passivity coincides with faith."
And don't even think about trying to think your way out of this trap: for Luther, reason is
an enemy of faith, its greatest obstacle, to the point that in the (hypothetical) moment in which human reason was completely annulled one would have the fullness of faith.
Along these lines, I remember something Schuon says about God and intellect. To paraphrase, why would God insist that the only way to be reconciled to him is to toss out his highest gift? This seems like another Kafka trap, although perhaps I'm being unfair to Luther. If so, it's not my fault, since I'm totally depraved. A Kafka-escape!
To be sure, thinking can be a dangerous and destructive activity, and the world would be a better place if most people would refrain from it, or at least confine it to more practical matters while simply obeying with regard to the more consequential ones. Few people are qualified to think about celestial ins, outs, and what-have-yous.
Although I'm certainly no fan of mankind -- individual members to the contrary notwithstanding -- I am convinced that Luther is over the line, man. A little perspective, please. Sure, mankind is depraved, but if everyone is equally depraved, then no man is worse or better than any other. I've even heard people argue that sin is sin, and that no sin is more serious than any other. Whatever.
I just located the Schuon quote mentioned above:
to believe that the nature of God must appear as absurd to human intelligence; to believe, in other words, that God, after having given us intelligence -- not "logic" alone -- could require us to admit what is contrary to this gift; or to believe that God could have given us an intelligence contrary to the most lofty contents of which it is capable and for which it is made; thus, that He could have given us an intelligence inoperative with respect to truths concerning it, whereas it is precisely human -- not animal -- intelligence which is "made in the image of God"...
If one wishes to believe all this, "then it is pointless to speak of human theomorphism; if, on the contrary, there is theomorphism, it must concern above all the intelligence, which is the essence and the very reason of being man." And if being an unintelligent human animal is the ideal, it would have been sufficient for God to have created only leftists.
Now, what is theomorphism but a certain analogical continuity between man and God? And what is original sin but a rupture in this continuity? And who is Christ but its repair?
Still, we are free to participate in the repair or to go on living amidst the wreckage in a necessarily vain search for continuity, wholeness, synthesis, and union, AKA One Cosmos.
No comments:
Post a Comment