The Western mindset engrains in us a habitual lifestyle of busyness and of competition. We fight for the best parking spot, we watch TV or surf the net to pass time, and we choose our vocation to make the most money, not to procure genuine happiness.
In his assessment of man’s love for God in The Art of Loving, Erich Fromm asserts that such a mentality comes from an Aristotelian or ‘Western’ logic that focuses on finding answers. In Western society man’s highest gain becomes the act of gaining itself.
This leads, in my analysis, to conflict as opposed to resolution, to anger as opposed to understanding, to conformity as opposed to individuality. Still, I embrace this mindset in many ways in my life. We all do. I’m always seeking to “know” God or to find absolutes in my own life-journey. Deep down I wonder if the absolutes we Westerners boldly affirm are shaped more by our experiences and our culture than they are by some graspable truth undergirding creation.
Diametrically opposed to this mindset is that of paradoxical or ‘Eastern’ logic which, in brief, would claim that the greatest knowledge one can know is that we cannot fully ‘know’. In the Christian’s quest for knowledge of God this would result in the conclusion that our limited minds cannot fully wrap around God’s reality.
The trouble I have, as I desire to bridge the logic gap in my life, is that paradoxical logic seemingly comes into contention with the belief we Christians have that we can “know” God through Christ. Or do we? Can we "know" God through Christ, or do we get snapshots of divinity (albeit perfect and true)?
I look at Christ’s teachings and in many ways see Eastern philosophy at work. Christ is one who calls us to look within ourselves through prayer and meditation so that we may act rightly toward others. He himself did this. Christ is one who calls us to shed our possessions and follow an ascetic path (read Merton’s No Man is An Island). If you seek to live out the essence of discipleship I think/hope you’ll find some agreement here.
Ultimately the call of God (in my life) isn’t to understand the inner-workings of the Trinity but to focus on living rightly. In other words, being (in the silent presence of God) leads us to doing (justice, kindness, love). Is that not Christ’s teaching in a nutshell? To ‘be’ in the moment so that we may get to work ‘doing’ God’s will?
Now that I’ve opened Pandora’s Box, I’ll leave it at that.
The only conclusion anyone can get out of this post is that I’ll probably never make it through the ordination process.
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3 comments:
jesus bore the burden of those questions that need answers. we are left to follow with faith, which is the ultimate in not knowing.
"judge not" ... not quite as simplistic as it might seem. more subtle.
as for ordination, i was to turned on to the tao te ching by a moderate baptist spiritual counselor. as i've mentioned, it helped change my life.
and remember, "he who is not against us is for us."
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Good point about Christ saving us (if you will) from not needing to know the answers. I like that. Makes me think about the somewhat paradoxical answers he'd give the Pharisees and others who tried to test his knowledge of proper religious practice.
I'm not worried about the tao te ching getting in the way of ordination. My copy actually has a quote by Thomas Merton on the back praising the particular translation. I think you might enjoy 'No Man Is An Island' by Merton. Fascinating man who took an outside-the-box approach to Christian spirituality.
"ubi caritas ..."
"where there is love and charity, god is present."
i love that one. we sing that as a gospel reading processional during certain seasons of the liturgical year.
by the way ... i've got a picture of the usc/uf scoreboard if you want it. :)
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