I might have mentioned this a couple years ago. If so, forgive the 2020 hindsight, but one of the problems of retirement has been a disruption of the books-to-blogging ratio.
What with the increased slack, the reading has jumped way out ahead of the blogging, such that I can never catch up with myself. Lately I’ve been trying to slow me down by gardening instead of reading. Would you like to hear about my vertical adventure cleaning out the gutters? Didn’t think so.
Next week the wife goes in for a new hip, which will also slow things down for awhile. I know -- how selfish of her to foist this on me! Caring for an adolescent boy is responsibility enough, but now I’ll have to deal with two.
Let me try to follow through with yesterday’s preliminary discussion of The Religious Revolution: The Birth of Modern Spirituality, 1848-1898. The author’s thesis is in the title: that we underwent a religious revolution in the 19th century, and that this gave birth to the modern spirituality that afflicts us to this day.
Sounds innocent enough: “spiritual but not religious.” But detaching the substance from the form is like…
For starters, it is dualistic and ultimately incoherent -- like saying “gendered but not biological.”
In other words, biology gives rise to binary sexes which then declare independence from their ground in biological reality. Might as well say “mental but not neurological,” or leaves with no branches. It doesn’t just put the cart before the horse, but claims the cart moves all by itself, with no need for a material or efficient cause. Gender-but-not-sex is like a smile with no face, and a face with no interior.
Come to think of it, Lonergan uses the phenomenology of smiling to explain intersubjectivity. What is a smile? A muscular movement of various parts of the face, but trying to analyze these one by one would result in a total loss of the meaning conveyed, not to mention be a tremendous buzzkill.
A smile is perceived on the countenance of a person, in the movements of eyes, lips, facial muscles, head; and it has meaning….
Because it has meaning, a smile is very easily apprehended. Apprehension, human perception, is not simply a function of light waves, sound waves, and the rest…. a smile is something that can very easily be perceived precisely because it has meaning.
I well remember my son’s first smile a couple weeks after he was born. Before that he was a blob, but he suddenly became a blob with an interior.
To be perfectly accurate, the interior was always there, but now it was signaled to interiors outside itself. The smile is the outward manifestation of a meaningful link between interiors. In short, intersubjectivity:
we have to learn the meaning of words but we do not have to be taught the meaning of a smile; either you get it or you do not. If you do not, you are lost...
Now, some people don't get it, AKA those afflicted with autism. Autism is precisely a disruption of intersubjectivity. Such a person would have to be taught how to recognize a smile and deduce its meaning.
But it’s more complicated than that, because there are many kinds of smile, some of which convey contradictory states of mind -- for example, a smile of joy or a smile of bitter resignation. A smile of laughter, or a courtesy smile. A transparent smile or an enigmatic one. A sincere smile or an ironic one; one that reveals or one that betrays. Laughing with or laughing at the troll.
Our point is that this meaning is prior to linguistic meaning, and is completely embedded in its matrix of flesh. They say speech was given to man in order to conceal his thoughts, and boy howdy is this true. You can’t be a forensic psychologist and not be able to distinguish between what a patient is saying and what’s really going on.
Which reminds me of how the gaslight media treats gaslighting Democrat politicians: no skepticism, no curiosity, no effort to describe what’s really going on beneath the platitudes and obvious lies.
But when dealing with a conservative, not only is it the opposite, it is a kind of hypervigilant, paranoid negation of plain meaning. Any conservative knows how this works: if we say X, it really means Y. And Y always comes down to racism, sexism, transphobia, white privilege, etc. This is neither understanding nor misunderstanding, but a truly systematic disunderstanding.
Okay, but what does this have to do with The Religious Revolution? I’ll tell you what, but let me first figure it out….
Got it: the Incarnation is very much like a smile, isn’t it? True, we can pull out our Bibles and try to comprehend all of Jesus’s words conveniently printed in red. But these are way downstream from the Incarnation itself.
For to say that God assumes human nature is to communicate a transcendent meaning in flesh. Could it be we have stumbled upon the ultimate guffah-HA! experience? For, suppose we could see Jesus smile. What would it communicate and imply?
I guess this post is all over except for the Aphorism:
By unmasking a truth, one encounters a Christian face.
18 comments:
Which reminds me of how the gaslight media treats gaslighting Democrat politicians: no skepticism, no curiosity, no effort to describe what’s really going on beneath the platitudes and obvious lies.
Shouldn't there have been a list of obvious lies after this statement?
Yes, but only for people who believe the lies.
No sweat Bob. As a duly self-designated representative from the kids table, allow me:
1. That Ted Cruz’s red tsunami didn’t happen. It did happen. But our election system is still corrupt. All other similar projections along those lines were deep faked. Every true conservative knows the system is rigged.
2. That unmarried women and young voters actually care about abortion and climate change and guns. False. What actually happened is that Mitch McConnell’s poorly run campaign failed because he stole the donation money.
3. RINOs regularly seen on the Communist News Network (Joe Scarborough, Michael Steele…) pretend to be liberal-friendly conservatives. They reveal themselves as closet commies when one actually listens to their lies.
4. Lie of omission: That the Pope isn’t demonically possessed, when he most obviously is.
The author’s thesis is in the title: that we underwent a religious revolution in the 19th century, and that this gave birth to the modern spirituality that afflicts us to this day.
One can't help but suspect that there is a strong tie between this religious revolution and the industrial revolution, as well.
I well remember my son’s first smile a couple weeks after he was born. Before that he was a blob, but he suddenly became a blob with an interior.
I'll never forget my daughter, at just a couple of days old, hearing my mom's voice, turning her head toward the sound, and just lighting up for a moment. I don't think she smiled properly again for a while after that, but the moment was sheer magic.
For, suppose we could see Jesus smile. What would it communicate and imply?
Funny, just trying to imagine that has an interesting physiological effect.
It is a miracle, isn't it?
Almost forgot to say, I hope Mrs. G's surgery and recovery go as smoothly as possible, and that the new hip serves her well!
This will be her second. She wanted to gut it out until the end of the school year, but the pain is too much, plus it refers every which way, so it's definitely for the best. Plus, maybe I can score some hydrocodone.
Do they even still prescribe that? When M broke her arm & needed surgery during the early days of covid, the doctor wouldn't give her anything stronger than motrin & tylenol. My medical relatives bullied him into prescribing something stronger, but she was a trooper and didn't need it at that point. Probably could have used it when her arm was first broken though, I think that was the worst pain night for her.
Sorry to hear that Mrs. G. has been in so much pain; thank goodness for modern medicine, at least when they get it right!
For, suppose we could see Jesus smile. What would it communicate and imply?
I tend to think that each time we see someone genuinely smile at us in a pleasant and friendly manner we do see Jesus smile. As a proof of this, consider how you inwardly light up when such a smile is cast upon you. The smile is communicating His love for you, through another soul.
Re the hip replacement. My daughter just had her hip replaced yesterday. Was a late afternoon surgery, so she overnighted at the hospital, but came home today at 3 p.m. Neighbor friend had her hip replaced 18 days ago. Went off her prescribed pain meds 6 days after, and was slowly moving around with a cane 12 days after. I'll pray for the same success for your wife, Gagdad.
First of all, you're not old enough to have a daughter who needs hip replacement. Second, I'm not old enough to be married to someone who needs one. But here we are.
Bob: Not sure if you ever got into the band Low. Interesting band. Mormons. You may have heard Mimi Parker from the band recently passed. Their album "The Great Destroyer" would be a top 10 deserted island album for me.
Hope things work out well with the Mrs.
Prayers for Mrs. G's surgery.
Dear Julie, Ted, and Van Harvey,
Thank you so much for your well-wishes and prayers! The last one was very challenging, but I hope I learned from that and that Bob won't have to take care of me for too long.
I don't think this is what he envisioned when he married a younger woman. He should have gotten the extended warranty.
God bless you guys,
Mrs. G
First of all, you're not old enough to have a daughter who needs hip replacement.
That'd be true, if hip replacement surgery was only based on age related wearing out, Gagdad. Unfortunately, 12 years ago my daughter's hip was returned to serviceable use with half-a-dozen screws, due to an injury, and while the repair held up, her original ball joint did not. I've not seen one so pitted and rotten on one younger than 80 years old, till I saw the pic of her's.
Leslie Godwin said "...I don't think this is what he envisioned when he married a younger woman. He should have gotten the extended warranty."
LOL! Careful, you know a series of phone calls & emails will follow that ["...we've been trying to reach you about your extended warranty..."]
On 2nd thought, please forward those to me... ;-)
Mrs G, best of luck with your upcoming operation.
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