The growth and development of the idea perfection in historic Christianity

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Content THE aROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA
OF PERFECTION IN HISTORIC CHRISTIANITY
A Thesis
Presented to
the Faculty of the School of Religion
\
The University of Southern California
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts in Religion
by
Lawrence^ M. McOaff erty
August 1951
UMI Number: EP65210
All rights reserved
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UMI EP65210
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This thesis, written by
lAHRENCE M. m GAFFERTÏ
under the guidance of h.%§...Faculty Committee,
and approved hy all its members, has been
presented to and accepted by the Council on
Graduate Study and Research in partial fu lfill
ment of the requirements for the degree of
...........}M§TER____qF__mT8...............
Date .....
Faculty Committee
Chairman
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PACE
I. INTRODUCTION......... 1
What is Christianity.............. . . • ♦ 1
The power of example . . . . . . . 6
The importance of prayer ......... 7
Belief and understanding 9
Reformation based upon a mistaken concept
of the church......................... 12
Christian perfection ... ................ 15
Language harriers .......... ....... 21
Science and religion ....... 23
The timeless quality of eternity......... 27
The ambiguity of progress .......... 28
The form of medieval piety as rooted in
tradition....................... 29
Symbology and psychology ..... 31
Mistaken notions about the reason ..... 33
The structure of medieval concepts * . . . . 3^
The meaning of the church .......... 38
The importance of the Word of Cod .....
The need for spiritual direction ...... 43
The nature of prayer ................ 44
Doubt and Faith ......... 44
ir
CHAPTER PACE
II. CHRISTIANITY AS PRAYER AND PASTING......... 48
III. CHRISTIANITY AS INTELLIGENCE AND UNDERSTANDING. 106
IV. CHRISTIANITY AS FAITH AND L O V E ............. 133'>
Trends..................................... 155
The simplicity of love..................... 165
V. EPILOGUE..................................... ISO
Grace is the seed of glory .......... 180'
Transformation .............................. 192
The city of God............................. 196
BIBLIOGRAPHY............................ , ........ 201
APPENDIX . ............................. 204
PREFACE
This thesis attempts to examine the core of Christi
anity as it has come to be known by a few of the outstanding
men in Christendom. Outwardly their expression has differed
considerably.
Augustine, Bernard, John of the Cross, lived in
widely separated ages. An African, a Frenchman, a Spaniard,:
each lived his understanding of Christianity and modified the
spiritual heritage.of mankind.
Other personalities might have been chosen, e.g.
Meister Eckhart, François de Sales, Teresa, but their in
fluence on the structure of Christian wisdom has been less
marked. A basic motif of this thesis is that Christianity
is the way of life that leads to perfect understanding.
This concept has been traced through its historical
development in the traditional spirituality of the West.
The influence of the disintegration of he dieval tradi
tion upon the modern age has been examined in the light of
the Reformation spirit. From this analysis, it is con
cluded that Christendom needs a renewed understanding of
prayer, fasting, intelligence, faith and love.
A chapter has been devoted to each of these basic con- ■
cepts, in their relationship to the central idea, the
concept of perfection. '
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
I. WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY?
Christianity is neither the religion of the masses nor
the religion of the intellectuals. It is the religion of
each individual who stands in need of salvation and who has
accepted our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who came into the
world to save sinners. Jesus was neither a Marxist nor an
intellectualiste As a man (for he was also a man), he spoke
simply and directly to every man and woman who would hear
him. In so doing, he established the pattern for every one
who would follow in his way. This way was a simple way,
without complexity, so that every man might find the light
of life who chose to accept the truth of existence, i.e. (rod.
But men have not been satisfied with the direct way
to the Kingdom of Cod. They prefer to talk about the truth,
to construct complicated theories which can only be under
stood by the one who has the patience to master all the
technical terms which form a part of the complex. Those who
differ with these intellectualists are shouted down as
naive— simply because they prefer Christ to words about
,Christ.
Jesus Christ was and is the Living Truth. One cannot
2
come to Him by any other way than by the way of Life. This
statement is of course a simple assertion. It has ample
support ih Scripture. But here it is of no use to summon
texts to justify one's position. There are certain things
which are clear and evident to one's senses— the fact that
one breathes, walks, eats, sleeps, etc.,— that no one con
siders it necessary to prove them. The way of life which is
Christ stands in relation to the knowledge process somewhat
like our natural organic existence is related to the process
of knowing. The Way is apprehended directly, immediately, -
without reference to concepts and ratiocination. It is
obvious to the one who is awake and therefore able to know
it. In sleep, we do not know our natural existence in a
conscious manner. In the sleep of sin, we do not know our
spiritual existence in a conscious way. But with the awaken
ing of the spirit, the fact of Christ and the Way of Life
become quite obvious. No amount of verbalization can alter
or change the prime facts of existence on any "level." Facts
exist for those who are awake to them. They are chimeras to
the unawakened. Bo it is with the Spirit which is Christ.
One is awake to Christ or one sleeps in sin. There is no
other possibility. On the level of prime facts, there is
always the either/or. It is the dilemma of some intellec
tuals to entertain the notion that relativity is a "universal
law." But life and death are not relative. One either is
3
or one is not. Either one has identity or one has not.
There are degrees of realization and appreciation of
life and identity. But there is a point where these begin*
For the Christian, that point is the creation of the in
dividual soul by God, the Creator of all.
When then does real life begin for the individual who '
is to himself only a name, defined by a cultural heritage,
a biological structure, a family, a physical environment?
Before this question can be answered, it is necessary to see
that the biological complex with a name is unconscious, i.e.
he does not know what he really is. But he has a name. And
perhaps in this fact lies a much deeper significance than the
casual observer is wont to recognize. To call by name is
often sufficient to arouse a person from slumber. We respond
to another when we are called by name in a more immediate
way, a more spontaneous way, than when we are only addressed
in a general way.
A man is called by name only by those who know him.
And those who know him who are in some manner associated
with him. Now Christ calls every man by name until he stirs
in his sleep and is aroused by the summons. The Word calls
us by name and our answer is the awakening to life. The :
Word is life and we are quickened by it. The Word is that
boundless Identity who seals us with His identity so that
When He speaks our name and we hear what we are called, we
4
begin to live as conscious beings, responsive to Reality.
What then of that name we received on earth? It was
only a sound, a combination of letters to those who did not
understand* But when He calls us by name, there is meaning,
and consciousness and life contained in the utterance. And
those who hear, awake to life and consciousness and under-
standing.
In thinking upon and contemplating the way, the truth
and the life of our Lord and Savior, words form themselves
gently and simply and clearly within the heart# It does
not occur to one to ponder tediously how to phrase a thought
! so that the effect of learning, erudition, and intellect can
be conveyed to the reader. When we think and write in the
Presence of God it is impossible to consider how to be
clever and obscure.
No, Christianity as men call that which professes the
Word of God, is not for any special group apart from the
'whole of mankind# And since Christ Jesus came for all men,
regardless of their station in this world, it is only fitting
that we should speak and write so that all men may have ac- *
cess to the truth. For the wisdom which is of God lends not
' itself to the philosophies conceived by men who take lightly
the Word of truth.
"We speak wisdom, however, among them that are fully
: grown; yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of
5
this world, who are coining to nought: but we speak God's
wisdom in a mystery, even the wisdom that hath been hidden,
which God foreordained before the worlds unto our glory:
which none of the rulers of this world liath known: for had
they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of
glory, but as it is written.
Things which eye saw not, and
ear heard not.
And which entered not into the heart of man.
Whatsoever things God prepared for them
that love him.
But unto us God revealed them through the Spirit: for the
Spirit se arc he th all things, yea, the deep things of God.
For who among men knoweth the things of a man, save the
spirit of the man, which is in him? even so the things of
God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God. But we received,
not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from
God; that we might know the things that were freely given to
us of God. Which things also we speak, not in words which
man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth, in
terpreting spiritual things to spiritual men. Now the
psychical man receive th not the things of the Spirit of God:
for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them,
because they are spiritually judged. . . . For who hath
known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him?
But we have the mind of Christ." (I Corinthians 2:6-l4&l6)
i There is nothing "esoteric" or mysterious about the
6
Word of God. But one must be in the Word in order to know ^
the Word. William James* Varieties of Religious Experience
will not give us the keys to the Kingdom. But the Prayer of
our Lord will.
There is no compromise possible between the Kingdom
of God and the kingdom of man. But until men learn humility
they cannot know what this means. When the lesson of hu
mility has been learned, then men are called to go up to
"a higher place."
II. THE POWER OF EXAMPLE
In their anxiety to preserve the forms of worship and
the symbols of a particular confession, many have sought by
force, strategem or intellectual subtlety to impose a uniform
observance upon all who seek to be Christians. Certainly we
do not find this externalism and forceful imposition expressed
in the attitude of Jesus preserved in the Gospel records.
Love inspires by its example and wins by its beauty. The
soul that has looked into its depths and perceived the
nothingness of the creature, the soul that has looked up and
seen the allness of God, such a soul knows from experience
the infinitude of love which streamed into the heart of man
from Calvary, raising the soul to new life through the
indwelling of the triune God.
Christ lives now in the heart of each man and woman
7
who accepts Him. For His life is an eternal present and when
He lifts us up to share in His bea,titude we have already a
beginning of eternal life as the moments of our lives are
transformed into an eternal Now. We must have courage and
work diligently for His Kingdom, but we labor in vain if it
is not Christ who labors in us through His Kingdom already
present in the hearts of them who love Him.
The myth of the nineteenth century that progress is
inevitable and automatic is an exploded shibboleth alive
only in the minds of those who do not know their own depths.
If there is more love, more light and understanding in the
world today it is only because the Spirit of God has pene
trated some lives more intensely and pervasively than in the
past. If it seems darker in some quarters than ever.before,
it is simply because men have ignored the Gospel and allowed '
their souls to be taken captive by darkness and fear and
hate.
III. THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER
It was part of the Reformation to break the crystal-
I
lized moulds of authoritarian religion with its hold over
the lives of the laity through the ecclesiastical system.
This part of the Reform was successfully carried out only to
be succeeded by intellectual crystallization as soon as the
new movement lost faith in the Divine Providence and sought ;
8
to impose a system of rigid subordination to the letter as .
interpreted by the most popular theologians. It is then
,that one finds the Protestant world torn apart by infra-
. lapsarian versus supralapsarian doctrines of the Fall and
governmental versus Judicial theories of the atonement, etc.
This is neither the time nor the occasion to speculate about
the possible alternatives available to the Reform parties,
especially during the first part of the seventeenth century.-
All we need to-realize is that a most barren and sterile
period followed the epoch of the religious wars. It was a
period of intellectual and moral decline for the dominant
parties of the Reform. (Vide M. Piette, John Wesley and the
Evolution of Protestantism.)
Having realized the futility of Scholasticism, some
of the theologians of the early nineteenth century, such as
Schleiermacher and Ritschl, sought to reconstruct the prin
ciples of the Christian faith upon a foundation of the psy
chological structure of man. But as Kierkegaard realized,
God is not to be found in intellectual constructs nor is He
: to be found in the subjectivity of the individual. For He
is neither an object which can be talked about, nor is He the
subjective processes of the ego, nor is He the unconscious
■of psychology. Yet is He to be found in the very center of '
our being. Nor could we exist if He were not present in us.
We find God through prayer; that is, we commune with God when
9
we have laid aside our ideas and feelings about Him and
allowed Him to ^ in us. For that is essentially the mean
ing of faith, easting aside the ideas we have about God and
accepting Him as He is. ThenHe surely will reveal Himself
to the eye of faith.
We are not speaking here of the methods of cloistered
mysticism. Although ever since the Desert Fathers ran away
from civilization to worship God in the wilderness, men have
practiced and written about those exercises and ascetic
practices which are supposed to prepare the soul for God.
The unfortunate result of this separation of the religious
from the secular has caused more misunderstanding and tragedy
for civilization than perhaps any other single historical
fact. The life of prayer is a continuous attitude which can
and must be acquired and maintained by every member of a
society composed of true Christians. The withdrawal from
society of those who are deeply concerned with the life of
prayer was and is a serious loss. For men of prayer are
the spiritual fountains of civilization. Without their
presence in our midst, decline and crystallization are
inevitable. They are the eyes of civilization.
IV. BELIEF AND UNDERSTANDING
Credo ut intelligam. Does this mean that we blindly
accept with credulity or with the naivete of an imbecile in ;
10
order that we may intellectualize about the truths of faith?
No. Perhaps it-meant this in decadent scholasticism, either
Catholic or Protestant. But it certainly did not mean this
for Augustine, Calvin or Luther. And if not for these men,
then how much more for those immediate followers and espe
cially the disciples of Jesus. Not that we may assume that
those who knew Jesus personally understood His teaching more
than those who only knew Him by faith. "Blessed are they
who not having seen, yet have believed." For there were
those who knew Jesus personally, who did not believe. Even
followers such as Gleophas did not believe or they could
not have spoken as they did about Christ, on the road to
Emmaus. Contrary to the Liberal "back to Jesus" movement
which assumed that if we knew more about the sources and the
actual life that we would understand better, we find from
what records we have, that physical contact did not make for
understanding. Only those who believed, understood. This
was true then and will always be true. For this is the way
to God. 1 believe, in order to understand.
What then is this belief upon which so much depends?
It is the capacity to receive understanding. And what is
the understanding? It is the knowledge of God, the Spirit
of Truth, which makes us be and do what belief and faith
make possible to us. And we know God who is love by the
love which is born in us which is the reason St. Paul refers
11
to charity (agape) as the bond of perfection— the making
complete, the love which fulfills the law and the prophets.
St. Augustine exclaims, "O God, command what thou
wilt and give what thou wilt command.” In this statement as
in many other paradoxical statements made by the bishop of
Hippo, we have an affirmation of faith which must be deeply
understood in the light revealed by faith. For unless we
walk by the light which is given through faith, we shall not
walk at all. In faith, there is no accomodation to the
"natural” man. We are lifted up that we may see what it is
that we are made for and we are plunged into the depths that
we may know it is God who both worketh and willeth in us the
things which He commands.
How are we to know the things which are of Christ?
Not by logical demonstration* but by the affirmation of His
will which is that we love Him with our whole will, mind,
soul, heart, and strength. He commands; but He also gives
what He commands. The wisdom of God is foolishness unto man
but it is no longer foolishness when we comprehend with all
saints what is the length and breadth and height and depth
of the love of God. The mystery of paradox is solved not by
a blind leap of faith, but by a faith informed with love.
The witness of the Spirit has always been in the
. Church. It always will be. For God continually raises up
; souls to testify not only by their words but by their lives i
12
to the truth which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. There is a
witness of the Spirit to which each man is called. Blessed
is the man who hears that call.
V. REFORMATION BASED UPON A MISTAKEN CONCEPT OF THE CHURCH
The Reformation brought about vast changes. We need
to understand these changes, for they have deeply influenced
the life of everyone, whether he is Protestant or Catholic,
or non-sectarian. The research of many scholars gives us a
many-sided interpretation of what actually took place, what
the intention of the Reformers was, and what the effects
have been since the sixteenth century. We will not find a
, uniform interpretation in all questions. But there is a
body of agreement on certain basic aspects of the problem.
It can safely be said that their intention basically
was to purify the Church.
Now in these latter days, we find many religious or
ganizations which claim to be the Church. They pride them
selves on being the adherents of some theological interpre-
; tation. Others pride themselves on having no theology or
i creed. But what earnest and thoughtful church member would
; honestly say that he believed his salvation depended on the ,
■ mere assent to a creed or dogma.
; The sixteenth century reformers formulated certain I
, theological positions which the religious organizations
13-
adhering to these systems have accepted as standards of ortho
doxy. However the Reformers themselves and their followers
have maintained that they were restoring the purity of the
Gospel as the way of salvation to all them that believe.
They did not consider themselves as innovators. Neither did
they believe they were the first true Christians since
apostolic times. Yet in the heat of theological debate
things were said which would almost lead the observer to
this conclusion. And it is these unfortunate divisions,
based more often on appearance than on solid foundation,
which have led to the abyss of separatism.
To purify the Church meant to return to the principles
of Augustinianism. But whereas Augustine found his freedom
in the advocacy of an established, institution, the Reformers
stressed the invisible church and found their freedom in
championing a high spiritual conception of the Church.
But in stressing certain aspects of Augustine, his
theology apart from his intense spirit of prayer, they tended
to prepare the ground for theologism and intellectualism.
To purify the Church means to separate the accretions, viz.
the things which are of man from the things which are of God.;
i
This is essentially very simple; in fact it is the spirit
of simplicity, sacred simplicity, which purifies the Church. ;
■It is we who have made complexity. It is de rigeur to be i
complicated. It is the easiest way to pass as an authority ;
- 14.
among men if you can verbalize nonsense to the.point of in
tellectuality. But as the followers of Iv o rzybyzkl would say,
one is just making noises about noise-
We cannot even talÿ about purifying the Church i For
God has created the Church; He maintains it and He will bring
it into glory, for the Church is non-temporal -
Men have tried to convince themselves that the re
ligious organizations they have constructed are the true
Church. But that is superstition— placing intellectually
constructed ideas over the real creation of God.
Calvin was right when he said that the true Church is
invisible. He was also right when he said that only the
elect are members of the true Church. Yet any one who wills
is of the elect. This is of course a paradox with which the
intellect will never be satisfied. But we have been given
the spirit of truth so we may understand the things which
are of God.
It is good that Protestants should seek reunion. But
what is the basis for such action? Surely it can only come
about as the sects transcend their differences by ceasing to
be Protestant or Catholic and to become truly Christian. Now
this is precisely what the Reformation aimed to achieve* But
as soon as the formulas beca.me more important than the end
for which they were framed, just that soon did the Reforma-
'tion fail. And certainly the history of the late part of
15
the seventeenth and eighteenth century is a history of the
failure of the great intent of the Reformation. The ration
alism of that period could not have been so destructive
otherwise.
We must find the spirit of Christianity which means
that we must seek the spirit of Christ who is even now the
Lord and Master of all those who have believed in order to
understand. i
More important than any system, the Reformation be
queathed to us the liberty of turning to the Bible and
finding therein the Word of God. The exultation of this
liberty released men from bondage to the past. Yet we must
not forget as many seemed to forget, in new found enthusiasm,
that the Word had been witnessed to in each age, that the
Church is found wherever truly Christian souls are found.
And these have been with us always. Hence we are brought
once again to the conclusion that the Church of God is not
equatable with any religious organization. It is invisible
and is composed of the elect in every age. Still we do not
minimize the importance of ecclesiastical organization. It
is indispensable to man in the state of civilization; for in,
it he realizes fellowship in actualizing his potentialities.;
VI. CHRISTIAN PERFECTION
The concept of perfection is not new with Christianity.
l6
We find traces of it in our earliest literature in the West
and also in the East. But the more exact usage it received
in the hands of the Greeks in the term, rendered
its meaning more precise and therefore more understandable
and usable. This is the form in which it occurs in the New
Testament. It denotes wholeness, completeness, fulfillment.
It suggests the end or fulfillment, the term or goal of any
I
living process in the scale of entities and beings. (It is ;
the seed fulfilled in the tree.)
All of these ideas, when employed in a naturalistic
way, can only be conceived in terms of process, change, the ■
passage from one stage of development to another which more
nearly approaches the term of the organism. By observation
one can make all these deductions and many others. And by
studying the life cycle of a butterfly it is possible by
induction to develop some concept of transformat ion which
can be applied to many "levels" of life.
In the natural sphere, and the Greeks made their
greatest contribution in the natural order, the levels of
causation defined by Aristotle are simply abstractions drawn
from observation of the way the existential unity behaves in
its natural environment. The application of Greek, especial
ly Aristotelian categories, results in clear and precise '
I
concepts which efficiently describe the process from the
I I
terminus a quo to the terminus ad auem in the life cycle of =
17
an organism. It must be remembered that Aristotle made a
I concentrated study in the biological sphere and arrived at
his famous categories of causation by a process of induction,.
He cannot therefore be bracketed with the Cartesian rational
ists of the "Enlightenment," as is so commonly done. In life
.we do not find that a person is either a suckling or an
adult. The suckling is an adult in potentiality. Because
of the failure of Descartes and his English disciple, Locke,,
to comprehend this important distinction between the logic
of life and the logic of abstractions, we find by extension,
that they fell into the absurd premise that a person is
either a child or an adult by the simple fact that they made
a universal application of the mathematical principle of the
law of non-contradiction. The result was the billiard ball
universe of David Hume; a lot of little substances floating
about in space with no apparent connection or "chain of
causation." Now the perfection of which Christ speaks is
not the perfection of the natural order. Not that He
denied the natural sphere, the realm of natural processes of
unfoldment. His parables make use of the imagery derived
from nature. But the precept Clirist gave us was to be per
fect ^ our Father in heaven is perfect. The difference is
iin kind. Jesus was always calling this distinction to the
attention of His followers. The perfection of which Christ ■
ispeaks comes from above. And that "above" is also within us.
.18
and about us, not literally, but in reality. For the Kingdom
of heaven ooraeth not with observation* The Kingdom of
heaven is within.
God is not an entity with numerically divisible parts.
The allness of God and the simplicity of God are identical.
He is not a Being limited by "dimensions" which are now recog
nized as being entirely relative# He is not a substance like
one of Hume's billiard balls floating in space. At this
point it would be possible to begin a discourse on Dionysian
superlatives to describe the indescribable. Or one could
borrow the terminology of the new physics to explain the
relativity, i*e. the finiteness of dimensional existence.
But these things have been well done already and the modern
informed reader has immediate access to scientific and
philosophical treatises* Of greater significance is the
fact that verbal "descriptions" of the dimensionless are not
only impossible but highly misleading. For the person is led
‘to believe that because the terms "infinite," "boundless,"
"omnipotent," "reality," etc. have become theoretically in
telligible to him, he therefore is in possession of their
content. Nothing could be further from the truth. The
philosopher who knows that God is infinite is no nearer to
, understanding God than the child who knows that God is his <
real Father. He may be further away. If a man would know :
, the simplicity of God, let him become simple* Let him be ■
19
free from verbalisms and without denying the value of ab
stractions in their place, let him be free from words as a
means of knowing God* Let him seek rather with his heart
and soul and mind and will* And God will show him who and
what He is.
There are unfortunately too many persons who have not
learned or who have forgotten how to distinguish between a
paradox and a confused thought. The result is not increased
depth of comprehension but more muddle-headedness that passes
for wisdom. "Wisdom is mine saith the Lord!" It has always
been and it always will be* Christians ought rather to ask
God for wisdom than to devise clever means for obscuring
their own ignorance.
Perfection then is the gift of God. As James wrote,
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and
cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no
variableness, neither shadow of turning." (James 1:17*)
God has given man an intelligence which is able to think and,
meditate upon, and receive the Word of God. It is the men
tality of man which distinguishes him from the other members
of the animal kingdom. The Bible teaches us that man in his
nature is the image (symbol) and likeness of God. Now if
man bears in his being the impress of God, it is certainly
not obvious. And this is because men have forgotten their
'true nature which is to be and express the semblance, the !
. 20 ,
idea of Ood* This falling away is termed the Fall of man
in theological parlance.
The so-called modern period of history has a very
narrow concept of the mind of man, and a thoroughly confused
notion about the imago del.
Before we can proceed further to an understanding
about the meaning of perfection as the goal of Christian
life, we must clarify the basic concept of man as the
created image of G-od.
For the examination of the parts of the term "perfec
tion** clearly indicates that there is a way, a process by
which perfection comes into our lives. For the fact is, we
are not perfect as we find ourselves in this material exist
ence.
Once we accept the fact that there is an end, a goal
for mankind beyond the physical expression, as all Christians
do, and as reason would suggest when intelligently applied,
it is a very simple matter then to examine the means at man* s
disposal for the attainment of that end. For unless there
be an end, there can be no means. There can only be a con
glomeration of facts which point nowhere. But once we ac
cept the fact that there is an end, even though we may not
clearly comprehend that end, we place ourselves in a posi- >
tion to appreciate it and gradually to apprehend it through
the light of meaning which then illuminates the way. For
21
the way to perfection is inseparably connected with the goal.
Othen^ise there could be no way. No one ever conceived of a
road that led nowhere. A city cannot be conceived without
an access to it and an outlet from it. For all things are
connected one with another. And there is nothing in this
universe which is not related to everything else. Our fail
ure to see this simple fact is a good indication of just how
I
blind we are in our self-enclosed darkness.
We must open ourselves to the goal and let it come to
us. Does this sound strange and paradoxical? Let us not be
deceived by words. The end, the goal is perfection. God is
perfection, and perfection is love, the law fulfilled, which
is now, eternally now.
VII. LANGUAGE BARRIERS
It is important at the very outset to clearly under
stand the function of language and its place with respect to
[the subject at hand or for that matter to any subject. It
may seem elementary. It may seem an affront to the reader’s
intelligence. But modern research in the science of seman
tics and in its more specialized branch "general semantics"
indicates the need for more care in this direction than has
been heretofore practiced. An accurate design projects on
a plane of two dimensions the appearance of a structure in
ithree dimensions. All the integral factors must be Included ;
22
in exact proportion and relation to each other in terms of
the required perspective. Ko one would identify the design
with the project. But many persons identify words with the
object. The complexity multiplies the moment we shift at
tention to a verbal description. How greatly increased are
the possibilities of error due to the conditioning to the
words we use in common so that no two people have the same
shade of meaning for any word that they use. Yet language
is our way or means of communication in society. When we
compare "objects" in the -physical world and apply to them
the terms evolved with the growth of language, our physical
senses corroborate our impressions. We are able to compare
shape and contour and the other aspects of form and color
and by use of the mental processes we are able to organize
a frame of reference sufficiently intelligent to enable us
to exist in a relative world.
: But when we come to the language of Scripture we are ■
confronted with facts which need only to be stated for one
1
to immediately sense, if not perceive, what a vast partition -
separates the natural from the divine realm. What are we to ’
do with, how are we to understand such a saying as ^ words '
are spirit and they are life. We might be left in a quandary
were it not for the statement immediately preceding, "It is ;
the spirit that quiokeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing."
I
Obviously the Divine Master was speaking of the tongue which :
23
uttered the words and the wave lengths of sound which carried
the phonetics of a now dead language when He referred to the
flesh. And the words which He termed life and spirit were
the Reality to which the spoken expression bore witness.
Yet the Master assures those who receive Him that they
can approach the Father who is in secret i.e. who is separated
from all that can be observed. "For no man hath seen God at
any time." It is in this sense that God is "wholly other."
But He is not inaccessible as some maintain who have not yet
understood.
VIII. SOIEMGE'-AKB RELIGION
Between the natural world which can be observed and
studied with all the precision which the physical sciences
have developed and the world of Spirit which no man can
penetrate as man, there is the vast and shadowy realm of the
psyche.- Those who have not made themselves acquainted with
the religious literature of the past have come to assume that
the psyche was a largely unexplored realm until the advent
of Freud and Watson. Nothing could be further from the facts.
Labels have changed but not the content for which they
stand,. Allowing for some variation due to racial, cultural,
‘ ■ 1
geographic elements among others, the fact remains that the
basic structure of the human psyche has had a continuity of
identity through a cycle of time vaster than we have been *
2k
able to record in the known annals of civilization.
Certain facts which formerly were gained through pure
ly introspective and intuitive means have now been made the
subject of study in a clinical environment where methods
borrowed from the physical sciences are now applied with
modifications to the elements of psychical research. Jung’s'
"Collective Unconscious" and Rhine’s "extra-sensory percep
tion" are gradually acquiring respectability in an age ob
sessed with physical observation and among other discoveries
these findings are establishing the fact that mankind is so
united interiorly by links wiiich bind him to the past and
also with his contemporaries the world over that he is now
in a better position to evaluate what his ancestors under
stood in simpler and more direct ways. That is, the pre-
Cartesian ancestors. Yes, it seems that the "billiard ball"
universe has gone the way of a retreating group of shib
boleths which have obscured the truth of man’s existence from
the modern generations.
Modern physios especially has shown us that we are
no longer living in a world of isolated units of substance
called matter. The "solid" universe including man is recog
nized as an appearance. The infinitisimal particles which
compose the body are termed "configurations of energy" and ■
space reigns supreme. Our bodies are porous to the waves of
light that fill space which has existence but no dimension. :
25.,
As distance is contingent upon at least two objects in space,
so time as it is generally conceived is contingent upon the
duration or interval between the genesis and maturity of a
thing. It is not necessary to consider tlno elaborate proofs
for these findings. It is enough to know that both extension
and duration are recognized to be relative in scope and sig-'
nif icance.
We mention these simple facts because it may heIp
some to realize that the universe is open to God, that His
all presence includes them and that we are indeed the Temples
of the living God.
Once we face these facts we realize that the only
reason we are not conscious of God is that we do not accept
Him. This may seem harsh to one who feels he has lived a
moral life of good will and brotherly kindness. But we are
speaking of God and man. "For in him we live and move and
have our being." Not of the relations between men alone.
We are living in a world far different from the one
that our bodily senses present to us. Every educated person
accepts this conclusion today quite as a malter of course.
It is not a philosophical problem as it was to Kant. Most
of us, however, do not stop to consider that the psyche is
■also a configuration of energy; that our thoughts and emo
tions grouped around a coordinating center, the ego, are
energy impulses, moving in lines of force, according to a '
26
definite pattern, which is unique with each individual*
Furthermore it is now recognized, accepted and practiced in
the new field of psychosomatic medicine that the mind and
the body are a coordinated unit, eaoh aspect affecting the
other. We have thus a recognition on the part of science
of the traditional Ghristian teaching of the unity of the
mind and the body.
Tying together the threads of discussion so far enu- '
merated and outlined, we have the picture of a universe which
is literally a pattern of units of existence tending toward
One in whom we live and move and have our being. Pantheism
is a term which has often stood between the religious men
tality and the scientific mentality. But when the conceptu
al structure of modern science is understood in terms of its
■religious implications, it is found to contain nothing which
is contradictory to belief in God. Only the term pantheism
loses its dread connotations for the orthodox religionist,
and panentheism resolves the conflict.
Herein lies the significance of the new view of the
universe-^that the Creation, although it presents many as
pects to the senses, is yet one, a many sided unity. We will
miss the point entirely if we think of this One as a numeri
cal abstraction. For infinite diversity obtains and infinite
individuality. There is distinction without separation.
, We live in an unfolding universe. That is, each
27
organism unfolds its potentialities according to a certain
•pattern and sequence. But in the human kingdom there are
possibilities that do not exist in the animal kingdom. For
the animal is a closed unity, whereas the human being is an
open unity. The animal potentiality is fixed and determined,
but the human shows forth the possibility of becoming uncon
ditioned. We underscore possibility; for man may also
through wrong choice or lack of choice become even more con
ditioned than the animal which at least moves in harmony
with the life of its species through its conative endowments.
IX. THE TIMELESS QUALITY OF ETERNITY
For those who can receive it, "How are we the sons of
God." And being sons, we dwell in the Kingdom, and being in
the Kingdom we are one with the Father, thus fulfilling the
prayer of Jesus that they all may be one as we are one.
In a universe in which all the member units are under
going transformation according to God’s unfolding Plan, all
are called through the mercy of His Son to participate in the
freedom of God’s realm. Nor need we step outside this sphere;
the realm of God is within and about us eternally. For in
■ God there is no time as we understand it, no sequence and
duration; neither do we find any distance, extension or di- ,
mension in Him; for He is all in all. And in His Son, He has
! ascended above all heavens that He migcht fill all things. ;
28
When we find our place in Him, as we are invited to
do, then we are in a position to understand how all things
work together for good because then truly do we love God—
when we are in Him who first loved us.
There are times when we see things in a natural way.
Again there are times when we are lifted into the realm of
the Lord of Glory. Then do we see indeed I
God has intended this blessing for us now if we will
make ourselves ready by allowing ourselves to be transformed
through the renewing of our minds. Then we shall be trans
lated into the Kingdom of His dear Son. For now is the time
of acceptance.
X. THE AMBIGUITY OF PROGRESS
But man, through that which distinguishes him as man,
viz., his mind, is open in all directions. He can move in
any direction. He can give his attention to anything in his
cosmic or microcosmic environment. Indeed, progress, which
the nineteenth century worshipped in a rather blind way, is
a category in the realm of man’s existence which applies to
any direction in which he may give his attention. Hence we
can progress toward degeneration or toward regeneration. In
fact, man is presented with precisely this alternative. For
in not choosing, man has chosen not to choose, so he is
responsible. And the fatalistic psychology which passes for
29
wisdom in some circles is merely sophisticated ignorance.
The Son of God has come. He has preached the Gospel
of the Kingdom. And anyone who wills may drink of the waters
of life freely. (Rev. XXI) Therefore he who rejects the
gospel has rejected the realm of God and the hope of glory.
The heart that opens in recognition of the fact of
spiritual transformation comes to know a blessing which
changes all things within the mind into images capable of re
flecting the glory of God. The Son of God is Himself the
.promise of tra^nsfiguration, even as it was his experience.
XI. TEE FORM OF MEDIEVAL PIETY
AS ROOTED IN CLASSIGAL TRADITION
The medievais developed and universally applied the
'ancient concept of hierarchy employed by Clerical thinkers. ;
Aristotle is of course the inspiration for these neat di
visions of creation into easily manipulated categories. It
'is a triumph of the intellect at the cost of the Spirit.
The Spirit moves where it wills and no intellect whether
angelic or human, can divine the purposes of God. Yet all
is of love and here we are not dealing with a magnified
human will. Even the Son of God made a distinction between
His will and the will of the Father.
The far-reaching effect of this, use ofthe principle [
j of hierarchy can only be justly appreciated by those who :
30
I have been exposed to its influence in their own interior
lives. For we are not dealing here solely with intellectual
abstractions but with dynamic forces, the effects of wiiich
are very tangible to those who have been exposed to their
influence. It is not necessary to practice the Spiritual
Exercises of Ignatius Loyola in order to understand. But it
is necessary to penetrate the form of the dogma to sense its-
! i
dynamics, i.e. the way it works upon the psyche. For rigid
[dogmas are simply the crystallized psychic experience of
'innumerable adherents to the dogmatic structure.
Protestants who are not used to dealing with the
psyche, having given their attention to the intellectual
,side of dogma, may not be able to appreciate just exactly
what we are encountering in that extraordinarily complex
■ phenomenon, the Roman Catholic Church. But it is well for us
to get acquainted with the basic facts to be able intelli
gently to cope with them.
The origin for this intellectual application of the
principle of hierarchy is found in Plato’s hierarchy of
-archetypes and Aristotle’ zs hierarchy of causes. The origin
, of the political organization of the Roman Catholic Church
^ is the Roman Empire, especially the organization of the
iprovinces. The source of the hierarchical principle applied
: to angelic intelligences and to the spiritual life of man is
!
, found in Dionysius pseudo areopagitus. And through the
31.
Degrees of Humility and the Degrees of Love of Bernard de
01airyaux we find its application to the contemplative life
as conceived by medieval asceticism. Bernard and Richard of
St. Victor transformed the Song of Solomon into an allegory
of the spiritual quest. And it is essentially the piety of
St. Bernard that illuminates the theology of Aquinas. It
may seem somewhat facile to indicate a few individuals and
credit them with the founding and inspiration of vast in
fluences. But this is not done with the intention of isolat
ing these persons. Rather it must be remembered that each
of these persons was bound up with his time in terms of its
aspirations, moods, intellectual comprehension. Possibly
he was in revolt against these times as St. Bernard certainly
was. But these individuals appear, through their literary
remains, in the writings and religious dogmas of later
generations of churchmen.
XII. 8YMB0L0GYIAND PSYCHOLOGY
i Under the influence of Bernard’s example, the Song
of Solomon was commented upon by writers of Roman Catholic
spirituality for severed centuries. Even so cosmopolitan
a religious genius as Francis de Sales resorts to the imagery
of the Canticle of Canticles to describe his experience of ;
nearness to God. The writings of John of the Gross are filled
I
with the sexual imagery of the Song of Songs in which the ,
32
soul's relation to God is pictured in terms of the relation
between the sexes.
The problem of the use of sexual imagery to describe
the soul's relation to God has been profoundly misunderstood
by Protestant intellectualists and moralists. Having suf
fered the effects of the puritan revolt in religion, Protes
tant religionists of the past pushed sex into a dark closet
and drew a curtain over the closet-door. This is neither
to condemn nor to justify such a reaction. But it is only
to point out that tliis attitude has not solved but only com
plicated and obscured the problem of the emotional life of
'Christians who seek a more intense awareness of the truth
of their religion. The relegation of sex to the parlor of
the psychoanalyst has resulted in the complete exclusion of
God from an important aspect of life.
Christians outside the pale of Catholicism do not as
,a rule have as much acquaintance with the psychic effects
of meditation as it is employed in the Roman Catholic Church.
A thorough treatment of this subject would require a very
lengthy analysis and it yet remains to be done. Reduction
ist studies have been made by Leuba and others but they have,
not been helpful because of their distorted perspective.
Quite apart from the psychological aspect of this
' ' I
problem which is of course in the realm of effects, and not |
iof spiritual causes, we must face the spiritual significance .
33
of this concept of the soul's relation to God for a vital
spiritual religion, the way of life in action. This can
best be brought out through contrast with the imagery used
by Jesus and His disciples to describe the relation of the
soul to God.
The first and basic point to be observed in the con
cept of the soul as the Shulamite is that it emphasized the
eros principle, e.g. the sense of longing and emotional
craving for a desired object. The feminine passive role
which the individual soul is made to assume, automatically
excludes the major emphasis of the Lord Jesus Christ namely,
that we are called to be the son s of God, inheritors of the
Kingdom of His Glory.
XIII. MISTAKEN NOTIONS ABOUT THE REASON
Catholic theology posits God as the sole reality.
Creation has a received existence. It is fundamentally un
sound to say, as many Protestants do, that Catholicism is a
fusion of Greek rationalism and Roman legalism. It is ad-
together too glib and superficial. To begin with, the
rational thinking of the Greeks was very different from that,
rationalism which is identified with the French and English :
deists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
"There is but one God and God is Being. That is the ;
I
'corner-stone of all Christian philosophy, and it was not :
3^
Plato, it -was not even Aristotle, it was Moses who put it in
position."^
This highly significant statement receives its jus
tification in the following citation*
It seems, then, to borrow an expression from William
James, that the Christian mental universe is distinguished
from the Greek mental universe, by ever more and more
profound structural differences. On the one side we
have a god defined by a perfection in the order of qual
ity: Plato’s Good; or by a perfection in the order of
being: Aristotle’s thought; on the other side stands the
Christian God who is first in the order of being, and
whose transcendence is such that, in the vigorous phrase
of Duns Scotus, when we have a first mover of this kind ;
it needs more of a metaphysician to prove that He is
first than it does of a physicist to prove that He is
a mover. On the Greek side stands a god who is doubtless
the cause of all being, including its intelligibility,
efficiency and finality— all, save existence Itself: on
the Christian side a universe which begins to be by a
creation. On the Greek side, stands a universe contin
gent in the order of intelligibility or in the order of
becoming; on the Christian side a universe contingent
in the order of existence. On the Greek side, there is
the immanent finality of an order interior to beings;
on the Christian side the transcendent finality of a
Providence who creates the very being of order along
with that of the things ordered. [italics mine]^
XIV. THE STRUCTURE or MEDIEVAL CONCEPTS
In this time, the dominant note of which is confusion,
it is extremely important that we get the right perspective
especially in the ordering of concepts. For our actions are■
51.
^ Etienne Gilson, Spirit of Medieval Philosophy, p.
^ Ibid., p. 81.
35
based upon our thoughts. And as Buddha sagely observed, man
becomes what he thinks.
All things are comprehended in God as one simple unity.
But all things are not God nor is God all things. The being
of all things is God and without Him would not anything
exist. In so far as anything exists, it exists 3^ God but it
is not God, for God cannot be anything. Neither can He be
comprehended except by Himself,
For Plato, God is the supreme Good, the highest value.
For Aristotle, God is the supreme Thought, the first cause of
all contingent beings. But we do not find a God who is
essence and existence itself. The first reference we have
to such a God in the history of Christian thought is
possibly that in the Hortatory epistle to the Greeks, circa
third century, ”The He who is (0 bv) of the Hebrews is the
that which is (TO^ hÿ) of the Greek.”
The doctrine of creation ex nlhilo which we find
'employed early by Origen rightly emphasizes the fact that
there is no thing, no matter, out of which God created the
universe as some anthropomorphic deity might be conceived
I as having done by literally taking clay and moulding it to
■ some tangible proportions.
All creation has been conceived and given existence,
I
life and intelligence by God. Hence we find t here is no
i analogy of proportion between the Creator and the created, '
36-
But there is an analogy of being which might be stated
simply in such a proposition as because God is, I Here-
In is expressed the radical contingency of the created upon
the Creator in the order of existence and essence- If we
view the concept of the imago del in the above light we have
an order which is free from the obscurity which the principle
of hierarchy plunges all thought into when it is applied to
metaphysics. All ancient and medieval thought was obsessed ■
with the idea of hierarchy. One constantly res.ds of levels,
degrees, stratifications, from the seven heavens, to the
seven degrees of prayer. We find in these ideas a basis
common to all the older branches of the Ghurch.
The transition from the symbolic mode of thinking to
the rational method of demonstration (pre-Cartesian) was well
in evidence by the time of Bernard of Clairvaux. By the
time of Duns Scotus the symbolic, intuitive mode of appre
hension was the accepted approach of a diminishing minority.■
As an illustration of the tendency to identify knowledge
with logical demonstration the following citation from the
prayer of Duns Scotus opening the De primo rerum omnium
prlnclpio
0 Lord our God, when Moses a.sked of thee as a most
true Doctor, by what name he should name Thee to the
people of Israel; knowing well what mortal understand- *
ing could of Thee and unveiling to him Thy ever blessed
I name. Thou didst reply: Ego sum qui sum: wherefore art
Thou true Being, total Being. This I believe, but if
; be in any wise possible this 1 would also know. Help
37
me, 0 Lord, to seek out such knowledge of the true being
that Thou art as may lie within the power of my natural
reason, starting from that being which Thou Thyself hast
attributed to Thyself. CTtalics mine]3
Here we have a clear and fully stated concept which
presents the antithesis of that approach to knowledge of God
represented by St. Augustine and later, St. Bernard de
Clairvaux, William of St. Thierry, and others down to this
very day who have sought God where only He can be found by
man, viz. at the center of his being. Ho one can read with
out being moved^ Augustine's account of his search for God.
For this is the statement of maturity when the natural light
of reason is superseded by that clear light in which "there
is no darkness at all."
The only integral philosophy for Christianity is the
one based on the principle know thyself. For the true state
of man is "to ^ in the world, yet not of the world." And
it is only by coming to know who and what we really are that
we can understand and fulfill this precept of our Master.
We have to apply more than logic if we are to find truth.
Any age which over values intellect as the age of Scholas
ticism and the eighteenth century did (though in each case
it was given a very different interpretation as the neo-
thomists rightly say) as a means of gaining knowledge of
3
Gilson, pp. cit., p. 51*
38
reality, can justly be termed rationalistic. It matters not
the shape of the garment. It may further be added that this
present time is equally rationalistic though it has taken on
the guise of mechanism. And equally, any trust in a theory
of anti-intellectualism is caught in the same web of causa
tion though appearing as reaction.
XV. THE MEANING OF THE GHURCH
Heresy has been well defined as the partial represen
tation of the truth. But this statement must be viewed from
all sides before its meaning becomes clear. We can state a
basic truth, e.g., the importance of "hearing" the Word. A
whole theology can be constructed on this one principle so
that the entire truth is seen only in the light of one facet.
The obvious result is exaggeration and an unbalanced presen
tation. A very familiar example is the political propaganda
of the twentieth century. Some actual facts are treated in
such a way that the end product is a lie. Principles can
be rearranged so that distortion is the outcome. Crudely
illustrated, the word LIVE is composed of the same letters
as the word EVIL. The only thing wrong is that one word is
spelled completely opposite to the other. Let not the
sensitive mind be shocked by the child-like illustration.
For the plain fact of the matter is that evil is the wrong
'arrangement, the disordering of the elements of truth.
39
In the world of art, poetry, and literature we have
been witnessing, a veritable orgy of delight in the twisting
of the truth. Baudelaire’s Fleurs du Mal is only a more
popular example of a trend which has become the fashion.
The writings of Andre Gide— a most clever and diabolical
twisting of the truth. The most sacred principles of life
are used to fashion a world of imagery that destroys the
likeness of God in those who accept and become what tlie se
images suggest. Yet we "moderns" give these sinister cor
ruptions of truth the highest literary awards. To those who
object we hear the cynical question proposed by Pilate—
"What is truth?"
The Bible contains the Word of God. But we can give
a minor place to the words of Jesus Christ and overstress
the words attributed to Moses. The result would be a failure
to "rightly divide the word of truth."
Jesus accused the Pharisees of neglecting the "weight
ier matters of the law," because they overstressed the de
tails of ritual observance. In the twentieth century we
find persons who believe that the message of the Gospel is
primarily one of social reform— that Jesus was attempting
to change the political and social structure primarily when
[He stressed the principle of love.
Roman Catholics believe that the Church is the major ;
, instrument of salvation in the world and by Church they mean
kO-
the hierarchy of bishops and priests whom they believe to be
carrying on the apostolic succession.
Since there have been so many di stortions of the
truth from the time of the gnostic heresies down to the
twentieth century, it is well to consider the true meaning
of the Church and its major concern.
It is an interesting fact that Augustine, who did so
much to establish the Roman interpretation of the Christian
religion also held the view that the true Church was in
visible and spiritual— that the actual ecclesiastical or
ganization was composed of both the saved and the lost.
The Church is not an organization of men. It is the
Body of Christ i.e., it is the teaching in its absolute
purity. Wherever Christ is, there is the Church. The Church
is the presence of Eternity in time. The Word of God speaks
through the Church.
This raises the concept of the Church high above the
level of politics and the confused interpretations of man-
made theologies.
XVI. THE IMPORTANOElOF THE WORD OF GOD
!
There are those who talk about the theology of the
Reformation as though it were to be compared with the
medieval constructions of the Scholastics. There is no basis
in fact for this point of view. It is of course true that
4l
the post-Reformation theology tended to be concerned with
matters which were more scholastic in nature. But the high
Reformation concept intended to be an affirmation of the
Word of God rather than a system constructed in the light of
the natural reason.
The Word of God speaks through the Church. Galvin
recognized this truth. He also knew that the true Church is
'invisible. In fact, it was this truth that made it possible
for the Reformation to become established as a movement
apart from the all-ehcircling Roman ecclesiastical body.
The efficient structure erected by the men of Geneva which
later passed into the religious life of Western Europe and
America was intended to be a means for advancing the Word
of God. The doctrines which the early Calvinists chose to
emphasize such as the sovereignty of God were exaggerated
only by those men who possessed a disputatious spirit.
Augustine said "There has never been a time that the
Christian religion did not exist." He recognized along with
some of the Apologists that men of old had been inspired by
the Word to produce those things needful to a particular
group of people. That which was revealed in part among
earlier races for their édifieation was now fully manifest
in Christ Jesus.
i
The men of the Reformation realized that the Word
which was made flesh in Jesus must be received again in
42
faith by those who would understand the Teaching. It is
those, then, who allow the Word to penetrate their hearts
with true understanding who place themselves in a position
to be received into the Body of Ciirist, the Church of God.
And the fruit of the heart which is converted by the Word
of God is a life of righteousness and peace in the Holy
Spirit.
Important as ecclesiastical organizations may be, and
are, in the existence of socialized man, they cannot be con
fused with the Church. It is the responsibility of the
ministry to make this distinction clear. But unfortunately
the distinction is not held before the laity for their con
sideration and understanding. It is to be hoped that the
Protestant denominations achieve the recognition of this
basic fact of the unity of the Church and place it above the
struggle for ecumenicity at the level of fellowship.
God does not need large and powerful organizations of
men to effect His designs in the world. Of course this is
not very flattering to the ego of man which is always making
schemes to improve upon the Providence of God. Religious
organizations under the leadership of the ministers and
elders should rather prepare their membership to hear and
receive the Word that it may prove fruitful in a life of
righteousness and service to God and man.
43
XVII. THE NEED FOR BPIRITUAL DIRECTION
The salvation of souls and growth in grace under the
inspiration of the Word of God must be the major concern of
the organized groups of Christians throughout the world.
Not only preaching but the direction of souls (the care of
souls) must occupy a large part of the attention of the
clergy. This last aspect of the ministry has been much neg
lected by Protestants and unfortunately the need for guid
ance and counsel in the life of grace cannot be taken care
of by a secular body of professional counsellors and psy
chologists.
The great spiritual directors of the seventeenth
century made it a cardinal point to allow the Holy Spirit
to guide their direction of souls. And it is precisely this
point which enabled them to act so wisely in their cures.
Under the stress of the times, the Reformers paid
only small amount of attention to the cure of souls, compared
to their great concentration upon polemics and doctrinal
questions. Too often the personal side of religion has been
neglected for doctrine, and allowed to degenerate into a
maudlin sentimentality and emotionalism. This I believe is
directly the result of long-standing neglect on the part of
[the clergy which believed tiiat its function and duty had
been fulfilled when the sermon had been preached.
44
XVIII. THE NATURE OF PRAYER
Prayer is the essence of Christianity. And prayer is
simply the raising of the mind to God. "Thou wilt keep him
in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, 0 God."
Prayer is a special quality of attention which, when it is
complete, allows only the Reality of God to exist in con
sciousness. Lips that move to form the words of prayer while
thought remains dull, heavy and lifeless are like the notlilng-
ness of sin.
When Jesus comms.nded the disciples, and through them,
us, to "pray without ceasing," he was referring to something
much more basic than the repetition of words. He was speak- '
ing of attitude. In other words, he was admonishing us to
remain in the attitude of prayer, i:e. we must so think and
and live and express that we are at all times ready to com
mune with God in complete attention. We must be in the realm
Of God, viz. in the place where God can be reached.
I
It matters not how much you know. But it is extreme- ,
ly important how you approach what you know.
XIX. DOUBT AND FAITH
The great problem of the intellectual mind in this
period is quite simply, confusion. Gone is the certainty
of the medieval scholastic; gone is the false clarity of
the-Age of Reason-;-gone even-is -the- studied agnosticism-----*
45
and the bluff assurance of nineteenth century positivism and
critical philosophy. Only among certain coteries in the
academic world Is there any clearly defined position. And
these are being forced to modify their position under the
constant pressure of new findings. While it is true that
objectivity requires a suspension of Judgment and a neutral
attitude toward all new findings and hypotheses, it does
not follow that decision and a positive exercise of faith
are outmoded categories of action and expression. Everyone
knows that the so-called scientific attitude toward objects
that present themselves to attention began to take hold on
a broad scale amongst the intelligentsia when Descartes put
forward his attitude which can be epitomized by the words:
"I doubt, in order to know."
Ra.dical doubt, or non-acceptance, has its place in
the area of appearances, the constantly changing pattern of
formation and transformation. It is at best a highly limited
method of obtaining knowledge.
Yet the intellectual mind has acquired the attitude
of non-acceptance and doubt, and true to the spirit of the
I
original impulse, it has applied a limited methodology to
all "levels" of knowledge and being. Of course it was
Newton who gave the strongest impetus to the methodology of
•accepting as universally valid that which is found to fit a
given set of conditions. Now it must be understood that we
46
a.re referring to attitudes, which are the crystallized pro
ducts of generations of thinking. We are not referring to
a consciously directed approach to knowledge. The canons of
the Age of Reason have been discarded by most critical minds.
But the habits of the past still remain to block fruitful
investigation and exploration of the interior realm of the
spirit. For we cannot approach the Spirit with a mind
filled with doubt and non-acceptance. One might almost say
that the unconscious background of the western mind has
been filled with the habit of doubt and non-acceptance. It
is this condition rather than the worn out methodology of
the past which must be corrected. There are times, in the
midst of the appalling confusion that exists today in the
mind of men the world over, when so many half-truths have
been scattered and where so much sophisticated skepticism
exists that it seems an insuperable task to convey the truth
of the simplicity of the Gospel. Then we realize that sim
plicity cannot be verbalized and we remember that the rela
tion of man to God is one of spirit to Spirit and that the
utter simplicity of God and His Word must dawn upon the mind.
and heart of the individual.
XX. RESPONSE IS AT THE HEART OF LIFE
The plain fact is that we only come to God when we
-have been aroused to our need of Him. No amount of argument
4?
or "proof" will convince the heart of one who prefers words
about God to the reality of God Himself. Time and, again we
meet individuals who demand "proofs" of the truth of God’s
Word. The honest experience of anyone who has worked with
individual souls is that there is no depth of soil for the
Word to take root until the heart of the individual is pre
pared by life to receive the Word. In those who are ready,
the Word .springs up into consciousness and a clear realiza-
'tion of the content of Faith is born which is so unshakable
that no earthly storm can cause that heart to fa.il. It is
all the work of God. Yet it is the individual who responds
and for this he alone is responsible. Truly in the hour of
need man is alone with God, and in this aloneness man finds
the truth of God and no one in the heights above or the
depths below can wrest the truth from the soul who has re
ceived it. It is God’ 8 unspeakable gift to all those who
truly believe. Life alone can be the witness to truth.
"By their works ye shall know them."
CHAPTER II
CHRISTIANITY AS PRAYER AND FASTING
Christianity is the way of life. This affirmation
takes on a very definite and positive meaning when it is ex
amined in the light of the specific statement made by Jesus
in Matt. 7:l4. "Strait is the gate and narroif is the way
which leadeth unto life." In view of the overall teaching
of Jesus we cannot conceive of this way in any rigid or
legalistic sense or with the connotation of deprivation.
There is no lack in the teaching of Jesus "I am come that
they might have life and that they might have it more
abundantly." (John 11:10.) Narrow must mean purity and
simplicity. There is enough space for the Truth and that is
all !
To attain to the fullness of perfection as commanded
by Jesus, we must become empty of all unlikeness to God.
For the precept is that we be perfect as God is perfect.
That we may not achieve perfection in the sense of complete ■
restoration of the lost likeness is entirely due to our neg
ligence. For God gives what He commands when we have the
humility to accept the gift of perfection, which is love,
the law is fulfilled.
No one can say when the perfect hour shall arrive. We
know that we are one in Him who loved us and He knows the !
49
hour when we are ready to receive the indwelling of His
Presence.
Christian perfection consists largely in the renewal
of tlTo mind wliich, through purification, can once more re
flect the brightness of the original state.
While we remain rather close to the language of the
Gospels and Epistles, we are not in a very good position to .
see and appreciate the respective points of view represented
by Roman Catholicism and other branches of Traditional and
Reformed Ciiristianity on the goal, of the Christian life. We
must examine basic doctrinal positions, else when we examine
the writings of some canonized saints, our understanding
will be limited to an appreciation of the poetry and ornate
phraseology employed to suggest the inexpressible. His
torical factors of a cultural and sociological nature must
perforce receive some attention if we are to make intelligible
that which presents the casual observer with a confused and
:hazy picture.
Perfection means wholeness, completeness, fullness,
plenitude. All the work that Jesus did clearly showed the
impress of this state. The prologue of St. John's Gospel
suggests to us the way we may acquire the perfection ex
tolled by Jesus "Of His fullness, have all we received, and :
grace for grace." (John 1:16.)
This fullness was received by the disciples. It
50,
suggests that we who would be His disciples likewise must
receive the fullness of Christ* And the immediately follow
ing statement "grace for grace," suggests the gradual build
ing up of our lives in Clirist until they reach "the measure
of the stature of the fulness of Christ." (Ephesians 4:13*)
Man, then, has the capacity for God, in potentiality,
through the Image of God in the center of his being. How to
arouse, how to awaken, how to grow in this capacity is the
perennial problem of mankind. It was answered once for all
by Jesus. He told us to accent, the basic meaning of the
terms receive, believe and faith* But "Unto as many as
received Him, to them gave He power to become the Sons of
God*" (John 1:12.)
When Jesus said "Repent, for tiie kingdom of God is at
hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel." (Mark 1:15) he was
voicing the basic condition necessary to finding the kingdom*
It was simply an urgent plea to turn from the broad way that
leads to destruction and follow the narrow way. The metanoia
means a turning of the mind which simply means to think in a
different direction from the way of the world, of the
"natural" man. This turning means a more radical change
than the weighing of alternatives by the reason, followed by
a rational choice. This may be a concomitant action. But
it is not the basic change* A person must be awakened to his
heed. He must call out in his heart. What must I do to be !
51
saved? We must hunger and thirst after righteousness if we
are to be filled.
The steps are very basic and very simple. Yet more
mystery has been made of them than possibly anything man has
been faced with. And here we come face to face with the
subtle and often hidden tendency on the part of man to ob
scure Tmrhat he does not wish to face and accept. For men
"loved darlmess rather than light." (John 3:19» )
There is a false clarity and simplicity constructed by
superimposing an arbitrary concept over the truth. One such
simplification is the popular and current use of the terms
"relative" and "relativity" based on the idea that all is
flux; that permanency is illusory and that religion is a
blindfold obscuring the cold facts of reality.
There is on the other hand a false obscurity which
tries to tell us that reality is paradoxical. Of course
reality is paradoxical to the physical senses. There is
nothing startling about that. But the true paradoxes can
not be conceptualized and that is precisely why they are
paradoxes. Can you explain logically how the finite and in
finite, how God and man became one in the hypostatic union
of the Incarnation?
And one of the great paradoxes of the way of life, ^
that a man should become nothing that he might gain all, or '
I
more simply, he that loses his life_ shall find it, is this, _
52
a paradox too deep for words?
He that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Is this
not foolishness to the worldly person?
Liberal Protestantism, in its inability or confusion,
has not faced the paradoxes of life squarely and has sought
for an easy way out by appealing to the popular taste for
mass relief of ills by means of social programmes and by a
psychology based on materialist values and dogmas.
No age is any closer to the truth than another in the
last analysis. Each man and each woman in any age is re
sponsible for their response to God. He addresses us with
His Word, in His Creation, in the Incarnation, in the Bible,
and He is always addressing our hearts through the Holy
Spirit until we meekly receive the engrafted Word, turn
around and fully accept and respond. (Then, and then only
shall we become the Sons of God.)
It is necessary to look directly into the patterns of
thought as they were gradually woven into the form which we
designate as the structure of medieval spirituality if we
are to grasp the intent of those who thought deeply upon the
meaning of Jesus Christ— during a period which has been much
misunderstood, vis. the Middle Ages.
, We unconsciously Judge this period with the standards
formed by later generations. And whether or not we have
cleared ourselves of the mental fog which has passed for
53
intelligence these last few centuries, the fact remains that
■the books about the Middle Ages are very much conditioned by
the prejudices of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
There are no writings on the medieval period which are en
tirely free from the attitudes of the Intellectual!sm pre
valent in the last two centuries. If we go back earlier to
the writings of Bossuet, for example, we are given the pic
ture of the past seen through the eyes of a mind trained
in the terms of scholasticism. Yet we can study the past
more intelligently if we know about the prejudices of
scholars— accepting the facts without the particular inter
pretations and conclusions which these men put upon them.
In commenting on this problem as it applies to the
period of medieval history, Coulton writes
Every system has its defects, and most critics would
agree with Rashdall that Scholasticism was at once too
dogmatic and too disputatious. Yet Professor A. H.
Whitehead would seem to ^jrite very loosely in applying
so frequently and emphatically to Medieval thought, as
a whole, the terms reason and rational, where the true
word would be rationalism, rational!Stic.I
Ooulton's criticism is equally subject to criticism.
■For he does not properly distinguish between the various
types of thought prevalent in the Middle Ages, only one of
which was rationalistic. The phrase "as a whole" when
1
G. Coulton, The Spirit of Medieval Thought, pp
: 209-10.
54
applied to the Middle Ages is much too broad to be encom
passed by the abstraction "rationalism." Such dangerous
oversimplifications are very injurious to a proper under
standing of tiie content of medieval thought. For example,
Augustine makes a clear distinction between the function of
ratio whereby we comprehend the physical aspect of existence,
and the intelligeus whereby we apprehend the inner nature of
, things. Persons who are conditioned by one of the several
types of rationalism fail to see this all-important distinc
tion which is so basic to a comprehension of Augustine's
view of the spiritual life of man. There are innumerable
instances of this kind which require careful attention in
order to avoid disastrous confusion. But most important of
all, it must be remembered that the fundamental position to
be taken in relation to any period of Christian iiistory is
that of man's existence as an individual who stands in need
of redemption. There is no abstract historical man. There
are only souls who live close to God or far from Him.
As early as the beginning of the third century,
Christians were going out into the wilderness to lead a life
of prayer and self-mortification. St. Anthony was impressed
by the words of the Gospel addressed to the rich young man
that he sell all and follow Christ. He applied those words
to himself quite literally, at the age of twenty, and began
a life of ascetic retirement which example, in various forms.
-55
became increasingly popular with the gradual decline of the
Empire. Many retired to the desert and in addition to their
example, left a corpus of writings which are called together,
the works of the Desert Fathers. Among these influential
writings in the development of medieval ascetic and monastic
discipline was the Dialogues of John Cassian. It was one of
the sources for Bernard de Clairvaux's Benedictine reform.
In addition to the coenobitic communities composed of
those who desired to live in complete retirement, there were
small groups who began to live in semi-retirement in the
suburbs of the great cities in the Empire. Augustine became
part of such a community immediately after his conversion,
living in a suburb of Milan during a summer and upon return
ing to North Africa he lived a retired life with some like-
minded people in a house selected for this purpose.
The importance of this development within the church
cannot be overemphasized. For it established the pattern of
precedence for those who wished to penetrate more deeply
into the life of the spirit, those who had a more deep-
seated religious conviction. Everyone knows what invaluable -
service was rendered humanity later on by those communities
which, under the inspiration of St. Benedict of Hursia, pre-■
served the continuity of Christian thought in the West from
I
the beginning of the seventh century. But long before the
'innovation attributed to Benedict, the pattern of the i
56
recluse was well established within the Church. The Eastern
church followed the arrangement developed by Pachomias, a
less closely knit order than that followed in the West after
Benedict of Nursia.
The defect of this entire movement of spiritually
minded persons away from participation in civilization (and
thus forfeiting the chance to act as a spiritual leaven in
society) was that it fell away from the true spirit of the
Gospel and followed instead the trend already started among
philosophical groups, of withdrawal from the world to pursue
a life of meditation. To this end, the common practice which
is still alive among us, of selecting passages of Scripture
which justified this procedure when given a very material
interpretation, was liberally employed, the case of Origen's
self-mutilation being only a dramatic instance of a very
general practice. The widely accepted ideals of poverty,
chastity and obedience (meaning that a person should have
no money, no partner in marriage and should obey the dictate ,
of the clergy) are the debased materialization of the Gospel.
precepts of humility, before God, purity in heart and mind,
and total response to and acceptance of God in Christ Jesus.
This is not to criticize the monastic venture of the
Middle Ages. By that time the new structure of society had
been firmly established, especially after the reforms of ;
Charlemagne and the new hierarchical relationships of '
57
church and state.
The failure to understand the full implications of
the Gospel was clearly evident in the period of late An
tiquity. The more articulate of that era were too busy con
demning the world, the flesh and the devil while the organi
zation of the Ohurch became more deeply enmeshed in the
struggle for power and prestige. Prayer sank to the level
of verbal repetitions, and the incorporation of pagan cere- '
monies eventuated in that almost fascinatingly complex in
stitution of Catholicism, the Mass. The Byzantine church
carried the formal theology of antiquity to its conclusion
in John of Damascus. The liturgical splendour of the
Byzantine church has never been equalled in the West. Then
came the material isolation of Byzance from the West except
for the short-lived brilliance of Ravenna. These flashes of
late autumnal brilliance disturbed the darkening slumber of
the West as it settled into sleep. The religious imagination
\
of the West had been captivated by the zeal for solitariness
of the early eremites. The desert had won. The springs of
civilization had dried up. The spirit of the late Academy
entered the church in the elaborate theurgy of Proclus,
translated by the pseudo-Dionysius into the idiom of the
Church. The leadership of the western church concerned
itself with the acquirement of political supremacy and except
for the unusual combination of spirituality and executive
58
ability in Gregory the Great, the attainment of the Kingdom
of Heaven Was relegated to a post mortem state for the great,
majority. The few who felt the call to inwardness must do
the best they can in a world delivered to the Prince of Dark
ness. Mot until the 01unia.c reforms does the spiritual
minority begin to make some impression on the ecclesiastical
body politic.
One finds in the letters of Polycarp an esteem of
virginity for both sexes that became increasingly important
as a mark of dedication. But when this practice led to some
abuses as it happened in North Africa during the time of
Cyprian, other practices and habits were added to distinguish
between virgins and non-virgins. Women were required to
wear black habits and short hair during the fourth century.
And a custom of requiring these ascetics to remain in their
own homes except when they went to visit the sick gradually
led to the establishment of monasteries and convents outside•
the cities and in the deserts of the Thebaid, Palestine, etc.
Athanasius' Life of St. Anthony was very popular among
the ascetically minded. Already the ascetical teaching of
Origen had had a vast influence among the religious of the
Eastern churches. And in addition to the rule of Pachomias
and Bs.sil, there was the mixed type of community that
followed Hilarion in Palestine.
The increasing popularity of this exodus into the
59
deserts was not altogether unopposed witliin the Church. But
unfortunately, the most outspoken opponents were addicted
to a loose manner of living* Essentially, the motive of
the flight from civilization was the feai^ of degradation
and anxiety for the salvation of their souls in the midst of
a corrupt and jaded society.
The religious literary remains for this period stress
the vileness of the body with its passions and insist upon
the starvation of all the bodily appetites and the interests
which are related to life on earth.
Perimps one of the most vigorous and violently ag
gressive proponents of the monastic life was the scholar
Jerome who influenced female members of the Roman nobility
to take the veil. But his contemporary, Augustine, in a less
dramatic but no less effective way, set the example for the
entire Middle Ages. Augustine's opinion of life on earth be-
parae increasingly pessimistic with the passing of the years. !
The sacking of Rome in 4l0 gave him greater incentive to
depict the contrast between the earthly city and the heaven
ly" city. By this time, his theory of human depravity was
fully developed and he was able to declare that sin would
always abound in the city of man, and that unbaptized in
fante were doomed to hell.
Augustine's conflict with his own sexual instincts
I
had been on his own admission the greatest source of
60
anguish to him in the time immediately preceding his con
version. So it seemed to him after many years as an eccles
iastic living a semi-monastic existence. More than likely
it was a symptom of the Intellectual, moral and emotional
confusion of the young Augustine, haunted by dissatisfaction
and anxiety.
Following his conversion, Augustine put aside marriage
and family obligations, renounced his position as a teacher,
and began to live a progressively retired existence until he,
reached the point of causing his own sister to remove her
self from the monastic community which he formed at Hippo
while bishop of that city, lest any suspicion should be oc
casioned by her presence. It is not sufficiently realized
and taken into account that Augustine became more the monk
both in outlook and expression of life habit as he grew
old_er. The severity of his attitude toward life and his
judgment upon existence reflects more and more this de
velopment.
Political csdamity and its attendant pessimism came
to the fore more rapidly in the West than in the East. The
optimistic judgment of human nature which caused Pelagius'
views to meet with more acceptance in the East found expres
sion in a type of asceticism which relied on the powers of '
the human will to gain control over the animal nature of man.
Self-mortifica.tion was often carried to the fantastic
6l ,
extremes still practiced in some parts of the Orient, es
pecially India. By that curious phenomenon of an optimistic .
theory becoming pessimistic in practice, the disciplines used
in the Eastern Church by such devout men as Macarius were
so severe, that psychic derangement was not uncommon. In
fact, one of the main reasons for joint efforts in ascetic
groups was the avoidance of such derangements by some kind
of supervision and imposed rule.
In the West, on the other hand, the doctrine of the
Pall was generalise accepted after the Pelagian controversy
and Augustine's formulas received the widest currency. In
practice, however, one finds a more positive discipline
which, although accepting man's fallen condition as a fact,
went on to explore and seek the joy promised in Christ. The
center of gravity was God* s love and grace to which man may
respond. Augustine was called the Doctor of Grace because
of his experiential knowledge of grace, not because of any
logical theory he may have elaborated.
As we have already observed, monasticism had gripped
the imagination of those within the Empire who were seeking
a firm basis of support for their religious endeavors.
Virginity, fasting, and various exercises in seIf-mortifica
tion were indulged in from early times. Therefore we may
conclude that monachism as it appears at the beginning of :
; I
,the Middle Ages was a product of the ideas, attitudes, and !
62
practices that gradually became associated with the religious
quest during the period of late antiquity.
Scholasticism failed as an attempted synthesis. And
it would not even receive the attention it does today were
it not for the widespread insecurity and unrest among in
tellectuals who are beginning to tire of novelty and are
seeking some kind of order in their bewildered thoughts,
confused as they often are by the mechanicism of Freud and
Marx.
Augustine, on the other hand, did achieve in some
measure an interior synthesis of Christian principles with
classical culture* This was due to the fact that he had
been first a pagan and came to Christianity only when the
philosophies and cults of antiquity failed to satisfy the
problems he was wrestling with in his soul. The Confessions
stands as a landmark and symbol of the transformation of a
sophisticated intellectual into a . soul captivated by the love
of Jesus Christ.
Between the writing of the Pialognies of Cassian and
the dogmatic treatises of medieval scholastics, no organized
doctrine of spirituality had been composed. The later dog
matic treatises were abstracted from the practical writings
which preceded them. Hence the compendious X'^ritings of
Augustine which touched upon every phase of religion and
Itheology were considered equally authoritative in the
.63
sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit as on other aspects of
doctrine. Even the enormous influence of the pseudo-Dionysius
is subsidiary to the compelling authority of Augustine over
the medieval mind. Individual mystics may have employed
Dionysian imagery in perhaps too lavish a manner. But the
sensus communis of Christendom found in the teaching of
Augustine a more sure and steady guide. Furthermore, the
Dionysian writings were not available to the West until John
the Scot translated them from the Greek original (almost a
lost language in the West at that time) into the Latin used
by the western church. It was only the belief that these
writings were written by Paul* s Atheniah convert that made
them respectable in an atmosphere out of harmony with the
type of thought they represent.
St. Bernard's philosophy partook of Augustine's thought,
that of Cassian's, and also of classical authors, e.g. Cicero
(vide Gilson). And from St. Bernard we can trace a continu
ous tradition down to the post-Reformation writers such as
2
St. John of the Cross and Blaise Pascal. From all this,
one can readily see that the Christian teaching on the life
of the spirit has been excessively conditioned by antique
concepts of asceticism and their world escaping tendency. It
is quite meaningless to point to Bernard as a man of the
^ Vide E. Gilson, Spirit of Medieval Philosophy.
64
cloister who also participated in an active life of reform.
For in addition to the fact that he was an exception rather
than a type, the end for which he struggled was bound up
with the defense of monastic life. The same is even more
true of John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila.
If the findings of any of these men is to have value
for Christian life today we must separate the essential, the
usable part, from the appearance, viz. the accumulated en
crustations of tradition, in so far as that is possible.
Where this is not possible we shall have to discard it and
allow the Spirit of God, working through the universal
church, to inspire us with a deeper understanding of the
truth embedded in Scripture as it comes to us through prayer.
For prayer is the sole recourse man has to God when he de
sires to understand the Way which Jesus said, "I am. "
What we can gain from a knowledge of the past is
some information, which understood in the proper context,
can give us a perspective on the heights and depths of
Christian experience, i.e. of the fullness of experience
possible to man on earth. Buddhist experience is a partial
exploration of these possibilities, but it only entertains a
portion of the subliminal region, that part of the psyche
which does not readily expose itself to view. The knowledge ;
of the Spirit of God comes only to those who open themselves !
to the Divine Wisdom which came through Jesus Christ.
65
Buddhist self-analysis may eventually lead to a de
gree of mental objectivity and peace as a result of ordered
thinking. But the cornerstone, God, has been omitted. And
the love which came with Jesus, the love that heals and
unites, is missing from the teachings attributed to Buddha.
Strictly speaking. Buddhism is not a religion (the author
refers to the classical Buddhism rather than the Mahayana),
but a technique of psychological analysis far more subtle
,and profound than anything yet evolved by the accepted
systems of the West. However, Buddhism concentrates on that
which man is not, i.e. it does not stress a central core
xvhich is the life center or source of personal existence.
It is argued by some that Brahmanic teachings con
tained just such a principle as the one Buddha chose to
ignore— and that it xvas the function of the latter to direct
the attention of man to the practical problem of his ex
istence as part of a larger context in continuous change
and transformation. This is a speculative matter and
secondary in relation to the overall effect of Buddha* s
'teaching. His whole teaching hinges on the principle ex
pounded in the Dhammapada, viz#, man becomes what he thinks.
Buddha in this sense was an empiricist, but contrary to
some viexfs, not as completely as was Jesus, who taking
account of all sense experience in his teaching, and hav-
I i.ng^ giyen__the_ principle Bud^a expounded in the words_____
66
"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he," further taught
the principle of Being as well as becoming in the saying
recorded in St. Mark. "Before Abraham was, ajn." (John
0:58) And that all men might know, he said as recorded by
St. John: "In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father
and the Father in me." Tiiis knowledge was promised to
all those who accepted the Word of God.
And in complete contradiction to the eschatologists,
Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God is within man; that it
does not come with observation, but comes within the con
sciousness of man.
The early Church was not altogether without psychology.
The principle laid down by the Greeks, "Know thyself" was
carried beyond the mere analysis of the rational faculty
which applies itself to that which comes from without.
Plotinus further elaborated Plato's analysis of the psyche,
keeping within the general framework, but in addition to the
rational and intellectual faculty (the latter corresponds
more with the modern concept of intuition), Plotinus intro
duced the concept of the One as the source and origin of all
things and to which all things return. In harmony with this ;
doctrine he taught that the soul of man can ascend, or re
turn, to the One that is, the all in all. Now all of thèse
ideas may be true as a partial description of the interior
life of man. But it is only in the perspective of Christian;
67
teachings that Plotinus can be properly evaluated. This
Augustine proceeded to do in a truly progressive way. He
did not try to distort or deny the truth that Plotinus gave
to the world. But he assimilated it by showing its relation
ship to Christian doctrine. The result was the Augustinian
synthesis. Not that the last word has been uttered by
Augustine. But what he did say, he said well and with an
inclusive but not eclectic spirit.
Augustine well realized that the teaching of Plotinus
might serve as a good description of the inner ascent of
man toward the spirit. But it did not provide for him the
sure way thither. It told him of delights to be experienced
on the high plateaus of contemplation. But it did not show
how the sinner might become a saint ; how the man confused,
tossed by violent emotions, unable to control himself, yet
longing desparately for truth could gain the summit of that
still tranquillity for which his heart yearned and which
alone could make him able to know the truth and be free.
It is in this light that we can properly appreciate
the real significance of The Confessionb. In this book
Augustine tells us how he gradually freed himself from
anthropomorphic images of the Deity through the platonic
■.teachings. Then he proceeds to tell of his ecstatic ex
perience before his conversion to Ohristianity.
I ^
From this incident many have tried to discredit
.68
Augustine's experience by calling it neoplatonic rather than
Christian. Yet Augustine was well aware of the difference
between his pre-Christian religious experience and that
which came after.
Hear how he describes the difference, not by saying
that this experience is different to his pre-conversion ex
periences but by the obvious self-evident fact that it is a '
Christian who is speaking with the heart when he writes.
The day now approaching whereon she was to depart
this life, (which day Thou well knewrest, we knew not, )
it came to pass. Thyself, as I,believe, by Thy secret
ways so ordering it, that she and I stood alone, lean
ing in a certain window, which looked into the garden
of the house where we now lay, at Ostia; where removed
from the din of men, we were recruiting from the
fatigues of a long journey, for the voyage. We were
discoursing then together, alone, very sweetly; and
forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching
forth unto those things which are before, we were en
quiring between ourselves in the presence of the Truth,
which Thou art, of what sort the eternal life of the
saints was to be, which eve hath not seen, nor ear heard,
nor, hath it entered into the heart of man. But yet we
gasped with the mouth of our heart, after those heavenly
streams of Thy fountain, the fountadn of life, which is
with Thee : that being bedewed thence according to our
capacity, we might in some sort meditate upon so high a
mystery.
And when our discourse was brought to that point,
that the very highest delight of the. earthly senses, in
the very purest material light, was, in respect of the '
sweetness of that life, not only not worthy of compari
son, but not even of mention; we raising up ourselves |
with a more glowing affection towards the ^Self-same,"
did by degrees pass through all things bodily, even the
very heaven, whence sun and moon, and stars siiine upon
the earth; yea, we were soaring higher yet, by inward
! musing, and discourse, and admiring of Thy works; and
' we came to our own minds, and went beyond them, that we
might arrive at that region of never-failing plenty, i
69
where Thou feedest Israel for ever with the food of truth,
and where life is the Wisdom by whom all these things are
made, and what have been, and what shall be, and she is
not made, but is, as she hath been, and so shall she be
ever; yea rather, to "have been, " and "hereafter to be,"
are not in her, but only "to be," seeing she is eternal. ,
For to "have been," and to "be hereafter," are not
eternal. And while we were discoursing and panting af
ter her, we slightly touched on her with the whole ef
fort of our heart; and we sighed, and there we leave
bound the first fruits of the Spirit: and returned to
vocal expressions of our mouth, where the word spoken
has beginning and end. And what is like unto Thy Word,
Lord, who endureth in Himself without becoming old, and ;
maketh all things n e w ?3
From this it is quite apparent that Augustine was
seeking "the way which leadeth unto life" and not merely
subjective experience as an end in itself. From the Platon-
ists, he learned that God is. From the Church he learned
what God is. It is well for us to analyze the significance
of this transformation, as it has a profound meaning for us '
today as well as an historical interest. Plotinus depicted
|the heights. But Jesus showed the way to those heights and
made it possible for Augustine to reach them because He, the
Son of God, had become man and had dwelt among us, living ^
our life, sharing our burdens and at last overcoming all ;
things, even death itself, in His glorious resurrection.
It was Jesus who gave us, as it were. His glory; that in ;
receiving the fruits of His victory, the overcoming of the
world, we might ascend in spirit and be with Him where He is*
3
I The Confessions of St. Augustine, translated by E.
B:"Pusëÿ, Book ixr O b ' . ' 107'seb*"237'24*
70.
!
And yet we must desire truth with all our hearts and must
make a place for Him at His coming. For no gift can be re
ceived unless it is accepted. And the gift cannot be ac
cepted unless one has made a place for it* So long as we
have our backs turned to the Giver of every perfect gift we
are not in-a position to receive, no matter how much we may
long for it. Hence the mission of John the Baptist to preach
repentance, the turning from darkness and the shadow to the ;
pure light of the Presence. This Presence came, and was
Jesus, and is now Lord of glory and abides in the hearts of
those who truly believe.
It is in his concept of the memory that Augustine
most clearly reveals his theory of how we find God.
Augustine is not original in his concept of memory as
that aspect of the psyche through which we know Truth. For
long before, Plato had taught that knowing was remembering
or cognition, recognition. But whereas Plato related this
idea to the doctrine that the soul beheld the divine arche
types before it became imprisoned in the flesh and hence
I
awakened this soul memory when it contacted truth here be
low, Augustine on the other hand related the memory to the
existence in man of the Divine Imaæe which he called the '
^summit of the mind, that essential part of man which is in
continuous touch with God. (Vide Book X Confessions.)
Because of the Fall man has lost contact with the
71
imago Dei and, through this center, with God. He has forgot
ten God and his true self, a soul created in God's image in
eternity. Yet man does not lose the image in the Fall, for
in that case ho would cease to exist, as the image is man as
God conceives him and man cannot exist without being contin
ually present in the mind of God. But the expression of this
image has ceased in the Fall of man. And the process of
redemption consists in the recovery of the lost likeness or
reflection of the image of God. Because the image has been
clouded over, xfe look into ourselves and we behold darkness
and mystery. Seeing only by the light of nature, and being
conscious only of that which this light reveals, we establish
ourselves in this world with a material scale of values. Not
knowing the true God nor our true selves, we fashion for our-r
selves idols which we worship and with which we identify our
selves. That is why "the whole world lies in sin." And that
is why morality and ethics are insufficient if we are to be
reconciled with God. Only a complete "turning about" can
bring us into the Kingdom, into the realm of God. We must
be baptized and washed clean of all unlikeness, of the masks,
and shadow selves in which we have taken refuge. And in the ;
clean agony of full contrition we are stripped of this un
likeness, this unreality, and we can know even as we are
known, by the Divinity which made us and who upholds us by
His love. !
72
Therefore we find, when we consider the thought of
_St. Augustine, that this man was profoundly concerned with
establishing the truth of Christian experience, not so much
by logical demonstration, as by profound witness to the God
-he had found in the pure stillness of a recollected mind.
For God had always been with him else he could not have ex
isted. But he had forgotten God and had withdrawn from His
presence. ;
God did not forsake the man who wandered far, consum
ing his life with the remains of worn-out philosophies. Ra
ther He led him by those very paths which he sought, because,
in his heart he was really searching for the truth, causing
him to experience a glimpse of those heights for which his
soul longed, until in the fullness of time He caused his
heart to be converted to that fountain of living waters from
whence flow the streams of everlasting life. ;
Having found the true bread, he fed on Him continual
ly. Indeed Augustine found, what many a cultured Greek and
Roman before him had found, viz., that Plato was the school
for Christ. For all those things which are found in the
pattern of the mind and by extension, in the cosmic struc
ture, are found eminently in Christ and through Him in God.
Plato was the artist in ideas of universal proportion; Jesus,
the master of life, whence all these ideas emerge. Plato may
give us reasons to believe but Christ inspires belief itself*
: 73
Plato and Plotinus after him may describe in beautiful words
what they saw in vision. But Christ, the living Word of
beauty, sounds in our hearts in such a way that we know and
see and hear once wiiat Imagination can but dimly appre
hend, and then only in figure. While the grain is becoming
a sheaf of wheat we can observe and analyze its growth; if hen
it blows in the wind we can admire its graceful movement.
But when we have the seed we preserve it carefully for we
shall one day place it in the silent earth. Only the seed
remains. The rest is consumed, for the seed contains the
life, the essence of futurity.
Augustine sought in the form and proportion, the color,
the shape and the movement of the world of Antiquity, its
philosophy, religion and art, he sought but he did not find
that life giving Word to save his soul from death. And when
he found he did not have at first the strength to turn. He
was like a reed blown by many winds. Then came that sudden
stillness and the realization that was his conversion— that
fruit of a deep transformât ion. The conversion was "sudden";
the preparation was long.
The influence of the Platonists is again at work in
the language with which he chose to describe the soul's as
cent to God. Having discarded the notion of an anthropo
morphic deity, Augustine pictures the soul as passing through
seven stages on its Journey to perfection. At the first
74
level, the soul seeks for truth in the senses. Gradually
through discipline and enlightenment it reaches a degree in
which, the senses having been purified, the emotions and in
tellect ordered to truth, it is then possible for the soul
to enter into the uncreated light in which it contemplates
the attributes of God unhindered by the limitation of the
senses. In the seventh sphere, the soul has established
permanent contact with God and it lives as close to heaven
as is possible in this life. It is a condition as near per
fection as is possible to attain on earth. The soul has re
turned to its Father's house and it bathes in perfect peace.
"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed
on thee." (Isaiah 26:3»)
Such in brief, is the essential outline of Augustine's
conception of the way which leads to eternal life. It served
as the model for the whole of western Christendom throughout•
'the middle ages. Various writers expanded the themes
s !
adumbrated or expounded in detail by the great founder of >
Roman Catholic theology. Medieval piety was formed by this
man's experience and its spiritual literature moulded by the.
terms he gave to this experience. ■
The great inspirer of reform, Bernard de Clairvaux,
drew his basic concepts of Christian perfection from Augustine
and from the Desert fathers available to him in the writings
of John Cassian. Following the principle "know thyself," used
75
by Augustine, he taught a discipline designed to initiate
the Novice into the humility necessary to reveal self-
knowledge. Man should proceed by well-marked stages to the
recognition of his base and fallen iiuman nature, now marred
by unlikeness to God, gaining humility in the process. Then
by degrees of charity gained in prayer, he should ascend to
the heights of joy and love promised in Christ. The lessons
of humility and love are intended to restore the likeness
lost by the Fall. Bernard differs from Augustine by attribut
ing the cause of the Fall to pride and emphasizing the will
or volitional aspect of man. Augustine had placed the locus
of defection in the memory, the mental aspect of man's
nature. Apart from this they agree in designating the meim-
ory, the will and the intellect as the triune nature of the
soul. Bernard's great emphasis is upon the restoration of
the lost likeness. For the image of God in man is the very
existence and reality of man's being. And the likeness
has become an un likeness tiirough man's desire and liking for
those things'which are less than God. Augustine and Bernard
both agree that man'becomes what he loves and furthermore
submits himself to his love. If he loves God, he submits
himself to God. If he loves creatures more than God he sub
mits, i.e. he literally puts himself under the creatures.
For to love God leads to freedom. To love creatures leads
to bondage. He who loves God is drawn by a pure gentle
76
Spirit to the heights of free activity. For he abides in
the "perfect law of liberty." But he who loves conditioned
existence viz. the "world" more than God finds himself in
bondage to the world. And he may not realize his bondage
till he attempts to extricate himself. Then the pull of
this worldjmay cause in him an agony equal to the suffering
caused in those who try to free themselves from drugs. The
world has a hypnotic effect upon its minions. And pleasure
is bought at the price of sleep and death.
But the servants of the only true God find Him to be
loving and kind, compassionate and full of mercy, granting
pardon and freedom to those who look toward Him. God is
beauty and loving kindness. Perfect is His peace.
Bernard is usually criticized by liberal Protestants
: for the erotic language taken from the Song of Solomon which
he used to describe the relation between the soul and Christ.
But very little attention is paid to his profound analysis
, of the psyche. E. Gilson is perhaps the only writer avail
able in translation who has attempted to examine the phil
osophic thought of Bernard. The English speaking world has
,largely neglected it. Protestants in their anxiety to pre-
I serve their differences from Rome, have forgotten the men
who made possible the Reformation through their desire for a
real personal contact with God apart from form and ceremony.!
In a remarkably lucid explanation of St. Bernard's i
77
thought on the nature of true liberty, in which we see at
work the influence of Augustine's genius, Gilson writes as
follows.—
As we have defined it, charity is a liberation of the
will. We may say in this sense that by way of charity
our willing gradually shakes itself free of the "con
traction" imposed on it by fear, and of the "curvature"
of self-will. In other words, instead of willing a
thing out of fear of another, or of willing a thing out ,
of covetousness for something else, it is now enabled,
having chosen the sole object that can be willed for |
itself, to tend towards it with a direct and simple ■
movement, in short with a "spontaneous" movement. Let
us understand by spontaneous .a movement explicable
without the intervention of any factor outside this
movement itself, a movement which, on the contrary, con
tains in itself its own complete justification. To de
sire a thing for fear of another would not be a spon
taneous movement; to desire a tiling in order to obtain
something else would be a movement determined from with
out; to love, on the contrary, is to wj.ll what one loves,
because one loves it, and herein spontaneity consists.
If, then, spontaneity is the manifestation of the will
in its pure form, we can say that love, making it spon
taneous, makes it also voluntary, restores it to itself,
makes it become once more a will.4
It would appear that Bernard, even more than Augustine
was concerned with the problem of the will. And this would
be quite understandable from the fact alone of his greater
preoccupation with the actual practice of spiritual dis
cipline within the cloister. In his concept of Hell, Bernard
shows his tendency to consider the will as paramount in man's
nature. Gilson has given us a splendid condensation of
Bernard's thought on this point in a footnote commenting
4
E. Gilson, The Mystical Theology of St. Bernard, p.
78
on (St. Bernard, I s temp. Resurrect., Serm. 111,3; P.L.,
CLXXXIII, 289-290.)
Hell, in fact is the "land of unlikeness" complete
and fixed forever. Retaining the image of God, that is
to say free-will, which is inalienable, the damned have
lost, beyond hope of recovery, the libertas consilii and
the libertas complaciti, that is, the Divine likeness.
In other words they are eternally fixed in their "proper
willing," eternally excluded from the "common will" with
God, and, since this common will is charity, they are
eternally excluded from the substantial charity which
is God. Now God is beatitude; therefore eternal "proper
willing" is equivalent to eternal exclusion from beati
tude, and that is eternal misery: hell.5
In the second sentence of this note, we find that the
divine image is thought of in terms of will. When the will
then has been restored to its original spontaneity, which
is to tend toward God directly in all things, it must follow
from this line of thinking, that man would recover the like
ness which was lost with the Fall.
Gilson clearly points out that Bernard derived his
particular cdriception of the function of the likeness in the
Divine economy from the Greek doctrine that only like knows
like.
Faithful to the ancient Greek doctrine that only like
knows like, St. Bernard affirms that the necessary con
dition of the soul's knowledge of God lies in the like
ness that it bears to God. The eye does not see even
the sun as it really is, but only as it illuminates
other objects, such as air, hills, or walls; it would
not even see these objects did it not in a measure
^ Ibid., p. 234.
79'
participate in the nature of light in virtue of its
transparency and serenity; and pure and transparent as
it is, finally, it sees the light only in the measure
of its purity and transparency. These are mere com
parisons, but we may adopt them if we are careful to
retain their properly spiritual sense. For they sig
nify that the immediate condition of the beatific vision
will be a perfect likeness of man to God; that this like
ness is at present too imperfect to justify any preten
sion to the beatific vision; and, finally, that the more
our likeness to God increases, so much the more does
our knowledge of God. The stages therefore on the road
by which we approach Him are those of the spiritual
progress of the soul in the order of divine likeness. i
This progress is the work of the Holy Spirit, but takes '
place in our spirit, and thanks to it we draw nearer
and nearer to this divine state in which the soul will
see God as He is, because it will now be, not indeed
what He is, but such as He is.^ ,
With this background of explanation which clarifies
the nature of the process of redemption in images which sug
gest increasing likeness to God, one is in a better position
to appreciate Bernard's concept of Union.
' "There, when silence has been made in heaven for a i
space, it may be of half an hour, she rests calmly in
those dear embraces, herself indeed asleep, but her
; heart bn the watch how while the time lasts she may
! look into the hidden secrets of truth, on whose memory
: she will feast as soon as she returns to herself. There ■
she beholds things invisible and hears things unutter
able, of which it is not lawful for man to speak. These
are things that surpass all that knowledge which night
showeth unto night. Yet day unto day uttereth speech,
and it is permitted to us to speak wisdom among the
wise and to express in spiritual terms those things
that are spiritual.7
6
Ibid., p. 237.
I ^ Ibid., p-p. 104-05, quoting (De grad, humilitatis,
VII, 21; P.L., OLXXXII, 953).
80
Ecstasy, the excessus mentis, was for Bernard the
highest attainment man could reach on earth. He conceived
of it as a prelude to the beatific vision. Yet it was
realized only for a short time. Moderns who are so apt to
view every experience in the categories of psychology cannot
appreciate that which is referred to by the terms, union,
ecstasy, etc. For these terms refer to the special gift of
God reserved for those that love Him. Strictly speaking,
the element of time does not enter into the realization of
this silence. Union takes place outside of time or within
time. (Time in this sense meaning simply the sequence of
changes within nature.)
Ecstasy is simply the recognition of that which is
within the sequence of the temporal process. The mind is
entirely absorbed in this realization for only a "space" of
time. Subsequently we dwell upon the realization and its
meaning to us.
One last point needs clarification in the medieval
concept of know thyself. This point involves the difference
in emphasis which distinguishes Bernard's thought from
Augustine's on the all-important doctrine of the divine
image. In a valuable note on William of St. Thierry, Gilson
points out some very important distinctions. (William of
St. Thierry, a great ecclesiastic, has not received his due
worth of attention by western scholars. )
81
The first precept of the method is: know thyself !
W i l l i a m of St. Thierry, like St. Bernard, strongly in
sisted. on this primary necessity. Both, in this respect,
were inspired by St. Ambrose and St. Gregory the Great;
but the fact is especially certain in William's case,
for he has taken care to collect in the two commentaries
on the Canticle of Canticles which he extracted, the one
from Ambrose and the other from Gregory, their chief
declarations touching the necessity for self-knowledge.
Compared with the bloc formed by these texts the passing
allusions of St. Augustine to the Hosee teipsum have but
little weight. We may therefore take it for certain
that on this point his inspiration came from Ambrose
and Gregory.
Following the example of these two masters William
at once interprets the precept to know ourselves as an
injunction to man to recognize that he is made to the
image of God. But here their influence is in a manner
supplemented by that of St. Augustine. For St. Bernard,
the man who seeks to know himself recognizes simultaneous
ly both his misery and his greatness; his misery, inas
much as of himself he is nothing; his greatness, inasmuch
as he is made to the image of God in respect of his free
dom. William of St. Thierry is here distinguishable
from St. Bernard by the greater fidelity with which he
follows St. Augustine. For the soul, to know itself is
to know its greatness, which is to have been made to
the image of God; but this image, for him, resides
chiefly in mente, in the mind. Therefore the soul will
know itself as a divine image by exploring the content
of the mind, and by that very fact will also know the
God whose image it is.
In what does this image consist? Still following St.
Augustine, William finds it in a sort of created trinity'
recalling in structure the creative Trinity. Pundamen- '
tally the likeness of man to God is found in the bosom
of the mind, in reason, but reason itself plays this
part only inasmuch as it is linked up with the memory
understood in the Augustinian sense, that is to say with
the memory of God. In creating man God breathed into
him a breath of life: spiraculum vitae. The word
spiraculum suggests the "spiritual" nature of this ;
breathing; spiritual, therefore also intellectual. The ;
word vitae on the other hand indie©.tes that this breath
was at the same time an animating power. It may be
said then that God created man as a living and animated i
being endowed with an intellectual faculty of knowing.
82
at the summit, so to speak, of this being, God placed
the memory, that is to say, according to St. Augustine's'
sense of the term, the faculty of recognizing in itself
at every moment the latent presence of God, particularly
His power and goodness. This memory is not to be con
fused with any actual recollection of God which might be
supposed alone to enable us to know Him; it simply ex
presses the fact, to speak once more in Augustine's
terms, that God is always with us even if we are not
always with Him. At the summit of the mind therefore
there is a secret point where resides the latent remem-
brarce of His goodness and His power; and there also
lies the most deeply graven trait of His image, that
which evokes all the others and enables us to make our- i
selves like Him. In God, the Father generates the Son, '
and from the Father and the Son proceeds the Holy
Spirit. In us in the same way, immediately and without
any interval of time, memory generates reason and from
memory and reason proceeds the will. The memory pos
sesses and contains in itself the term to which man
should tend; reason at once knows that we ought so to
tend; the will tends; and these three faculties make up ;
a kind of unity but three efficacies, just as in the '
Divine Trinity there is only one substance but Three
Persons.
It is hardly necessary to insist on the importance of
this genesis of the faculties of the soul. It deter
mines once and for all the conditions of the legitimate
exercise. A reason that is no more than an offshoot
of a memory of the goodness of God can have no other
object but God. Born of that which contains the quo
tendendum; its function is written in its essence: it
is an apprehension of the fact that we must tend to God,
and that all the rest is vain curiosity. Similarly for
the will. As the issue of memory and reason it can be
nothing other than a tendit, that is to say the tendency:
towards the term which the memory contains, and to which
reason knows that we must tend. Here then we have the i
thing that God created; here also therefore we see what
is man's "natural" state: that of a reason that knows '
naught but God, of a will that tends to naught but God,
because the memory whence they proceed is filled with
nothing but the remembrance of God. Such also was the
divine image in man when it shone out in all its splen- ;
dour, before it had been tarnished by sin; this is the '
likeness we have lost and which the apprenticeship of
divine love should put us on the way to recover. To
know oneself is to know oneself for a tarnished image ;
83
of God, in which the soul, shorn of its first glory, no
longer recognizes its Creator.®
Medieval thought on the way of life culminated in the
writings of Teresa and John of the Cross. Because of their
concern for orthodoxy (living as they did on the eve of the ,
Counter-Reformation) one can find in their writings the
epitome of medieval aspirations and goals. Bearing in mind
that the medieval ideal of life placed monastic existence ,
above all other walks of life for those who wanted to live
the complete Christian life, we need not consider these
writings as exotic in any sense* The life of complete
solitude and dedication to continuous prayer is still the
highest ideal for millions of Roman Catholics as a perusal of
their litera.ture will readily show. Every man has that in
him which responds to the appeal of the soul. And in so fa.r
as any utterance is universal, it belongs to the true church
and cannot be confined to an ecclesiastical organization.
So with St. John of the Cross. Behind the somber
medieval pattern (for Spain was medieval in thought when
John Yepes wrote), was that longing for immortality to be
found here and now, the heart of heaven sought amidst the
flowers that fade and carry sadness and longing in their
wake.
Ibid-. pp. 202-05.
84
John of the Cross was most orthodox in his expres
sions of piety. He had received a good theological training
at Salamanca and he disciplined his thoughts to follow that
pattern. Hence his teaching Is traditional as opposed to
some mystics whose works do not harmonize with tradition.^
Since they are traditional we are better able to re
late them to the historical continuity of Christian devotion.
I
Since they are at the same time the expression of a living !
contact with that for which the teaching stands, these writ
ings present us with items of genuine experience which we
must evaluate to properly understand and appreciate.
The fact that John of the Cross was made Doctor of
the Church in 1926 would in itself suggest the importance
■of this teaching for an understanding of traditional Roman
Catholic piety.
Most of the medieval treatises on spiritual dis
cipline were written for the direction of practicing con
templatives living a cloistered existence. Hence their
comparative austerity. Like advanced text books in any
field, they presuppose some preparation both in study and
self-discipline. They were not written for spiritual dilet
tantes as is the case with much of the so-called "spiritual"
literature of today.
^ See Appendix for a , brief summary of the Catholic
-positiorTdn the'tradftiOhal life Of prayer.
85
With, this background, what then does John Yepes think
about the way that leads to life? The end of existence to
ward which our lives should tend is traditionally termed
"union with God." The whole of traditional literature on the
way of life is concerned with means toward that end.
Perfectly in line with the traditional teaching, John
Yepes taught that as a result of the Fall, man is limited to
a physical comprehension. He does not naturally know God.
And what little he knows comes to him indirectly. A direct
knowledge of God can come to man solely by means of grace.
Therefore such knowledge is considered to be supernatural.
It should be clearly understood that Roman theology does not
recognize an unobstructed, clear vision or knowledge of God
as a possibility for man. Perfect comprehension is reserved
for saints in the state of glory after the natural body is
laid aside. Here below, all knowledge is, as it were, re
flected knowledge. It lacks the fullness of eternity.
' In perfect conformity with this dogma, John of the
Gross says:
All the creatures, then, cannot serve as a propor
tionate means to the understanding whereby it may
reach God.
Just so all that the imagination can imagine and the '
understanding can receive and understand in this life ;
is not, nor can it be, a proximate means of union with
God. For if we speak of natural things, since under- '
standing can understand naught save that which is con- ;
tained within, and comes under the category of, forms :
and imaginings of things that are received through the ;
86
bodily senses, the which things, we have said, cannot
serve as means, it can make no use of natural intelli
gence. And if we speak of the supernatural (in so far
as is possible in this life of our ordinary faculties),
the understanding in its bodily prison has no prepara
tion or capacity for receiving the clear knowledge of
God; for such knowledge belongs not to this state, and
we must either die or remain without receiving it.bO
In this brief abstract we have more than a statement
of epistemology* We have a judgment upon life in this world.
Nor is this an isolated fragment. It marks the whole work of
this author and others like him. The body which Scripture
terms the temple of the living God is called by this man a
prison. It is not a logical conclusion from the doctrine of
the Fall to say that the body is a prison. The body remains
the temple of God. The prison is the limited understanding
and the distorted and crystallizing'tendencies in the heart
of man. However, the body was a prison for John Yepes and
his whole outlook was conditioned by this attitude. In ef
fect, man cannot clearly know God in the body.
Paradoxically, God is said to be in the center of
the soul.
And it is to be observed, . . . that the Word, to
gether with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is hidden
essentially in the inmost center of the soul. Wherefore
j the soul that would find Him through union of love must :
! issue forth and hide itself from all created things ac- ;
I cording to the will, and enter within itself in deepest !
' recollection, communing there with God in loving and
affectionate fellowship, esteeming all that is in the
I /
^®St. John of the Orossj Ascent of Mt. Carmel. Bk.
EP*_55-9.6i...... _______ ■ - _
87
world as though it were not. Hence St. Augustine, speak
ing with God in the Soliloquies, said; "I found thee not,
0 Lord, without, because I erred in seeking thee without
that wert within. He is, then hidden within the soul,
and there the good contemplative must seek Him, saying :
"Whither hast thou hidden thyself?"12
Although the psyche has no natural capacity for clear
knowledge of God, still it must seek God in its center. John
of the Gross makes then an even bolder statement.
The centre of the soul is God; and, when the soul
has attained to Him according to the whole capacity of
its being, and according to the force of its operation,
it will have reached the last and deep center of the
soul, which will be when with all its powers it loves
and understands and enjoys God; and so long as it at
tains not as far as this, although it be in God, Who is
its centre by grace and by His own communication, still,
if it has the power of movement to go farther and strength
to do more, and is not satisfied, then, although it is
in the centre, it is not in the deepest centre, since it
is capable of going farther. Love unites the soul with
God, and, the more degrees of love the soul has, the more
profoundly does it enter into God and the more is it
centred in Him; and thus we can say that, as are the
degrees of love of God, so are the centres, eaeh one
deeper than another, which the soul has in God; these
are the many mansions— which. He said, were in His
Father's house. . . .
If it attain to the last degree, the love of God will
succeed in wounding the soul even in its deepest centre—
that is, in transforming and enlightening it as regards
all the being and power and virtue of the soul, such as
it is capable of receiving, until it be brought into
such a state that it appears to be God. In this state
the soul is like the crystal that is clear and pure; the ,
more degrees of light it receives the greater concentra,-
tion of light there is in it, and this enlightenment
11
Soliloquiesj Chap. xxxi.
Stanza I, Spiritual Canticle, E. Allison Peers
edition, ,.p. ,33jl . _ __ _______________________________
88
continues to such a degree that at last it attains a
point at which the light is centred in it with such
abundance that it comes to appear to be wholly light,
and cannot be distinguished from the light, for it is
enlightened to the greatest possible extent and thus
appears to be light itself.^3
Theologically, there is nothing difficult to grasp in
the idea that God is the center of the soul although the mind
may be obscured and limited by sense consciousness. For
itheology has taught that God is present by immensity in all ,
things. "For in Him we live, and move, and have our being."
In addition, it has taught that God is present in a special
manner in those who have accepted Christ as their savior.
The theological problem has revolved about the idea, of union
with God. Certadn statements lifted out of the context of
the entire teaching of some writers on the life of prayer
have seemed to suggest pantheism with the particular connota
tion of the individuality being lost or dissolved in the
Divine consciousness. A more careful reading of the texts
would clearly show that pantheism was far from the minds of
the authors concerned. (I omit a discussion of questionable
instances where lack of pre c i si on may have involved an author
in pantheistic statements.)
In the above citation, John of the Cross definitely
states that the soul "appears to be light itself." But
13
Ibid., p. 34.
.89
nowhere does he state that it light. Bernard de Glair-
vanx also employs certain images which suggest a very close
relation between the soul and God. He says the soul becomes
immersed in God as a drop of wine is Immersed in a glass cf
water. The drop of wine is still in the water, but it can
not be distinguished from the water, so thoroughly is it im
mersed and mingled in God, so to speak. Another image that
was liberally employed by the medievals including the sober
theologian Thomas Aquinas, was a comparison of the relation
between the soul and God in a state of union to that of a
piece of iron plunged in fire until it glows with the light
and heat of the fire and appears to be fire itself, indis
tinguishable, as it were. It is quite obvious that we are
not being asked to believe that the iron becomes the fire,
!wine the water, or as in the quotation that the soul becomes
literally the light, or God. The writer has never quite been
able to understand why theologians trained to think accurate
ly should be unable to distinguish between an analogy and an
identity, between a metaphor and a statement of fact.
God as Being or esse may be said to be the center of
the soul. But as a result of the Fall, men are not conscious
lOf God. They have forgotten God. And although He is within^
God remains unknown until the soul is awakened to the truth.
^ '
'in their pride, men have set up a false center, the ego, to
Iwhich they relate all experience. The ego-centered man
90
judges all things by appearances for the center of his ex
istence, viz., that to which he relates all things and
which is first in his life, is itself an appearance.
Because of the radical disorientation the soul must go
through a process of rebirth and transformation whereby the
self loses the unlikeness it acquired through sin and regains
the likeness to God in which it was created.
For John of the Cross, this condition involved a great
mystery and a great possibility, the mystery of regeneration
and the possibility of eterna.1 life. Thoughts which cannot
lift the soul to heaven; thinking, feeling and volition
steeped and caught in sensuality, selfishness and vanity.
For man to regain his likeness to God, he must undergo a
complete transformation and nothing in his possession can
bring it about. He must become a new man and only God can
do that in a man.
The process of restoration has been compared to the
cleansing of a mirror. The mirror is a symbol of the image
of God. When the mirror is clear, the reflection symbolizes !
the likeness. When the mirror is unclear, obscure and ;
clouded, there may be a faint, distorted reflection or none
at all.
This process of becoming clear and clean (or pure)
, consists of throwing off, discarding, and letting go the
I
impure, limited, and conditioned apprehensions, cravings, ;
91
images, habits, and anything which may obscure the image of
the Real, the pure, and the true, viz. of God.
John of the Cross terms this phase of the process,
viz., the part which can be done by one's own efforts, the
night of the senses. The initial discarding of overt ten
dencies results in a partial clarification of the psyche.
But he compares this phase to the lopping off of the branches.
The roots of sin remain. Following the initial adjustment
and a varying period of relative tranquillity and clarity,
the individual undergoes a radical clarification. Tliis last
phase is suffered by the individual. He himself cannot con
trol or direct its work. According to John Yepes, the suf
fering is excruciating. Dereliction, loss of memory, physical
illnesses, etc., the conviction of being a lost soul, all
combine to cleanse the self to the last degree of mortifica
tion. No tiling less is involved than a complete death of the
self, i.e. the destruction of the false center of refer-
14
ence.
While only the initial stages of self-mortification
can be directed by the person and the last phase is complete
ly beyond tiie control of the ego (since its aim is primarily
the transformation of this very center with all its hidden
ramifications), still it is possible, in fact necessary, for
Dark Night of the Soul, Book II, ch. 6-8.
92
the person to allow himself to be transformed. John of the
Gross and the official teaching of Roman Gatholicisrn insist
that the last phase of purification, termed the night of the
soul, is possible only for the person permitting himself to
suffer the profound change. It is admitted that only a few
pass through the change to be entirely transformed.
The initial stages of self-mortification are treated
upon in the literature of ascetical theology, as it has come '
to be called in Roman Catholicism. A considerable portion of
the first part of John Yepes' book, the Ascent of Mount Gar-
I
mel, deals with ascetical theology. These stages are analyzed
in terms of the cardinal sins, which must be largely reduced
before the individual is in a position to undergo a deeper
tran sf ormat ion.
The period of early preparation, during which the
novice is becoming acquainted with himself, requires con
structive activity as well as self-analysis and self-morti
fication. The person who enters the novitiate, brings with
him a mind which has been educated and formed in a certain
way. To a greater or lesser degree, his attitude is adjusted
to the work of perfection. Progress depends upon ability to ^
gain a more perfect attitude, i.e. an attitude more in con
formity to the end for which he strives. Some are more
pliable than others. In some, there is more resistance to
change. Crystallized patterns of thought and conduct resist .
93
the dissolving influence of understanding.
To gain the habit of life which will dispose the in
dividual to receive that for which he strives viz., perfec
tion, there must be a matrix constructed able to hold the
"waters of life." To this end, meditation is designed.
Meditation consists of organized patterns of thinking which, ‘
when properly developed and correlated, result in the attitude
or habit of contemplation. According to John of the Gross,
contemplation, a supernatural activity, can be -prepared for
by meditation. But it cannot be controlled by the personal
will.
The second reason is that the soul at this season has
now both the substance and the habit of the spirit of
meditation. For it must be known that the end of rea
soning and meditation on the things of God is to gain
some knowledge and love of God, and each time the soul
gains this through meditation, it is an act; and just as
many acts, of whatever kind, end by forming a habit in
the soul. Just so, many of these acts of loving know
ledge which the soul has been making one after another
from time to time come through repetition to be so con
tinuous in it that they become habitual. . * . And thus
that which aforetime the soul was gaining gradually
through its labour of meditation upon particular facts '
has now through practice, as we have been saying, become
converted and changed into a habit and substance of lov
ing knowledge, of general kind, and not distinct or
particular as before.^5
This entire paragraph, full as it is with thoughts
leading out in many directions, can be condensed into the
statement Man becomes what he thinks, i.e., he comes to be
Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Book"II, ch. XIV, n. 2, p.
i i
94
in' expression that to which he gives his attention. Thus may
man get himself into the attitude, or attain the point of
view, where he can receive and perceive the gift of God,
eternal life through Jesus Christ.
The work of meditation then is structural. It in
volves the formation of patterns of thinking and feeling
which dispose the mind to God. The process of meditation is
I
not only structural but it is also dynamic. "Draw nigh to
God and God will draw nigh to you." (James 4:8.) For one
gains "some knowledge and love of God" only by drawing near
to God. How can one gain any kind of knowledge unless one
approaches and contacts that which is to be known? The pur
pose of meditation then, is to put one in a position to con
tact God and thus to receive knowledge and love of God. The
work of meditation reveals itself to be primarily a work of
preparation. It involves the use of the discursive powers
of reason, analysis, and synthesis. It is a work which
must absorb the attention.
God in every case is the first to approach the in
dividual. And being nearer than hands and feet, we need on- ,
ly accept Him. We need only turn around and face God. But
I
it has not been the habit of mankind to do that. Man has
I
put himself out of contact with God. God is continually ex- ,
tending the hand of fellowship to mankind. But man must '
reach out a.nd take the extended Hand. It is therefore this
93
reaching out, this stretching forth of our minds to G-od which
must occupy our attention if we are to receive the benefits
prepared for us by dod, if 'we are to receive eternal life
and be in a position to enjoy it.
Hell is not a place; but it is the total exclusion of
G-od from our consciousness. It is simply the result of a
complete withdrawal from G-od. "And this is the condemnation,,
that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness ra-!
ther than light, . . . " (John 3*19* ) We are here to meet
(God. We are not waiting for G-od. G-od is waiting for us. He
has sent His Bon into the world. Now is the time for us to
meet Him, accept Him and do those things which He commanded
us. Only then have we the assurance of salvation.
The real significance of John of the Cross and the
reason tiiat he stands out in the fold of Rome is that he
would have nothing of forms and ceremonies in order that he
might have the all of G-od. His nada was the converse of his
to da. If we forget this, we have lost sight of his true
value for mankind and Christendom. We see the man who suf
fered mental and physical anguish for the faith that was in
him. Let us learn from this example that the cross was made
by man. And because John Yepes lived in the tradition of
tortured crucifixes he and his fellow religionists have very
often had their vision fixed on the blood and the pain in- *
.stead of the life and the joy of the Lord. !
96
To conclude what is meant by the process of medita
tion: the mind thinks through a principle, truth, idea, or
attribute of G-od until it comprehends every aspect in its
proper sequence and relationship to the whole. The result
is a rounded thought, a concept. When this has been achieved,
the mind is in a position to apprehend the essence, or the
spirit of the truth. When this process of thinking i.e.
meditation, has been applied until one has acquired the
spirit of meditation, as it is called by John of the Gross,
the thinking process of the individual is engaged in har
moniously related and organized patterns of ideation. As a
result, he sees through appearances i.e., partial representa
tions, and contacts the truth.
Such is the meaning of the sentence "And thus that
which aforetime the soul was gaining gradually through its
labour of meditation upon particular facts has now through
practice, . . . become converted and changed into a habit and
substance of loving knowledge, of a general kind, and not
distinct or particular as before.
Thomist theologians make a distinction between ac
quired contemplation (the fruit of the meditation process)
and infused contemplation. They insist that acquired con
templation may be attained by the philosopher who has no
16
Ibid.
97
religious calling or by the purely intellectual theologian.
Infused contemplation cannot be acquired, but most agree that
it can be prepared for by meditation, i.e. mental prayer.
Following the ^lead of Aquinas, Thomist theologians
teach that infused contemplation is a gift which cannot be
ea.rned. It is freely bestowed in accordance with God* s
hidden decrees. God ordains upon whom He will bestow the
grace of contemplation. Yet Jesus taught that he who does
the Father's will shall enter the Kingdom of heaven.
Psychologically, Infused or "passive" contemplation
cannot be controlled by the personal will. For it is the
knowledge which God imparts and is totally unlike any cre
ated knowledge. It is boundless, infinite and unconditioned
— the very opposite of creaturely modes of knowing. Although
its appearance may not always be preceded by a lengthy period
of discipline, it is generally so. Infused contemplation,
as the Thomist8 call the influx of Divine Wisdom and Love,
comes into consciousness with the greatest simplicity.
Writing as he does before the Quletist controversy,
'John Yepes has no qualms about resting the mind from mental ;
acts of a discursive nature* Disinclination to meditate is
' one of the signs of oncoming contemplation according to John'
; of the Cross and in this Catholic spiritual theology agrees.
When the spiritual person cannot meditate, let him
learn to be still in God, fixing his loving attention i
98,
upon Him, in the calm of his understanding, although he
may think himself to be doing nothing. For thus, little
by little and very quickly. Divine calm and peace will
be infused into his soul together with a wondrous and
sublime knowledge of God, enfolded in Divine Love. And
let him not meedle with forms, meditations and imagin
ings, or with any kind of reflection, lest the soul be
disturbed, and brought out of its contentment and
peace. . . .1?
It is at this stage that the need for greatest care
exists. Many spiritual directors have caused confusion,
misunderstanding and unhappiness by their obtuse approach
to soul needs* Yepes is most stringent in his condemnation
of clumsy or ignorant directors.
The person who has become contemplative may enjoy the
knowledge and peace which comes to him for a while. But ac
cording to John of the Cross, the initial clarity may become
obscure as the Night of the Soul approaches, preparatory to
the Divine union. This obscuring of the understanding is a
further purification and preparation to receive more fully
■the super sensual reality.
With the onset of what might be called pure contem
plation, for it is a work wrought by the Spirit of God, one
begins to know the meaning of the Scripture "when He the
spirit of Truth is come. He shall guide you into all truth."
The point which must be stressed for individual observance
17
Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Book II, Chap. XV, 5, p*
129, E. Allison Peers edition.
99
is that one must allow the Spirit to guide one into all truth.
For the person can obstruct the work of regeneration by in
terfering with the guidance. It is like one who digs up a
plant every few days to see if the roots are growing. Since
this process requires faith on our part, we must let go of
our limited sense comprehension and cease clinging to pre
conceived notions. Since some people cling even desparately
to the form side of worship, their sufferings are unusually
intense. There is often much attachment to forms and symbols,
hence the suffering endured by its contemplatives before they
become spiritually mature.
From what has been said it is to be inferred that, in
order for the understanding to be prepared by this
Divine union, it must be pure and void of all that per
tains to sense, and detached and freed from all that can
clearly be perceived by the understanding, profoundly
hushed and put to silence, and leaning upon faith, which
alone is the proximate and proportionate means whereby
the soul is united with God; for such is the likeness
between itself and God that there is no other differ
ence, save that which exists between ee@ing God and be
lieving in H i m .
Finally then we are to walk by faith. For there is
nothing in this world which can give us the understanding of
Divine things. All we can do is prepare ourselves to receive
the Truth of God. And this is the basic purpose of prayer.
Jesus said we would not be heard for our much speaking. And
since God knows our need before we do, our part is to open
18
Ascent of Mt. Oarmel, Book II, chap. IX.
_1
100.
our hearts and receive that which we need. Contemplation,
then, is simply the pouring of the love, wisdom and under
standing of God into a mind prepared to receive the gift.
Nor does the knowledge given in contemplation contradict the
truth revealed in the Word of God. Rather does it give the
understanding of Scripture, the spirit of the Word. As such
contemplation is a work of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit
praying in us. (Romans 8:26; ". . . the Spirit itself maketli
intercession for us: . . .")
When, therefore, John of the Cross says that contem
plation gives obscure knowledge, the word "obscure" must be
Understood, in relation to the world of appearances. This
knowledge is obscure to the intellect but clear to the en
lightened understanding. Nevertheless, Catholicism maintains
that an unclouded knowledge of God is not possible in this
life. All the orthodox of this organization have subscribed
to this dogma.
In addition to the purified understanding and memory
(the habit of the mind), there must be attained a purity of
[the will. The volitional nature must be purged of inordina,te
tendencies. And inasmuch as the force of our volitions is
determined by the degree of love we have for the thing chosen,
I I
the central point of attention must be focused upon the in
clination of our hearts. For we tend to choose those things i
I
to which we are drawn in the measure that we are drawn to i
101
them. Stated in the term of a question; how much is one
drawn by that which lies around or within? Does one have a
response to the things which lie around one out of proportion
to the need? Are we drawn mostly to God and do we allow all
other attra-ctions to serve our love for God? Or do we find
ourselves in conflict when placed in a certain set of cir
cumstances because we are not near enough to God to be at
peace under all circumstances? Everyone seeking to find
Reality must put these questions to himself in one form or
another. And whether he does or not, life is constantly
doing so* That essentially is what John of the Cross means
when he writes
It is clear, then, that for the soul to come to unite
itself perfectly with God through love and will, it must
first be free from all desire of the will, howsoever
small. That is, it must not intentionally and knowingly
consent with the will to imperfections, and it must have
the power and liberty to be able not so to consent in
tentionally. ^9
Few things outside of insincerity hinder the seeker
for truth more than vague, obscure and needlessly complicated
language. Hindering as it is in any pursuit, it is almost
disastrous when applied to the simple, yet extremely subtle
and delicate nuances of the way of life. Equally misleading '
can be flowery, imaginative language which appeals to the
emotions rather than the heart with a burning need. In fact -
19
Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Book I, Chap. XI.
--------- University of'S outhern C alifornia Library
102
it is only the- heart which hungers and thirsiB for the truth
of eternal life that shall find it. There is no such entity :
as a lukewarm disciple of Christ. Worshippers of intellectu
al and emotional glamour will find the language of truth
"strait and narrow" and they will always be found at the
.shrine of the latest theory or glamorous personality. So it
is only simple logic that few are those who find eternal life.
I
All are invited. Few look beyond the appearance to find the'
Real. Men have relied more on words than on the Living God.
Since the language used by John Yepes to describe
what he terms "union with God" and the "spiritual marriage"
consists of metaphors and images derived from the facts of
conditioned existence (which have at best a , suggestive or
symbolic value and at the worst a sensual content), I do not
consider it necessary to take them up. Along with others in.
the medieval tradition, the Spanish mystic employs the imag
ery of the Song of Solomon. In my view this approach tends
more to confusion and emotionalism than it does to clea.r
Insight into the nature of the soul's relationship to God.
John Yepes was very much conditioned by the medieval atti- .
tude toward prayer which, heightened by his own intensity, ’
produced a point of view and pattern of life in which sorrow
and suffering held an undue proportion (by the standard of '
'the Gospel). Hence it may justly be said that this man
[approached God by a winding way rather than by the direct
103
approach urged by John the Baptist in the words, "Make his
paths straight" and throughout the Gospels in the words "the
Kingdom of heaven is at hand," i.e. within reach.
There is no more direct relationship to God than that
to which all are invited who accept Christ as their savior,
viz., to be the sons of God. Does the son approach his
father through a hierarchy of officials and are the words of
his father mediated to him through a group of interpreters?
No i He communes directly with his father, face to face.
This is the promise which the Word of God extended to all
mankind. But such is the pride of mankind, subtly disguised
under the notion that he must do everything for himself and
be independent even from God, that he has refused to accept
the "unspeakable gift" which is offered him.‘ What is that
; tendency in man which insists on erecting barriers between
man and God, between man and his fulfillment and highest
happiness? Subtle indeed are the forms which this tendency
assumes. There can be no doubt about the existence in man
of that which tends away from God and His righteousness,
call it what one may.
But that man might become free from all unrighteous- :
ness and ascend to his Father in Spirit and in truth, Jesus ;
Christ came into the world. The gift of freedom is to all
I those who turn in simple charity and humility to the throne
I of grace.
104
The Holy Spirit has guided the Church through the ages
since the Son of God walked among men, and continues to guide
us into an ever-increasing understanding of the Word. "For
God who caused the light to shine out of darkness, hath
shined in our hearts to give the light of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ." And the Church is the fellow
ship of the faithful who accept the Word of God.
The great prayer of Jesus to His Father left for us
in John 17, together with His blessed example and glorious
victory upon the Cross, has made it possible for us to come
into direct relationship with God, consciously and under-
standingly.
These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to
heaven, and said. Father, the hour is come; glorify
thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee ;
As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given
him.
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee
the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast
sent.
I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do.
And now, 0 Father, glorify thou me with thine own
self with the glory which I had with thee before the
world was.
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou
gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou
gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
How they have known that all things whatsoever thou
hast given me are of thee. '
For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest
me; and they have received them, and have known surely
I that I came out from thee, and they have believed that
; thou didst send me. i
' I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for
I them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
105
And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am
glorified in them.
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in
the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through
thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they
may be one, as we are.
While 1 was with them in the world, I kept them In thy
name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none
of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the
scripture might be fulfilled.
And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in
the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in them
selves.
I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated
them, because they are not of the world, even as I am
not of the world.
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the
world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the ;
world. ;
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. :
As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I
also sent them into the world.
And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also
might be sanctified through the truth.
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which
shall believe on me through their word;
That they all may be one ; as thou. Father, art in me,
and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the
world may believe that thou hast sent me.
And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them;
that they may be one, even as we are one:
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made
perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou
hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me*
Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given
me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory,
which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before
the foundation of the world.
0 righteous Father, the world hath not known thee ;
but I have known thee, and these have known that thou
hast sent me.
And I have declared unto them thy name, and will de-
cla.re ijt: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me ;
may be in them, and I in them.
L___
CHAPTER III
CHRISTIANITY IS INTELLIGENCE AND UNDERSTANDING
The foundations of modern thought, i.e. that kind of
thinking which we broadly term rationalistic, need to be more
clearly understood than they have been heretofore. So much
is taken for granted in the suppositions of modern thought,
that without some ■ clarification of the roots, the task of
penetrating through to the core of the problem of the modern ,
individual who has acquired a very distorted perspective
through the heritage of the recent centuries is made extreme
ly difficult.
A clear comprehension of the foundations of modern
thought as they relate to the need of the Christian to under
stand his place in this world of pilgrimage is most essential
and will greatly aid in dispelling the confusion which sur
rounds so much discussion of religious problems in an age
which owes allegiance to no accepted philosophy of life.
A few of the questions which need to be faced by
those who are trying to find their way out of the modern
dilemma are presented in a clear and straightforward way by
E. A. Burtt.
Our questions must go deeper, and bring into clear
focus a more fundamental and more popularly significant
problem than any of these men CCassiner, Broad, White
head] are glimpsing. And the only way to come to grips
with this wider problem . . . is to follow critically
107
the early use and development of these scientific terms
in modern times; and especially to analyse them as pre
sented in their first precise and, so to say, determin
istic femulation. Just how did it come about that men
began to think about the universe in terms of atoms of
matter in space and time instead of the scholastic
ca,tegories? Just when did teleological explanations,
accounts in terms of use and the Good, become definitely
abandoned in favour of the notion that true explanations,
of man and his mind as well as of other things, must be
in terms of their simplest parts? .... Who stated
these implications in the form which gave them currency
and conviction? How did they lead men to undertake such •
inquiries as that of modern epistemology? What effects
did they have upon the intelligent modern man’s ideas -
about his world?^
Much of the current thinking in many articulate
circles is deeply conditioned by the views shaped during the
seventeenth and eighteenth century. And the men of faith
who have freed themselves from the shackles of. atomistic and
mechanical thinking must face the problem which their skep
tical contemporaries are facing and understand the basic im
plications of these problems so as to be in a position to
help when opportunity affords. We cannot win people through
argument and force to the truth of the Christian religion.
But we can try to understand the problems of those who stand ,
outside the Faith and extend this un de r s t andi ng to them. In
this way, we can truly love mankind.
Following the dissolution of the medieval fellowship
through the variety of interpretations and constructions
' ^ E. A. Burtt, Metaphysical Foundation of Modern
Physical Science, pp. Ï5-lé•
. 108
placed upon the Word of God there arose great confusion about
the nature of God and man and the relation between God and
His Creation. No one as yet denied that the universe and
all that therein is was conceived and ordained by God. But
many doubted the exact nature of this fact, rejecting the
received theories based on Aristotelian categories, and some
began to construct hypotheses based upon mathematical prin
ciples of demonstration. First and foremost among these in
terms of widespread influence was Rene Descartes who reversed
the teaching of the ages viz., "I am, therefore I think" and
put forward his own construction by reversing the formula,
thusly, "I think, therefore I am."
Men are so much inclined to regard the dramatic in
cident, the outstanding event, and to Ignore the movement of
thought which leads to the obvious. For example: it is not
generally realized that the denial of Divine Providence, i.e.,,
of God as the Creator, Sustainer, Transformer, and the One
who perfects us in glory, begins by the denial of some basic
aspect of the Divine economy, or plan of creation, such as
the principle of "becoming" or "potency" as it was termed by’
Aristotle. This principle was deduced from the observation
.that existential unities unfold their inherent potentiali
ties into a state of complete expression or development.
The term or end of this process of becoming is called the
act. The beginning of the process, the potency of any unit
109
in nature.
The concept of potency could serve Christendom be
cause it allowed for the unfolding of Cod* s Plan, which we
call Providence- All through the Gospels, the narrative of
Jesus’ ministry is filled with images which He used to il
lustrate the Truth. The reference He made to the seed being
like the Word of God is only one instance of the idea of be-
I
coming: characteristic of God's Plan. ■
It was only logical therefore that the doctrine of
Providence should disappear from men’s thinking when they
no longer found a place for it in their concept of life. The
essential value of some of Aristotle's categories for Chris
tendom was that they could be used to explain intellectually
certain aspects of Christian doctrine. The system developed
by Descartes was a distinctly narrowing limitation upon the
already constricted channels of thinking within reach of
Western man at tliat time. The terrible fallacy that all of
life could be brought under control by mathematical abstrac
tion, a purely intellectual process, could only have taken
hold in a society becoming fascinated by mechanics, the
projection of a limited aspect of the cortical process. Man
had not yet learned that life eludes calculation and that
God cannot be "figured out."
The fact is that the mental world of the period pre
ceding Desca,rtes and following the medieval syncretism was '
110
in-great confusion and conflict. Many men had become
skeptical about the importance of the intellect to religion^
At the same time, men were paying more attention to
the physical world. They were reaching out and exploring,
not only the uncharted parts of the earth, but also the arts
and sciences. They were applying themselves to a more minute
analysis of the physical forms with the purpose of directing
and controlling the energies in nature, either for artistic
representation or scientific use. In the process, mathe
matics was developed and applied to engineering and archi
tectural as well as astronomical pursuits.
The attention was directed outward. Men measured the
earth. The narrowing of the focus of attention intensified
the growth of the ego, the separative principle, and its
principal function, the intellect. As a result, the most
Influential minds (now under the employ of rulers seeking
material power) were directed to the making of means and
devices to further the power of their sovereigns. The world
had received the impetus of the powerful mind of Francis
Bacon who pointed men toward tine acquisition of the natural '
sciences and averted their attention from the decadent
scholasticism of his time which bad by then come to a barren ■
pass. '
We must thoroughly understand the outlook engendered
by an absorption in means to gain power for the acquisitive
Ill
self. Consider what is implied by an attitude which looks
out upon the world and pictures the workings of Nature from
the point of view of the machine. When we have' done so, we
will understand the mind which formed the "modern" period.
Generally, people think of the Middle Ages as a time
when men’s minds were steeped in myth, allegory, and sym
bolism. Pew consider that the medieval mind, i.e. the spirit
of the age, was much more organic than that of its successors.
By organic, we mean that the means were related to ultimate
ends. The means may have been narrow but the ends were
broad by contrast with modern ends. In short, medieval
society had meaning because its leading minds were dominated
by the idea that "Christ had come into the world to save
sinners." Life was directed to one principal aim, viz., sal
vation. The important point to realize is that life had
significance. The universe was not yet conceived as a vast
machine once set in motion in space bound to eventually wear
out through the friction of its parts.
Then came the great heresy of dividing man up into
parts that had only external mechanical relations with each
other. Men thought of the soul as a static entity that
survived the death of the body. As a result, man had no
vital relationship with his body. God was ejected from the :
universe He had created. He had made the clock, wound it
up, and thrown it into space where it would unwind and in i
112
due time fall apart. Men no longer conceived of God as be
ing present within His Creation, guiding its unfoldment and
bringing it to a glorious consummation in Eternity. Two
things especially wore lost sight of as men became more
mechanically minded— the law of becoming and its concomitant,
the law of transformation. This double loss produced more
havoc in men's thinking than possibly anything else. It made
men think of the world in which they lived as governed by a
fixed series of mechanical progressions computable in linear
equations. In other words, men came to think only in terms
of material and efficient causality. Wow this is precisely
the sphere of engineering and the physical sciences together
with mathematics. (In the non-technical sense, final and
formal causation deal respectively with the end and the kind ’
of end to which any combination is ordered. An example used
by Aristotle was that of a sculptor and the marble. The
sculptor is the efficient cause, the marble is the material
cause, the shape or pattern in the mind of the sculptor is
the formal cause and the final cause is the idea or purpose
to be executed.)
Descartes' man, a soul driving a machine, received ;
such wide acceptance that it passed into the current thinking
of France, England and Germany through himself, John Locke
and Christian Wolff. Of course these men varied the em-
t
phasis, in accordance with their understanding, but the es- ^
113
sential features of resemblance are very noticeable.
Contrast this Newtonian teleology with that of the
scholastic system. For the latter, God was the final
cause of all things just as truly and more significantly
than their original former. Ends in nature did not head
up in the astronomical hannony; that harmony was itself
a means to further ends, such as knowledge, enjoyment,
and use on the part of living beings of a higher order,
who in turn were made for a still nobler end which
completed the divine circuit, to know God and enjoy him
forever. God had no purpose; he was the ultimate object
of purpose. In the Newtonian world, following Galileo's ■
earlier suggestion, all this further teleology is un- ;
ceremoniously dropped. The cosmic order of masses in
motion according to law, itself the final good. Man
exists to know and aoolaud it, God exists to tend and
preserve it. All the manifold divergent zeals and hopes
of men are implicitly denied scope and fulfillment; if
they cannot be subjected to the aim of theoretical me
chanics, their possessors are left no proper God, for
them there is no entrance to the kingdom of heaven. We
are to become devotees of mathematical science; God, now
the chief mechanic of the universe, has become the cosmic
conservative. His aim is to preserve the status quo.
The day of novelty is all in the past; there is no fur
ther advance in time. Periodic reformation when neces
sary, by the addition of the indicated masses at the
point of space required, but no new creative activity—
to this routine of temporal housekeeping is the Deity
at present confined.^ [italics mineJ
"Whs.t though in solemn silence all
Move round the dark terrestrial ball?
What though no real voice nor sound
Within their radiant orbs be found?
In reason's ear they all rejoice.
And utter forth a glorious voice,
Forever singing as they shine, ^
' The hand that made us is divine. '
According to Desca.rtes, man knows by means of a series
2
Burtt, pp. cit., pp. 294-95.
: 3 ipia.. , p* 295 quoting The Spacious Firmament on
High, hymn written by Joseph Addison to the chorus of Haydn's
Oreator;— third stanza. ----- “ '
114
of clear and distinct ideas within his ovm intellect which
are the types of all observable phenomena. These images
include the idea of God. The argument runs quite simply:
God must exist because the idea of God is found in my mind.
It is a further extension of the axiom, I think, therefore 1
am. Because think of God, therefore God is. This form of
ontologism bears only a superficial resemblance to the
theory of knowledge advanced by Augustine. For the latter,
in searching his memory, found God above his mind rather than
as a mere image in his intellectual processes. Whatever may
be the theoretical implications of Innatism in Descartes, the
capital point to retain in connection with the theme of this
book is that there is no vital contact with God in this kind
of theory. A very definite contact is asserted by Augustine ,
when he stated that he found God above his mind. Each human ■
being, following the Cartesian theory, is a closed unit of
creation. Knowledge of God and creation is indirect. Every
thing exists because man thinks of it. The ideas which are
true must be clear and distinct or else they are untrue.
• * * Descartes * real criterion is not permanence but
the possibility of mathematical handling : in his case, as -
with Galileo, the whole course of his thought from his
adolescent studies on had inured him to the notion that
we know objects only in mathematical terms, and the sole .
: type for him of clear and distinct ideas had come to be
! mathematical ideas, with the addition of certain logical
: propositions into which he had been led by the need of
a firmer metaphysical basis for his achievements, such
; as the proposition that we exist, that we think, etc.
Hence the secondary qualities, when considered as
115
belonging to the objects, like the primary, inevitably
appear to his mind obscure and confused; t^ey are not
; a clear field for mathematical operations.^
Consequently the law of becoming or potency was denied, and
in its place a static either/or standard of judgment was set
up. This new view fitted with the contemporary concept of
mathematics. As a result, the world was reduced to a system
of nice orderly arrangements which submit themselves to ex
pert calculation. All truth was axiomatic ally distinct and ;
obvious to the intellect. The static "billiard ball" world
had come into existence. The mood generated by the new view
was reflected in the architecture, music and political theory
of the age. Movement, as the working out of the universal
process unfolding the divine Ideas of God, could hardly fit
into a scheme wherein even the Creator presided over His
,work from arar having set all the clocks to work at some
time in the far past.
Since the relationship between God and man and be
tween man and the other aspects of Creation was changed by
this view into external, formal relations, it was only
logical that religion should be conducted in the attitude of
decorum, and that prayer should become a matter of formal
petition to an arbitrary sovereign. Since everything was
,ordained for the best in this "best of all possible worlds,"
hilo8ophical Works, Vol. I, p. 164 ff. referred
to in Burtt, op. cit., p. 110.
116
a note of optimism should prevail. The moral law was writ
large in nature and the commandments of Moses were plain to
any man of common sense. Scripture was reasonable and could
be demonstrated by means of logical arguments in which was
included the famous argument from design considerably
modified and shrunken to the proportions of the Age of
Reason.
God, out of the infiniteness of his mercy, has dealt
with man, as a compassionate and tender Farther. He gave
him reason, and with it a law: that could not be other
wise than what reason should dictate; unless we should
think, that a reasonable creature should have an un
reasonable law. But, considering the frailty of man,
apt to run into corruption and misery, he promised a
Deliverer, whom in his good time he sent; and then de
clared to all mankind, that whoever would believe him
to be the Saviour promised, and take him now raised from
the dead, and constituted the Lord and Judge of all men,
to be their King and Ruler, should be saved. This is a
plain, intelligible proposition; and the all-merciful
God seems herein to have consulted the poor of this
world., and the bulk of mankind. These are articles that
the labouring and illiterate man may comprehend. This
is a religion suited to vulgar capacities; and the state
of mankind in this world, destined to labour and travel.
The v/riters and wranglers in religion fill it with
niceties, and dress it up with notions, which they make
necessary and fundamental parts of it; as if there were
no way into the church, but through the academy or
Lyceum.3
In addition to the new mathematico-mechanical view of
the universe, John Locke especially advanced the notion of a "
contractual relationship between God and man and between man
The Reasonableness of Christianity, as delivered in
the Scriptures (Vol. VII of The Works of John Locke in ten
volumes; London, 1823), p. 157*
117
and man through the state. This view had the effect of em
phasizing order and responsibility in the relationship be
tween men and God, but at the same time a contract is
based upon respect for law rather than love. It emphasizes
justice and looks to the formal outward observance of an
agreement rather than to the spontaneous response of
righteousness in a heart restored to the Living God. But
the contractual notion of universal relationships is the
corollary to the notion which sees the universe as a congeries
of separated and loosely related parts. At its best this
view is ethical and moral. At its worst it is dull and in
sipid.
In no case does the mechanical-contractual-legalistic
view convey one of the basic truths of life as a process
of transformation and change. Hence it is incapable of
carrying the central message of the Bible viz., that we are
called to become the sons of God, a message which calls for
radical transformation— even more radical than that which
changes a worm into a butterfly.
Again, it was a matter of simple logic that when
ecclesiastics should attempt to reduce the Gospel to the
shape of a very limited kind of reason they should fail to
, carry conviction and win the hearts of the people. For the '
Gospel is meant to be lived; and a set of barren proposi
tions based on a truncated reason will not lead men to the
118
Kingdom of God.
It was not long before David Hume removed the props
from under the tottering framework of the Deists. However,
neither Hume, nor Kant who reacted against him, succeeded
in extricating themselves from the three-dimensional world
of Newton’s physics. Therefore what these men had to say,
although penetrating in relation to the views of their time,
is inadequate both from the standpoint of a revolutionized
physics and the Word of God. (We do not need to know physics
to know God. But post-Newtonian physics has exploded some
superstitions about God.) For we cannot judge what is true
by the limited standards of the human intellect. "The
natural man discerneth not the things of the spirit, etc.
I I
To know the truth we must be with God. And to this
end, Jesus uttered the prayer which is the heart of the
Bible— the prayer recorded in John 1?. What is stated in
this prayer is so clear and unequivocal that it requires
only the heart of faith to apprehend it. No one is left out,
save those who wilfully exclude themselves through non-
acceptance .
While the views of the Deists and the Ca,rtesiau
philosophers were soon discredited, the attitude which they ,
formed did not disappear. It is still prevalent in a dif
ferent form. Hume of course had reversed the position of !
119
Descartes. The mind was a "tabula rasa," a blank slate, un
til impressions were formed upon it by life experience. But
in either case, whether the mind contained the images of
reality innately, or whether they were inscribed from with
out (and this condition holds true for Kant a.lso), this man
was considered a self-enclosed unit, quite separate and
apart from every other unit and also separated from God, the
Creator of heaven and ea.rth. How different from John Donne’s
thought— "Every man is an islands."
Descartes never foreswore the main philosophical ap
proach which had led to his outspoken dualism. All the
non-geometrical properties are to be shorn from res
extensa and located in the mind. He asserts in words
that the latter "has no relation to extension, nor
dimensions," we cannot "conceive of the space it occu
pies"; yet, and these were the influential passages, it
is "really joined to the whole body and we cannot say
that it exists in any one of its parts to the exclusion
the others"; we can affirm that it "exercises its func
tions" more particularly in the conasion, "from whence
it radiates forth through all the remainder of the body
by means of the animal soirits, nerves, and even the
blood." [Burtt’s itadicsj^ With such statements to turn
to in the great philosopher of the new age, is it any ;
wonder that the common run of intelligent people who
were falling into line with the scientific current, un- <
metaphysically minded at best, totally unable to appre
ciate sympathetically tbe notion of a non-spatial entity
quite independent of the extended world, partly because
such an entity was quite unrepresentable to the imagina
tion, partly because of the obvious difficulties in
volved, and partly because of the powers influence of
Hobbes, came to think of the mind as something located
and wholly confined within the body? What Descartes had
meant was that through a part of the brain a quite
"Passions of the Soul," Articles 30, 31; Philosoph
ical Works, Vol. JE ^3^5 ff. , quoted in Burtt, p_p. cit. , p.
Ïl4.' '
.120.
unextended substance came into effective relation with
the realm of extension. The net result of liis attempts
on this point for the positive scientific current of
thought was that the mind existed in a ventricle of the
brain. The universe of matter, conceived as thoroughly
geometrical save as to the vagueness of the ‘first
matter,‘ extends infinitely throughout all space, need
ing nothing for its continued and independent existence;
the universe of mind, including all experienced qualities
that are not mathematically reducible, comes to be pic
tured as locked up behind the confused and deceitful
media of the senses, away from this independent extended
realm, in a petty and insignificant series of locations
inside of human bodies. This is, of course, the position
which had been generally accorded the ’soul' in ancient
times, but not at all the ‘mind,’ except in the case of
those philosophers of the sensationalist schools who
made no essential distinction between the two.7
The intellectual world of the nineteenth century did
not advance beyond the positions formulated by Kant and
Hume. And not until the rise of the biological school in
philosophy did man give serious consideration to the de
velopmental theory of life. It is rather interesting that
Aristotle, who advanced the developmental views in Ms
theory of potency, was also a biologist and a keen observer
of empirica,l phenomena.
However, the modern biologists often considered the
intellectual processes an epiphenomenon in the emergence of
the species. The exaggeration of the Darwinian thesis has
led to as many absurdities in the area of process and becom- '
Ing as the Cartesian thesis did in denying its existence.
Burtt, pp. cit., pp. 114-15
121
Whereas before, the lines of demarcation were precise and
clear, the biological view dissolved all boundaries in an
amorphous mass of endless formation and transformation from
which all purpose and design had been excluded.
It is one of the unfortunate facts of history, espe
cially since the invention of the printing press, that the
ones who write the most and talk the loudest, receive the
greatest amount of attention from the general public. The
seventeenth and eighteenth century witnessed a terrific
barrage of watered dovm notions and half-digested opinions,
all foisted upon the increasingly literate public in the
name of enlightenment and “ reason. " One of these popula.ri-
zations was the man who exists entirely in the cranial
process.
The scholastic scientist looked out upon the world of
nature and it appeared to him a quite sociable and human
world. It was finite in extent. It was made to serve
his needs. It was clearly and fully intelligible, being
immediately present to the rational powers of his mind;
it was composed fundamentally of, and was intelligible
through, those qualities which were most vivid and in
tense in his own immediate experience— colour, sound,
beauty, joy, heat, cold, fragrance, and its plasticity
to purpose and ideal. Now the world is an infinite and
monotonous mathematical machine. Not only is his high
place in a cosmic teleology lost, but all these things
which were the very substance of the physical world to
the scholastic— the things that made it alive and lovely
and spiritual— are lumped together and crowded into the
small fluctuating and temporary positions of extension
which we call human nervous and circulatory systems.
The metaphysically constructive features of the dualism
tended to be lost quite out of sight. It was simply an
incalculable change in the viewpoint of the world held
122
by intelligent opinion in Europe.®
Now, however, this notion is being corrected by the biologists
themselves as well as by the proponents of the other sciences,
many of whom frankly acknowledge the existence of purpose,
direction and design in the cosmic process.^ However, in the
area of psychology, some investigators have become so fas
cinated by the subcortical layers of the mental process as
to deny that man has any vital responsibility for his
thoughts, and proceed on the assumption that man is a crea
ture of environmental conditioning. In this thesis lies one
of the most insidious forces which will undermine any re
ligious organization calling itself Christian by its denial
of human responsibility. For the Word of God teaches man's
responsibility as well as the grace of God. If man were not
responsible, how could there be grace? It is obvious that
the absurd notion of irresponsibility advanced by certain
branches of psychology cannot harmonize with the basic Chris
tian concept of life— man's responsibility before God for
the way he uses the life given him.
On the positive side, it must be said that the men of -
the "Age of Reason" advanced the cause of human dignity. For
^ Burtt, pj). cit. , p. 116.
9
See Lecomte du Nuoy, Human Destiny: also, Alexis
Carrel, Man the Unknown*
123
they did not place their trust in an authoritarian religion,
hut sought rather a foundation to which all could turn, viz.,
the moral order in nature.
The philoBopher could not feel law as an obligation :
imposed from on high. They were deferential, indeed, to
nature and the natural law, but they included themselves
in nature and thought that the natural law legitimized
the empirical fact of their existence, their needs,
wishes, impulses, and capacities for enjoyment* Law, na
tural or divine, was not for them a rule to which men
just force themselves; it was a cosmic authorization for
them to do what gave them happiness in the world. It
was a charter of liberty, under which men as individuals
need observe only the rights of each other, and men as
a whole, free from obligations not fixed by themselves,
had the right to master the world and do with it as they,
pleased, and to make such changes in their government
and society as they might suppose would be useful to
these ends.
However subject to criticism may be their limited understand
ing, it at least preserved intact the responsible nature of
man's choices. And it renounced blind authority as a prin-
; cipie of law.
For the medieval view of life emphasized the natural
organism. While they talked about the supernatural, it was
definitely super nature, i.e., heaven was placed at the apex
of the natural world. Man was completely in the natural
sphere and totally conditioned by it. As was asserted by
John of the Cross, a most unxAjorldly man, the human being has
no access to Reality here below. What he is given by grace
is mediated and veiled in obscurity no matter how close a
^^R. R. Palmer, ~ Catholics and Unbelievers In Eisrht-
eenth Century France, p-p. 2o4-05.
124
person may feel to God. Also he has no certainty of salva
tion while on earth.
There are theologians who have tried to naturalize
the supernatural. They attempt to use logic to convince the
intellect of man. But the heart of man will never be fully
awakened to God and His Reality in this way. God cannot be
attired with intellectual trappings, nor can we invade the
sanctuary of the Most High by intellectual devices and meta
physical subtleties. God approaches every man simply and
directly through His Word which He continually utters in the
heart, addressing ,as with His salvation, convincing us of '
our responsibility. It is for man simply to turn around and
meet God and accept Him without questions. But before man
will turn around, his pride of intellect must be humbled and
his delight in emotion must dissolve in the stillness of
receptivity. His will must be stirred to decision. These
are the vital matters with which the Church must be concerned.
These are the matters with which the true church is concerned.
And the men who band together on earth calling themselves
Christians will be held accountable for their response. Man
is judged by his response to God's Word rather than by any
arbitrary decree of sentence passed on him after the fashion
of man-made law. There can be no opinion where the Word of
God is concerned. Nor is it a matter of relativity. God's
Word is absolute and final. When men have accepted the Word '
125
through, faith, God will grant and give the understanding
needed to live in accordance with the Truth. In this sense,
"I believe, in order to understand" has a vital content.
The facts of nature are confuted by the greater fact
that Christ taught— viz., that man is called to a special
relationship with God which is truly of a divine nature ra
ther than physical and temporal. "If in this life only we
had hope, we would of all men be the most miserable." While
man retains his place in the world of finite creatures he is
drawn into association with Eternity, the adorable God who
said to our Redeemer— "This day have I begotten Thee."
Through the Word of God in the depths of his soul, man is
drawn into profound communion and fellowship with the living
God. The finite contacts the Infinite through the Word.
Here is paradox, if you like, because it is a living associa
tion which cannot be figured out by the intellect nor can
it be enjoyed by the emotions, nor can it be indulged in by
the desires. No man or religious organization can either
make or break that condition which Scripture states: "He
that is joined to the Lord is one spirit."
Three centuries of reaction against ecclesiasticism
and hierarchically-mediated religion has not advanced the
cause of Christ for the simple reason that God cannot be ^
approached through reaction. Both action and reaction in ;
I ■
the world are on the horizontal plane. The way to Christ
126
is "straight up," so to speak. Neither the affirmation nor
the denial of man-made doctrines can point the way or cause
one to enter the Kingdom of God.
The poor and pitiful notion of man concocted in the
Age of Reason is dissolving in the welter of confusion which
the acid of skepticism has provided. The intellect which
criticized the age of theology has turned upon itself and
I
its last contribution of division is the division of Itself, j
Catholic and Protestant thinkers alike have become
alive and sensitive to the growing interest in man himself—
not the abstraction of the eighteenth century or the animal
of the nineteenth century— but man in the state of fear and
anxiety, man in the agony of parturition, man as he stands
before God, man as he stands in" need— in need of transforma
tion and the perfection which only God knows and can give.
The problem of man in. his existence is that which con
cerns us most today. And here again our only recourse for
underst8.nding is the Word of God. For it is precisely with
man as he stands before God, either acceptable or unaccept
able, that the Bible deals. The Word of God speaks not to
an intellectual abstraction but to a concrete living man who
loves or fears, who is redeemed or unredeemed, living in the
fullness of Christ after the Renewed likeness given in re
generation and sanctification, or else groveling in the dust '
of unlikeness, consumed by torment and averse to God. |
12?
It is man as he stands in relation to the Eternal One
with which the Word of God is concerned.
Maury and Branner give expression to a view of man in
contrast to the humanistic which is far nearer the Biblical
standpoint than many professing Christians, who have taken
on the neo-classical idea of man in order to avoid intellec
tual confusion, have adopted.
Whereas the humanist anthropologic (and here we are
thinking in particular of the pseudo-Christian anthropol
ogies) consider everything, including the divine revela
tion, from the point of view of man, Christian anthropol
ogy envisages nothing, not even human destiny, except
in the light of God in Christ. Thus, the former judge
and justify the revelation according to its consistency
with nature, the development which it ensures for nature,
and they end by making salvation equivalent to the supreme
realization of the highest possibilities of man; the
latter accepts that the revelation should really be a
revelation, that is, that it should be able to contradict
and judge all that we are and know, what we call good
and evil; it accepts that our nature should have to be
re-created and not developed, that the god of our life
should be elsewhere than in this life, radically hetero
geneous from this life, truly another life. For the
humanist anthropologies the reality of this world pre
figures and announces the beyond to which it tends; for
Christian anthropology it is the beyond— known in the
merciful revelation of God— which determines the know
ledge and the evaluation of the reality of this world.
The former enclose human life in the limits of the pre
sent world, even if these be extended to infinity; the
latter considers that the new, radically new creation
promised in Christ is alone able to give its meaning to
this world which is destined to pass away and to our
life in this world. Thus, to know God, the good, man
and his destiny by oneself is absolutely opposed to
knowing God, the good, man and his destiny ^ God, that ^
is, by faith.
I Maury in The Christian Understanding of Man, pp.
3.28
Here we have an explicit statement which places man
where only he can be understood i.e. as a special creation
of God with a unique meaning and destiny which cannot be
encompassed or exhausted by his existence here. In short,
man's existence is comprehensible only in the light of
Eternity. In this particular, it matters not whether man is
fallen or redeemed* He is still a significant being only as
seen in the light of the Word.
In this vein further:
The biblical conception differs radically from any
philosophy or theology whose starting point is the
reality of man as known .by experience. For the Bible,
in regard to man as well as in regard to all its other
objects, the divine revelation is never for a moment to
be reduced to a philosophy, and the knowledge of faith
is never assimilable, comparable or continuous with
natural experience.12
Brunner likewise concords that man is man only in re
lation to God.
It is the task of a Christian anthropology to show
that it is impossible to understand man save in the
light of God.
Man is a "theological being; that is, his ground, his:
goal, his home, and the possibility of understanding his
own nature are all in God. 13
I
Furthermore that which makes man, man, is the divine
image within him apart from which man cannot even exist.
12 :
^ Ibid., p. 2k7.
Emil Brunner in The Christian Under standing of Man.
p. l42#
129
fallen or redeemed.
The first truth the Christian concept of the imago
Dei implies is this: that it is Impossible to under
stand man in the light of his own nature ; man can only
be understood in the light of God. The relation between
the knowledge of God and that of man is different from
the relation between the knowledge of God and that of a
thing— a bit of the xvorld— because the relation between
God and man is different from the relation between God
and a thing. 14
Tiie last idea expressed in this citation is particular-
I
ly significant as the expression of the realization that the
relation between God and man is unique and altogether dif
ferent from the relab ion between God and the rest of crea
tion. Martin Buber in his 1 and thou has emphasized the
significance of man as a conscious individual as against that
which we designate a "thing," or an "it." But John Baillie,
in his most remarkable book, Our Knowledge of God, makes it
quite clear that the person to person analogy as applied to
man's relation to God and expressed in the formula "I-thou,"
is quite inadequate to convey the full meaning of God's re
lation to man. For God is more than a "thou" as we conceive
of it. The attractiveness of Buber's thought must not
blind us to its limitations.
On the vital relation between God and the man who
has accepted the Word, Brunner makes this stimulating remark.
the New Testament, however. Justification is never
presented merely as a Judicial acquittal but it is al-
l4
' ■ Ibldr, - p p -153-54.
130
ways also a creative act of God. Since man comes into
a new position he gains a new reality. Justification
is directly both rebirth and sanctification. For the
new position is not only an act of God, it is also at
the same time knowledge and obed.ience, the believing
obedience of man. . . . The existence of man . . . is
responsive actuality, the actual answer of man to the
actual Word of God.^5
In these thoughts, Brunner has lifted the whole con
cept of Justification out of the legalistic framework. By
so doing, Brunner brings us closer to the Reformation intent j
which has become obscured by the brittle thinking of many
post-Reformation theologians.
Finally it needs to be clearly stated that the em
pirical ego, the center of the unregenerate man, is super
seded by a new center, man's true center which he receives
again in Christ Jesus. And this self is contained in God,
leaving man entirely free, yet belonging wholly to God. It
is this fact more than any other which accentuates the need
for a pure understanding of the Word— the understanding
I
which clearly perceives that no philosophy conceived by man
is able to reveal the meaning of man's destiny, man's hope,
and man's source.
The perfect realization of this God-intended self,
however, is simply the realization of God-intended
humanity. . .. In Jesus Christ the true self comes
to the individual and to humanity, and is its meaning.
Can there be a stronger expression of the fact that
Ibid. , p. 176.
131
the true self of man is not in himself but in Jesus
Christ, and therefore that it is in God? Hence Christian
anthropology is essentially Christology; for Christ is
our righteousness, our sanctification, and our life.^^
"He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he
that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." (Matt.
10:39.)
Neither an abstract intellect, nor an unconscious
animal is man. And in God, the reconstituted individual is ;
truly man.
David Swenson in a comment on Kierkegaard’s view of
the individual in relation to society and the Kingdom of
God writes:
. . . Kierkegaard’s standpoint for Christian ethics
is not primarily social, but aggressively and decisively
individualistic. The concept of the Community when
applied to the present life is an impatient anticipation
of the Eternal, an illusion corresponding to the illusion
of a Triumphant Church, of a Christian civilization.
When on the other hand, the Church is recognized as
militant, and the warfare it is engaged in, a Christian
warfare, a spiritual warfare, then the stress is on the
individual, and the individual’s personal relationship
to God becomes necessarily higher than all human fellow
ship. The "Community" is in a state of rest what the
individual is in a state of unrest and struggle; the
community belongs not to time but to Eternity, where it
is the union of all the individuals who as individuals
have endured the test and conquered in the fight. God
wants primitiveness, individualltv;— hence the prin
ciple, "first the Kingdom of God. Ho one who makes
this his life-principle can possibly become "just like
the rest." Each individual is forced to interpret the ;
principle concretely in his own individual fashion— and
^Ibid., p. 178.
132.
life has concreteness enough for innumerable millions.
It is the dignity of the human race that each individual
has something by which he is essentially different from
every other individual; he has a self. And it is the
demoralizing effect of a misuse of culture and science
and the intellectual in general, to take away the
primitiveness, to rob human beings of their selves.^7
It is the renewed self, the self transformed in Christ
Jesus that enters the Kingdom of God. There, in fellowship
with all souls who endure the like transformation, do we
find the "communion of saints" in which all Christians be
lieve. Not on the horizontal plane of human struggle and
conquest but on the vertical plane of God's will done in us
shall the Kingdom of God be established on earth— beginning ,
in the heart of every true believer.
1 7
; David F. Swenson, Something About Kierkegcaard
'(Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 194ÏT/ p. 68.
CHAPTER IV
CHRISTIANITY IS FAITH AND LOVE
The Protestant world made a tremendous mistake when it
allied itself with the atomistic philosophies of Descartes,
Hume and Kant. In trying to figure out and calculate man's
relationship to God, the west was inevitably led to skepti-
1
cism and doubt. Those churchmen who attempted to reinterpret
Christianity after the categories of the above named thinkers
led their respective organizations into a moral and intellec
tual decline. Strange as it may seem at first glance, a
doctrine which tries to be intellectuedistic and moralistic
ends by causing a profound anti-inteliectualism and immoral-
ism. For morality is the effect or result of a profound a,c-
ceptance of God— of God ever present, ever near. The moral
law alone focuses attention on sin without providing the
means of freedom from sin. The intellectualism of the
Deists (heirs of Descartes), appearing again in another form '
during the reign of Hegel, only accentuated the ego with its
sense of separation under the delusion that the Word of God
could be figured out. One of the greatest hoaxes inherited
from that era of smug complacency was the notion that Jesus
was just a great moral teacher.
The age wliich took for its motto ' the proper study of
mankind is man' is beginning to discover that there is no
134 ^
such thing as man in himself. There is only man in relation
to God. For the true nature of man is the image of God. And
nmn rediscovers himself only when he returns to God through
the rebirth wrought by the Word of God.
Flushed with the sense of power gained through some
degree of ability to bend the forces of nature to selfish
ends, western man thought he was building for himself an
earthly paradise peopled with prosperous merchants and obe
dient workmen, a world which God had given to ma.n— but under >
certain conditions which were conveniently ignored.
When the psycho-analysts finally took a peek at the
hidden contents beneath the surfa.ce of this 'best of all
possible worlds' and told their discovery, polite society
was shocked at first with holy horror. But a little later,
the ugly fact was accepted along with the many other ugly
facts which the modern world was learning how to look at,
adjust to, and ignore.
There is only one basic reason for looking into the
thought of the several men whose views have been employed by
the various religious organizations calling themselves Chris
tian. That reason may best be summed up in the question 'Do
these views mirror an exact adherence to the teachings of
Jesus Christ?' There is nothing aribtrary about such a po- ,
|sition. For if we are going to interpret the teachings of
Jesus to mean whatever notions and theories we may have
135
adopted through association with the thought of any particu
lar age or group of people, we are no longer dealing with
the Gospel but some man-made version of it. Some may object
that we do not have all the words of Jesus and that certain
things may have been added and other things taken away. But
the principle of those teachings of Christ viz., the love of
God for mankind and all that this principle involves is
clearly set forth in the New Testament and the Life which
carried out tiiis principle even to the Cross and the Resur
rection remains for all eternity the fulfillment of the
Teaching. Those who would know the doctrine, whether it is
true, need but to understand and apply it to their lives and
they will have the confirmation. Those who would know Jesus
Christ need but to turn fully to God in prayer and that real-
I
ization will be granted them. There is nothing mysterious
about the truth of all these things except the mystification
which certain groups calling themselves Christian have chosen
to place around the pure teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ.
.'And when he was alone, they that were about him with the
twelve asked of him the parable. And he said unto them, Unto
you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. '
(Mark 4:10-11.)
No one will ever understand the Jesus of history
simply by reading history books. One must be with Jesus in ;
spirit in order to know and understand Him. And this pos-
136
sibility becomes a fact for those who choose to accept the
grace freely given and then proceed to ^ the will of God.
However limited and narrow may have been the compre
hension Galvin possessed on the matter of living out the
teaching of Christ, it is to his credit that he did not suc
cumb to the delusion that the hearing of the Word can be-
separated from the doing of the Word. In Calvin's concep
tion, there was a vital relationship between the hearing and
the doing. But his tendency to systematize and regulate
everything did not allow sufficiently from the spontaneous
expression of the Creative Word in the life of the individ
ual. Having freed themselves from one tyranny, the men of
Geneva unwittingly forged another. Here it is not a ques
tion of justifying or condemning their actions, but a just
acceptance of the truth of the situation. In principle,
they intended well and they did the best they knew how with
the understanding they possessed. But they did not suffi
ciently allow for the very thing they stressed so much viz.,
the Divine Providence working out in the hearts and minds of
believers to execute the decrees of God, His plan and design ’
for mankind. Instead of evangelical perfection, i.e. the
sanctification and redemption of our lives through the Holy
Spirit working within us, we find an increasingly moralistic
and legalistic emphasis. And instead of the Creative Word
enlightening the heart and mind, there was evolved a '
137
Protestant scholasticism relying more on man's word than
God* s Word.
If we are to be wise, we must avoid the temptation to
'go back to Calvin' or revert to the emotional techniques of
a narrow Fundamentalism. This world belongs to God and we
are all individual pilgrims, passing from eternity to eter
nity. The Church belongs to God and the Vicar of Christ on
earth is the Holy Ghost bearing witness in the hearts of all :
believers in the Gospel. These are simple, basic, self-
evident truths. But they are not common-places nor are they
trite phrases except in the mouths of those to whom they are ■
mere words. There can be no substitutes for the converted
soul. Erudition, the glamour of a scintillating intellect,
the prestige of public esteem or popular appeal, are mere
weeds passing for the Word which convinces the heart and
draws the soul into concord with God. Man is always con
fronted with God. And although man is faced with eternity ;
on every hand, he sees only a temporal succession of chang
ing patterns of circumstance until he hears and listens to
the Word sounding within his heart.
Were every religious edifice destroyed and every re
ligious organization disintegrated, it would not affect in
the least the power of Christianity. And were there but one
man on earth witnessing to the Word of God, there would the
Church be. All these things have been stated many times ;
138
before. The learned know them well. Those with less infor
mation may be somewhat startled, so unfamiliar is their sound
in this age of mass production and mass distribution and mass
membership in mass ‘churches. ‘ But tliat does not in the
least alter tiieir soundness doctrinally or affect their need
to be stated in the twentieth century. In fact, these im
portant truths take on new meaning in the light of present
trends.
There is a tremendous urgency at all times for the
truth of Jesus Clirist. But in this second half of the
twentieth century, the time for idle theorizing has passed.
Men are no longer Interested in proving by intellectual or
mathematical demonstrations the truths of the Bible. This
change has come about less because of deeper understanding
than because of the deep feeling of insecurity which is
growing at the heart of mankind. Already Christians in many,
parts of the world are being forced to close their places of
worship. Some are giving up their bodies through persecu
tion. It is by no means outside the realm of possibility
'that Christians in every country will be called upon to
stand for their faith at the cost of all they hold dear in
this world.
Kierkegaard tried to tell us more than a century ago
ithat we cannot make of God an object of intellectual specula-
ition. In vain did he try to tell us that we cannot find God
139
by way of intellectual abstraction. Now in our time men have
risen up to warn us that God will not be found by probing in
to the festering mass of decaying imagery and fantasy. The
psychological god is as deceptive as the intellectual god.
For God is neither a concept nor an instinct. God and
His name is am» Deep within the abyss of being is that
center of Reality which is the omnipresent God, the same
God who manifested Himself in Jesus Christ. It is only ne
cessary to contact that God in prayer in order to know who
He is. And this way is open to all who believe on the Son of
God. Having known God it is for us to obey His guidance
through the leading of His Spirit. For the image of God
within us hears the Word, but the likeness which has been
lost through the Fall must be recovered through the whole-
making of the Spirit. Then it will be possible to speak of
divine tilings with an under standing heart, able to convince
those who seek, that 'God was in Christ‘ for we shall know
Him after the Spirit, and no more as the students of a
strange tongue who mumble the phrases before them haltingly ,
and with blindness of understanding.
God is always caAling us through His Word. His Word
is love. His love reaches out and draws us to Him if we
I
will but let it happen to us. But we have placed so many
conditions in the way of acceptance. How simple it could be >
if we would but empty our minds of preconceived notions and
140
distorted versions of God and His Word. It seems to be the
way of man to choose a complicated, devious, mysterious course
in his search for Truth. Behind the circuitous and difficult
way- he chooses is the we11-disgulsed motive of pride— the
impulse which makes him affirm that he will conquer life by
his own unaided efforts. It is not the machine age that has
made men egotistical. Rather the machine has provided more
scope for the selfish pride in men.
Since the coming of the evolutionary theory through
the door of biology and its mass application to the whole of
existence by philosophers of the first half of the twentieth ,
century it has become quite the usual thing to believe that
as automatically as he outgrows childhood, so will man out
grow selfishness and arrogance. But it is the sad experience
of any observant person to see the impulses of the child
cunningly ‘evolved* in the man and woman of fifty who often '
passes as a most respectable citizen in the community.
Following the indications derived from the biological
sciences, psychology has come to see in man more than a ;
bundle of ‘conditioned reflexes* to sense stimuli. Psychol-'
ogy has observed that a major part of man's development and ,
that which guides the direction of his psychic forces is the
evaluation process* The values of his immediate and more
remote environment are impressed upon the nervous system !
with relative emp^sis depending on the degree of receptivity
I4l
at the time of impression. The family and the ever-expanding
social context lead out the responses of the child* It is
instructed to meet each set of circumstances with a certain
set of responses so that the incipient man learns to group
and pattern its motives and resulting actions according to
the order or importance established by the norms of those
who s,re most vitally related to it. Realizing that malad
justment in the individual is a result of warped evaluation, '
certain branches of psychology attempt to get behind the
apparent causes of inharmony and find the basic pattern
which makes the person move toward or away from, to love or
hate, etc. the many aspects of his psycho-physical world of
experience.
The aim of this type of psychology is to bring about
a harmonious adjustment between the individual and society
so that the person fits into the community. By untangling
the knots in the lines of energy, the psychologist is sup
posed to set the person free to play his part in the social
context. This is as far as thinking along this line has
gone among the more influentia.1 groups as of 1950. At this :
point, a few vital questions arise to demand our attention. '
1
What is the point of view of the psychologist toward the
ba-sic aim of human life? What is the goal of society? What
:is the true relation between the individual and society?
What part_does__Gp_d have_.in_ the total _process?_ j
142
The more cautious psychologist usually refrains from
committing himself on the first and last question on the
grounds that they are speculative and philosophical and
therefore outside the area of his concern. Yet he talks
about adjustment and relations betweens persons and society.
He recognizes that movement is continuous and that movement
is tending in a certain direction. The better part is
covered by the term 'process,’ whether in the psyche or its
projection, the society of men adjusted to one another in a
variety of ways. Perhaps he will go so far as to say it is
the tendency of man to fulfill his nature just as the other
animals do. This type of admission, which is not uncommon,
whether it is expressed under the form of ego or sex orienta
tion definitely limits man’s possibilities to those of an
entirely physical expression. This kind of psychology
simply has no answer to the basic questions of life. It
trusts in blind instinct and commits the individual to the
social mores. The individual is ’adjusted’ if he behaves as
the dominant group in his society behaves. From this point
of view it is logical that selfishness, sensuality and
vanity should motivate the individual in the fulfillment of
his nature because these qualities happen to be most evident
in society. From this consideration alone it is clear that
,all who follow Christ must carefully study the trend and
background of any type _of thought before they espouse and
143
use it to further the Cause of Christ. Otherwise they stand
in danger of becoming blind leaders of the blind. For if
the mores of a society are relative to the conditioning of
that society, it is only a step to maintain that the Gospel
is relative to a particular culture. And this step has been
taken by many who otherwise call themselves Christian. It
is a sad image of Christ tiiat is presented to mankind for
acceptance in the name of enlightenment.
The plain fact is that psychology leaves God out of
the picture. The only factors considered are the psychic
aspect of the human being and society. These and the rela
tive values they involve according to the generally accepted
norm constitute the entire field of enquiry. We do not con
demn psychology for its limita,tions. But we must become
aware of them lest we overvalue this area of investigation.
The Lord told his disciples to be in the world yet
not of the world. Whatever else this statement may mean it
certainly means that they were not to share the values of
the 'world. ' And what can the 'world* be if not the society
of unregenerate men? It is well for Christians to examine
their charity and see if it may not include a good deal of
sentimental idealism. The apostle John tells us that the
whole world lies in sin. Do you think this judgment is less
I
valid today than it was nineteen hundred years ago? And if
[this is_ true, ,_(and_it is) how can we _ta_lk _about becoming____
144
adjusted to the world as the aim of human growth and de
velopment 1 It would not be difficult to trace to their
source the various currents of opinion which have resulted
in the view that Jesus Christ is the authority for the uni
versal Rotarian who g lad-hands the world as the sign of his
friendly charity to all. I do not find in Jesus or His
disciples men who made a satisfying adjustment to society the
basic theme of their message to mankind. I seem to hear
again and again the words "Be not conformed to this world;
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds. . . ."
Behind the theory that the highest achievement of man
and the most healthy adjustment is the free and unchecked ex
pression of his biological urges and ego cravings is the as
sumption that man is merely an animal. The society which
considers the arrangement of its economy in terms of the
greatest material S8.tisfaction of the greatest number is
likewise motivated by the belief that man is merely an
animal. All the lip-service to abstract ideals is mere
words. The direction of attention and the values emphasized
in the life of the individual and in society tell more than
words where the balance of interest lies, and also the actual
attitude and thought about man.
There is nothing at all Christian in the theories and
values which stress conformity to the world as the goal of '
the individual.
1^5
Gan Satan by Satan cast out Satan? Absurd as the
question may appear, there are many who call themselves
Christian who are trying to do just that. In their desire to
win the world to Chrlstlanity, they have modified the Gospel
so as to palliate the world.
Rousseau’s idea, of man as the good-natured savage
spoiled by civilization carried with it the suggestion that
if we remove the checks of society upon the instincts of man ■
he would be a happy and constructive creature# We find this
attitude perpetuated in much of the contemporary psychologi
cal theory with its hang-over notions from the Age of Reason
and Sentimentality.
God in his infinite love has not permitted man to
sleep contentedly with these fanciful notions. Man is being
aroused from his smug optimism by the terrible facts of
world-wide cynicism and the complete distortion of truth by
means of the ’big lie’ in the hands of some of the men who
succeeded in shaking off the cultivation of western civiliza-^
tion. It is not necessary to cite the obvious facts which
are dinning the ears of every intelligent person alive today.
Christianity will not save the world by conforming to
the opinions of the world. The. religious organizations that
do attempt to compromise may gain a large following. But
they will be ineffectual in regard to the major task of the |
Church--vi z • ..to _ bring. mankind. to.JJhrl s t... _______ __J
146
Turning to those more earnest Christians who realize
we cannot compromise with the world and who have apprehended
the fact that each man is called to set aside unreality and
distorted ways so that he may prepare for Him who is the
Way, the Truth and the Life, we must ask whether they have
fully comprehended the fact that merely knowing the law does
not free one from the transgression of the laws. For there
is an actual tendency in every man to turn away from God !
and follow the way that leads to destruction.
In the time preceding the terrible age into which the
world has entered it was much more difficult to call atten
tion to the fact of the radical tendency to sin that exists
in every man. But the delusion of the noble savage has been
set aside by thinking members of the Church tod.ay. Their
attention has been forced by circumstances to take notice of
the widespread evil which men have brought about on a larger .
scale than ever before. Intelligent churchmen know better
than ever before that ethical theory and instruction in sys- ,
terns of morality cannot cause men to seek the path of ;
righteousness. They know that the person who has been made
to see his distorted affections in the light of psychological
analysis does not become ipso facto a mature responsible
person even according to the standards of the world.
No, a knowledge of the law cannot free man from trans-
gressing the law any more than_ a _know^%e of the principles
14?
of dynamic symmetry can make a man become a great artist. A
knowledge of certain laws of the psyche and the concrete
knowledge of one‘s own psychic movements does not cause one
to become a saint.
A man may cherish a wrong attitude and suppress his
awareness of it by ’forgetting.’ He may suffer from its un
conscious effects in unsuspected aspects of his life until
it is drawn to the surface again by an analyst. Then the '
analyst may proceed to try to help the patient to accept a
greater understanding of the problem. But it by no means*
follows that the person with the warped attitude, or ’com
plex, ’ is going to accept the new evaluation. This example
bears the limitation of the field from which it is drawn for
the reasons set forth already. But it helps to make clear
the fact of sin and responsibility for sin. St. John tells
us: “This is the condemnation : that light is come into the
world and men loved darkness rather than light.” Again “If
I had not come .... they had not sinned. But now they
have seen and hated both me and my Father.”
The fact of sin is that men have turned away from the
Word of God, “the light that enlightens every man that comes
into the world, “ and have taken to themselves the opinions of
men, the ’traditions’ of which Jesus spoke. Now light is
1
the medium of life, energy, growth, for mankind, in its '
physical aspect as well as the means by which men distinguish
148
the objects of existence round about them. In the absence of
light there is no growth. Eventually death results when man
loses contact with the agency of life. In the darkness
(which is notiling in itself) man cannot distinguish what he,
contacts. He neither knows what is around him and what he
does contact by means of his other senses may through wrong
association be^ identified with something entirely different.
In short, he is blind and confused without light.
The responsibility for sin is in the fact that men
have chosen the darkness rather than the light. In short,
men have refused to accept the true Light when it came into
the world. And if a man loves the darkness and refuses to
accept the truth of Jesus Christ, there is no power in heaven
or on earth which can save him from destruction and disin
tegration.
And this is a fearful privation, of the grace of God
here, and of the Pace of God hereafter; a privation so
much worse than nothing, as that they upon whom it falls,
would faine be nothing, and cannot.^
Whoever loves the Light shall become a new being. No
more will darkness hide him from the face of the Unseen. God
in his infinite glory will make plain the Truth. 'Except a |
man be born again, he shall not see the kingdom of God. ' '
The glorious view that is held before the soul of man,
John Donne, From A Sermon preached to the King* s
Maiestie. at Whitehall, 24_Febr.. 1625. _ ____ . . __
.that he may become partaker of the divine nature, is the real
reason for man* s presence here upon earth. Jesus did not
come merely to save men from death. He came and brought with
Him the possibility of becoming the sons of God by partaking
of the divine nature.
There is no other way to life, to truth, to God ex
cept by way of accepting Jesus Christ, the Word of God.
Either we seek to harmonize with and conform to the world
and sink into nothingness or else we turn to God and ’seek
Him while He may be found. ' Life or death— we are faced
with an absolute choice and the responsibility is with each .
individual. No one can make the choice for another. He who
chooses God will find a new life, a new consciousness, a new
understanding gradually come to birth in his existence. He
will come to know the meaning of the words ’I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me.' Then he will discover that the
torment in his life was the call of God to turn into the way
of peace. Who can fathom the stillness that fills the soul
who meets his God? Who can comprehend the measureless light ,
of love which transforms the understanding of the mind and
causes the spirit to search the deep things of God? He who
hears the sound of the interior Word will find his life be
coming a song in the realm of God.
No one Can speak of the mysteries of transformation.
For, they, are the .heritage,of the sons _^of_ God._ _ _ Then__are_they ^
150,
no more mysteries, but clear light in those who have the mind
of Christ.
Behind every statement Jesus uttered stands the mys
tery of the Kingdom of God.
We strive and struggle to comprehend this mystery.
Perhaps we give up as the rationalists have done, and try
to explain it away in purely eschatological terms. But
I
Jesus said the Kingdom of God is within the reach of every
man who will accept it. Since the Kingdom is within us,
the only thing that remains for us to do in order to know
this truth is to become conscious of it. To ask why only
a few have realized the truth of this statement in the
nearly two thousand years since the Advent is parallel to
the question why Jesus was not accepted as the Son of God
when He lived among men and performed the miracles recorded
in the Gospels. Why do men love darkness rather than light?
■There can be no reason for these things any more than there
can be reason for a man to take his own life. God has
called men to everlasting life in perfect communion with
Himself. That is all that interests the Christian. It is '
quite irrelevant that he should spend his time speculating
■ about facts which do not yield to reason. The true
'Christian is so filled with love for God and His Kingdom
,that he has no time for idle speculation of this sort.
The fact of sin is plain; and in the.light of the
f - — -, 3—
Gospel it is evident where the responsibility for sin lies.
If one were to put it very simply, sin appears in a human
life when the seeming is chosen instead of the real. By
Judging from appearances, the individual misses the path of
righteousness. “Judge not according to appearances; but
Judge righteous Judgment.”
Since man was created in the image and likeness of
God, the “first” occasion of sin was the choice of acting
contrary to his orni essential nature. By so doing, man not
only disobeyed God but violated his oim nature and natural
tendency, which is to choose what God ordains for the good
of His creation.
By turning away from God and loving the “darkness,“
man has become so used to the world of shades and "ghosts”
that he is blinded by the light of truth when it comes into
his existence. He has lost the use of his ability to see
the truth and like a man under a spell, he no longer remem
bers God or his own true self. '
It is from this point of view that we can understand ,
why Augustine used the images of forgetting and remembering
in the tenth chapter of the Confessions. . Also his liking
for the concept of spiritual illumination which he based
on the prologue of John's Gospel and developed in his de
lineation of the seven stages of the soul's return to
God. In the sixth state, the soul enters the “marvellous
152
, light” of God. The enlightenment follows the attainment
of calm and peace in the “fifth” stage of the soul's jour
ney.
It is very limited and anthropomorphic to Imagine
God as a taskmaster who arbitrarily imposes a duty upon man
as though he were a slave who is merely told what to do
and then is punished severely if he does not adhere to his
assigned task.
God knows the plan of His creation so that each
part works together to form a perfect whole— not as the
.parts of a machine but as the parts of a vine which cannot
be separated, in structure and function, from their rela
tive part in the life of the organism. God cares for the
vine.
Men chose to separate from the vine of life. Hence
their need of salvation. For he needs to be saved who has
lost the way of life— not he who is firmly upon it. God
sent His Son into the world that men might be restored to
their rightful place in the divine plan.
We have dwelt already on the element of choice and
responsibility in the context of sin. But there remains the
fact of need and the realization of need. First we must set
out the need in its broadest application. And, as already
stated, man needs to find his way back to God's plan. There.
'can be no doubt about the existence of God's plan. The whole
153
universe testifies to it. And every man who has been born
again of God testifies to it. There is no other way of prov
ing the existence of God and His plan. One cannot prove it
by mere words. Even the Inspired words of Scripture mean
nothing until the heart has been awakened to the living
Reality within them. The most that can be done by means of
words is to conceive images which by their clarity and sym
bolic value are able to act as sparks to the mind prepared
for the enlightening. Man needs to find his way back to God
who is inseparable from His plan. For by His Mind, being
and love He sustains it and brings it to fulfillment in
eternity.
Having stated the need, we must consider what the in-'
dividual must do to retrace his steps. He must find the Plan
if he is to know it and live in harmony with it. Since the
plan is neither a blue print laid away in some dimensional
condition nor is it a pillar of stone with some maxims in
scribed on it, it can only be found where it viz., in the '
Kingdom of God within every human heart. That is where
every man who seeks shall find it. And were he to read
every book that has ever been written or visit every time :
I
and place that has ever existed, even were he to meet Jesus
Christ in the flesh, he would be referred to the God who
dwells in a place 'set apart’ within the center of his being.
"Know ye not that ye are the temples of the 'living God and
154
that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"
Every man must make the Word of salvation his own.
The Word is God's plan. "For by Him were all things
made.” Now faith is continually stressed as the key that
unlocks the gate of heaven. But what is faith? Preachers
are constantly exhorting people from the pulpits to have
; faith as though it were some vague nebulous condition of
passivity in which God is supposed to work wonders and make
everything all right. Faith is no such thing. Faith is
the spirit of divine acceptance which, when it enters
a man's consciousness, makes a fact of his spiritual pos-
isibility. There are no mysteries within the Kingdom of
I
God. They are all on the outside looking in. This is
:not so startling when it is associated with faith. At
first we know only of the possibility of a certain condi
tion, What it actually may be, what it may involve, etc.
is all a matter of conjecture. In short, it is a mystery.
But once we have fully entered into the substance of
, that which we only knew as existing in the realm of pos
sibility, the mystery ceases. "Now we see as in a glass
darkly, but then, face to face." This perspective toward
mystery and the character of faith is void of all
glamour and mysticism. It may seem downright plain.
!
But faith and the Kingdom of God are absolute realities.
We do not find them nor are we aided by fanciful
155
language or obscure involved phraseology. The author has
tried his best to stay close to the simplest, clearest
language, realizing that the best directive is a clean usable
one, rather than an ornate technical one.
When Jesus spoke to his disciples and said to them
'the words I speak unto you— they are spirit and they are
life,' he could hardly have been referring to the sound vi
brations that impinged on the t^^mpanum of his listeners'
ears. Jesus was Reality-minded, and every word he uttered
came filled with the consciousness of life and truth. And
he who received them then and who receives them now in faith
will come to know not only the words but Him who spoke them.
I. TRENDS
In the Reformation period, prior to the mechanical
universe invented in the seventeenth century, men in religion
'Still thought of God as omnipresent to His creation. The
world and the lives of men was filled with a moving, dynamic
purpose.
God had revealed Himself in the Bible as the One Who
Is. (Exodus.) And the nature of Him who truly i_s, is love
{àyd.'nrj ) John. All of God's creation is that which is, be
cause He has given it existence and being. Lastly, God who
is love by nature, gives the Son of His love to all who willi
receive Him in love, that they may be 'partakers of the i
. 156:
divine nature.' (îl-Deter 1:4) And this is possible because
God has created each man in the image and likeness of Himself .
(Genesis 1:27) He confers Being upon beings who, through
the regeneration of His love, are translated into the Kingdom
of His dear Son (Gplossians 1:13)* We cannot lose the divine
image. For this is our being, or essence, and through the
regeneration of Christ we enter into a relationship with God
which is simply inconceivable to the human intellect. We can
only bear witness to it when we have entered into the realm
of God. All the attempts to describe the gift of God stand
in danger of serious and fatal misunderstanding. It is some
what similar to trying to explain the beauties of Bach's
B minor Mass to a man born deaf.
Yet so long as we are going to use language to convey
some meaning, we must have real referrents. The basic real
ity is the existence of God. God i^. And in immediate se
quence to this basic reality, I am. These are the basic
facts with which every man has to deal. And it was this
which prompted Augustine to x^jrite that he only xfanted to
know God and his own soul.
A man who thought in terms of the mechanistic cos
mology would naturally think this a very narrow and impos
sible position to take. God for him is outside of the
universe. The 'soul' is locked up in the brain. All that ,
can be known is presented to him in the realm of extension.
157
But for Augustine, God was the God of the Bible. God was for
him the only real existence* And this God had given Iriim ex
istence. Through Adam's fall, men have lapsed from their
true condition. They no longer know God. Neither do they
know their true selves, the being which God gave them in the
beginning. Hence Augustine was stating what every Christian
really means when he seeks salvation. For we can only really
I
know God and our oxvn souls when, through faith, we have a,c-
cepted Jesus Christ at the center of our being, and have
allowed Him to change our lives from sin and unlikeness to
Him into the radiant image of His glory which shines from
everlasting to everlasting. In this state only is true
knowledge possible. For we have then been cleared of the
astigmatic vision with which we looked at life before.
It has taken the corrosive influence of David Hume
and Feuerbach to undermine the false assurance of mechanism,
although caught within the atomistic pattern themselves. It
has taken novelists like Dostoevsky to reveal the unpleasant
depths beneath the respectable ego of the society nurtured 1
: . '
on gods of the 'Enlightenment.' There is still a vast |
amount of naive confidence that the piiysical sciences can
lead the way out of Insecurity and doubt. But this is just :
a 'hangover' from the past, which the generality of mankind
accept along with the many other delusions and illusions
which are passed on to each generation by force of habit and
158.
the automatism of the unregenerate mentality.
The desire to make systems does not deter even the
cynic. Spengler, in fact, has erected a system based on
cynicism. For him, all motives are rooted in the biological
impulses of the race which folloxv a natural cycle, fixed and
determined. For him, the value of history lies in the pos-
sibility of charting the recurrent cycles of culture and
civilization which exist to mark off the development of
'prime symbols,* that which the race is destined to unfold
p
in its life sequence.
Arnold Toynbee is much nearer a Christian point of
view in his great work A Study of History. Toynbee recog
nizes a pattern of development in all the civilizations of
mankind in the past. But there is no deterministic cycle in
his concept of history. He sees civilization as the total
pattern of relationships between individuals— individuals
who are responsible for their choices and who through their
decisions and resulting actions determine for themselves the
way that their civilization shall go.
It is doubtful whether Mr. Toynbee’s ideas xfHi find
a receptive matrix to contain and develop them. There is too
strong a leaning in the direction of positivism, of the type '
of Auguste Comte, for a more Christian interpretation of
p
Oswald Spengler, Decline of the West, Volume I.
159
history to be accepted by the academic mind of today. Not
that Comte’s views are accepted literally in place of
Toynbee’s. (For Comte was a philosopher of history as well
as a sociologist.) But there is a stronger tendency to
conceive of society as an evolving entity with the individual
reduced to the status of a function of his environment.
Empirical science replaces metaphysics as the criterion of
knowledge.
The Christian must take his stand on the fundamental
fact of the Being of God and his own existence in that Being ■
Who upholds, sustains, and brings to fruition the plan of
redemption for as many who, by their own free choice, accept
the will of God. The Ciiristian does not stand outside of
society. He stands within society, not as a function of the
environment, but as a living member of mankind. He is wdth
in, yet above history. For he lives in God who is above
history yet within it. The Christian stands between Time and
Eternity. .When he is mature, he is a citizen of heaven as
well as of the earth.
But it is impossible to approach and picture with any
degree of meaning that which truly exists in the Christian
so long as we cling to the kind of false intellectualism
which regards the individual in terms of split-up segments.
We must see each other as we really are— individual souls
approaching God who is our very Being. Or conversely
.160
individuals who are withdrawing from God, the source of all
being and existence.
We are: not vegetables, nor are x - ^ r e mechanisms. God
sees us xvhole and perfect, as we exist in Him. It is we who
make ourselves unknown to God by falling away from perfec
tion* God knows us in salvation. So to know God is more
precisely to be known by God— knowing in being known.
When we have regained the likeness which we had with '
God in the beginning then also do we realize our true ex
istence in Him. This presents a paradox to common sense.
But to be a Christian means, among other things, to acquire
an * uncommon’ .sense.
These things which we write in paradox are extremely
simple in actuality— so simple that we do not turn to them
and realize their meaning until we axvaken to our basic needs*
What is more simple than the omnipresence of God— yet we do
not turn to God until we realize our need of Him.
The inner spiritual movement of Protestant Christian
ity has often been attacked through lack of understanding of
its dynamic. There are those who maintain that Reformation
.spirituality is essentially quietistic because it denies the ;
value of works. On the other hand there are those who claim
that Protestantism is activistic, absorbed in externality—
in the attempt to change the world by various kinds of :
legislated reforms, social programmes, and morality j
I6l
campaigns. These two extremes of criticism have adequate
justification on the basis of observation of the lives of
many who call themselves Christian.
In answer to the first charge, heard most often in
Roman Catholic quarters, it must be definitely asserted that
the Protestant ethos is positive and affirmative, the very
thing which quietism is not. But the positive quality of its
spirituality lies in its emphasis upon whole-hearted response
to the Word of God, spoken in Christ, revealed in Scripture
and spoken again in the hearts of all believers through the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Our response consists in
allowing the Word of God to speak in and through us. In
permitting this spiritual activity to take place within us
until the light of Christ has filled our lives and radiates
through us unobstruetedly, to the benefit of mankind, we
have fulfilled our responsibility. There is nothing negative
or quietistic in this. For the true response requires us to
be alert at all times to the prompting of the Spirit. We are
required to trust God in all things and self in none. Nor
could we do this of ourselves. But we have the assurance of
the Scripture that it is God x^hich worketh in you both to
will and to do of His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13)
: There are those who think that when the Protestant
says he believes in Christ, he is simply giving his approval
to the position maintained by some religious body in the
162
same attitude that he might say he believed in Einstein's
theory of relativity. This criticism is rightly directed
against many within the bounds of Protestant orthodoxy who
do have this attitude. Their lives and their Christian ex
perience show forth the poverty of their understanding.
The kind of acceptance and response which is of the
very essence^of Christianity is clear, simple, direct, un-
mediated by ritualistic symbols. It is the response of
life to Life, of love to Love, of light to Light. It is en
tirely free from emotionalism of any kind. It has nothing
to do with yearnings and longings for an absent Beloved.
For God does not play games with the human soul. The promise
of Scripture is that those who fully accept, i.e. have faith,
shall be made partakers of the divine nature.
Anders Nygren rightly scores the mistaken belief that,
man can climb up into God of his own unaided will, a view
which has sometimes been associated with Catholic piety.
Nygren is not entirely sound in his position and his work
Agape and Eros stands in need of considerable correction.
However, he does rightly stress that salvation is given to
man in the Incarnation; that man has not earned the gift cf
God, it is freely given. Luther's great insight was the
free gift of God to all who believe on Christ.
Well now! my God has given to me, unworthy and lost i
man, without any merit, absolutely for nothing and out
163
of pure mercy, through and in Christ, the full riches of
all godliness and blessedness, so that I henceforth need
nothing more than to believe it is so. Well then, for
such a Father, who has so prodigally lavished upon me
his blessings, I will in return freely, joyously and for
nothing do what is well-pleasing to him, and also be a
Christian towards my neighbor, as Christ has been to me.^
The key to the understanding of this passage which is
so simple, yet in need of careful treatment, is in the words
“to believe it is so.“ Contrary to the false opinion that
this is a verbal assent, we must affirm that it is the most
positive act of which man is capable. And fully to believe
reaches down into the depths of man's soul and brings about
a complete revolution of life. The new life which follows
the acceptance of Christ is an act of gratitude and thanks
giving for the gift so freely given.
N. P. Williams in his book The Grace of God makes a
distinction between the “once-born" and “twice-born" Chris-
I
tian. (He was not the first to think of such an antinomy.) ;
The "twice-born" Christian has gone through a sudden change
of a very radical■nature which leaves the man different in !
certain fundamental respects. He uses Paul and Augustine as'
examples. However, it needs to be pointed out that such
“sudden" changes have a long background of struggle and con-'
flict as is evident both in the case of Paul and Augustine.
o I
^ Luther, WA vii, p. 35» 25 ff., quoted by A. Nygren '
in A^ape and Eros, Part II, vol. ii (London, 1939), P* 509n. ;
l64
Williams’ conception of a "once-born" Christian makes one
think of the admonition in Revela,tion "because thou hast been
neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth."
Profound faith in God may appear suddenly. But in
most instances there are many crises and struggles before a
complete turning to God is evident. For there is an element
in man which resists God until the very end. Only at the
end is the "new man" completely victorious over the "old
man." And then, the glory is of God, as well as the victory.
"Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our lord
Jesus Christ."
Through the knowledge given to us by the Word of God,
viz., the basic truth of our existence in God who is our very
life, "For in Him we live and move and have our being," we
are in a position to take to ourselves the free gift of
God, and through the exercise of positive faith, become es
tablished in the realization that "Now are vie the sons of
God. "
It is at this point that the significance of the
testimony of the saints we have discussed in this book be
comes evident. For Augustine, Bernard, and John of the
Cross, the three men whose ideas of Christianity as "the way
unto life" have dominated both Protestant and Catholic think
ing, our g0 8.1 on earth is to remember God and through Him, t
our true selves, whom we have forgotten. The ascetic ;
165
disciplines, the attainment of humility and charity (the
foundation and the roof of the Christian life as St. Francis
de Sales wrote to Mme de Chantai), x^rere conceived as neces
sary steps in the process of recovering the consciousness of
Him whom we have forgotten. They realized, from experience,
that they had to become empty of self in order to be filled
with Christ.
Not only these men, but even the Epistles are full of
references to our growth in grace. They remind us that the
life of regeneration is a constant process and men become
aaints only when they have "persevered to the end." It is
the lack of understanding of this particular point which is
the cause of so much confusion in the types of Protestant
religion which attempt to convert people by overwhelming
them with emotional appeals gauged to rouse their fears of
damnation. It is a x^/ell-known fact that those who have been
”converted" by these emotional appeals frequently revert to
their former condition with the additional confusion intro
duced by the emotional crisis, which remains unassimilated.
II. THE SIMPLICITY OF LOVE
Profound faith establishes a stillness in the heart
which nothing can take away. No matter how much personal
■suffering the Christian may endure and he inevitably endures
'much, it is always on the outside of his faith, so to speak.
166
There is a depth within his being where only God is. And he
most vividly realizes this, when paradoxically, his life is
most exposed to the cross of darkness and misunderstanding.
We think in dramatic terms and imagine that spectacular
physical torture is the form of suffering endured by Chris
tian saints. But that is a pale shadow of the suffering of
the saints. Ho one knows how they suffer. Because it is all
done in silence and simplicity. There are no dramatics in
the life of the saint. He is completely unknown even when
he is known. And the greater the Christian, the more in
visible he is. For he is most near to God who is most in
visible.
The life'Of Agape— it streams out of silence and
pours itself into the hearts and minds of men without their
ever knowing it. God is most gracious to those who are least
deserving. And if they respond, they can become His saints.
God is all love. It is we who judge ourselves when
we fail to respond.
I
If you would know God, face Jesus Christ.
Maturity is always simple, as was the earthly life of
Jesus Christ. And the love, the simple love, which He re
leased into the world is carried on in His Church. God can
do no more than He has done i.e. to reveal Himself and give
Himself so that all who will may receive eternal life. ;
Men will never succeed in their attempts to make a =
16?
system of the love of God. And God does not favor the
theologian with His grace more than He does the humble
peasant or fisherman who might perhaps listen to, and hear,
and heed His Word.
Behind the theology of Augustine, of Bernard, of John
Yepes, is the simple fact that the man who would know God
must turn his attention to Him. The saints know God because
they completely turn to Him. Anything they may write which
later generations classify as theology is written in the
presence of God or apart from God. Men are called saints
because they have so lived in God's presence that at the
end all that we see in them is the light of His countenance.
Instead of being so entirely absorbed in the multi
plicity of terms, categories, images, comparisons, etc. which
men of God used to convey a reflection of that which they
apprehended in spirit and in truth, we should study what it
was that made it possible for them, to become the saints of
the Church. Especially we should note the quality of atten
tion to which they attained.
We cannot hide behind the doctrine of the sovereign
will of God as the explanation for the glorious achievements
of these men and women in the past. They quite simply at
tended to God with all their capacity. It was God who made
it possible. But He gives the power to become His sons to
1
las many as receive His only begotten Son.
168
Augustine used the terminology of the Platonists to
describe his experience of Christian witness; Bernard used
many of the terms employed by the Desert Fathers; John of
the Cross couched his expressions with imagery drawn from
all these as well as from Dionysius and the Scholastics.
But their theme is the theme of every Christian— the finding
of God through Jesus Christ.
The Church can never commit itself to any man-made
system: of theology as the definitive statement of the con
tent of Christian Faith. It would, in fact, constitute a
basic contradiction of the tenets of the Reformation— indeed
of the Gospel, of the Word of God. It is for us to under
stand the Word of God— and that ever more deeply, ever more
completely. But that is an individual affair. For God al
ways addresses Himself directly to each individual, calling
him to repentance and fullness of life in Christ Jesus.
These basic simplicities, these basic verities, must
be affirmed in every generation. Jesus Christ calls us to
bear witness. Let us all become His saints. There never has
been a time when the world so deeply needed the Son of God.
The urgency is perhaps beyond the possibility of comprehen- i
8ion. Yet there is only one way to establish Christianity
Iand that is for every believer to allow Christ to come into
Ihis life. There is no other way. There are so many who are,
! looking for a panacea to heal the sickness of the world.
169
They look forward to some magnificent structure of concep
tualized thinking which will provide the answer to every
thing. Or else they are looking for a "method" a "tech
nique" which xfill solve all the world's problems. Ten
thousand years from now there will still be those seeking
the ansxfer to every problem. And there will continue to be
those who will stand up and ask mankind to believe that they
can supply the final answer.
But there is only one final answer to every problem—
Silence. For those who are ready, the silence will be full
of meaning and they will realize that the Word of God speaks
in silence. For those who are unready— only a void, an
emptiness of hollow unrest until the Son of God is allowed
to enter.
Some day there may be enough who have dedicated them
selves to the Son of God to win mankind by the glory of
their example. But down through the years it has been only
a few who have loved God enough to be satisfied with His
Word. The many have been led by those who have loved their
OTO words more than the Word.
To what then are we called? Are we called to poverty?
Yes, we are called to be poor in self that we may be rich in-
God. Jesus Christ did not come only to save us from death.
He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. ■
And He showed us the way to the plenitude of being with every
170
step that He took. For there is a fullness of comprehension
to meet each situation in life as it develops given in the
name of Jesus.
We do not receive the full value of His name when we
limit ourselves to a stereotyped intellectualization of the
riches that are in Christ.
No one can penetrate the Wisdom of Ood. Yet it has
all been freely given— wisdom which harmonizes every situa- '
tion in life— to the man or woman who receives, i.e. takes
it to himself or herself. Then is there "rejoicing in heaven"
for a space where the soul receives the essence of that which
it has come upon in thought.
It has all been so freely given. We do not begin to
comprehend the vastness of the blessing that has been given
to all mankind. Yet each man must enter into the abiding
place of truth and discover for himself that which has been
so freely given.
All the work has been done for us already. Jesus
Christ, through his life and victory over death upon the
Cross, the same Jesus who was raised again to life— not a
mere spirit, but an actual resurrection of the body— He is
now Lord of all and summons us to follow His example. Nor ;
does He ask a blind submission and a sla.vish imitation. He
wills that each one of us should become what we individually '
I
are capable of becoming— an individualized son of God. |
171
It is exceedingly important to realize that the Word
of God is given to each man that comes into the world. He
is the "Light that enlightens every man that comes into the
world. " Salvation is not given "en masse. " It comes to ev
ery man as the free gift of God— to every man who xd-ll accent
it as freely as it is given. Grace is not given that we
may squander the gift of God in idleness. God has given us
the life that is eternal to take and use in the service of
His glory. For with every gift that is divine, there is an
equal responsibility for its use. Our part is to be so re
ceptive and so attentive that we abide always in His Pre
sence. Having done this, we cannot fail to fulfill our
responsibility to God and our obligation toward mankind. In
this manner we dissolve the apparent antinomy between grace
and works. For grace is to no avail if we fail to respond
to God with all our hearts and minds. Likewise all our ef
forts and activity are to no avail if we rely on our own
strength apart from God.
Our lives should be so filled with gratitude and
thanksgiving for the blessings that we receive in Christ
Jesus, that we freely and spontaneously perform the works
of righteousness, mercy, and humility.
With the freedom which comes with a full acceptance
of the Divine Will of God given to us in Christ Jesus we '
find ourselves within the Kingdom of God, able to do His
172
will because we have made His will our own. It is all so
simple and natural once we accept the truth given us in the
Word.
The great masters of prayer have taught us that by
acceptance we can inherit all things— even the deep things of
God. We do not of our own puny wills storm the citadels of
prayer. We simply open the door of consciousness and allow
the bliss of God to flow into our being, bringing with it
the realization that "now are we the sons of God." (I John
3:2) '
The middle ages, with all the beauty of spirit which
we can find in them, did not understand the principle of
acceptance sufficiently. They lived in the attitude that
the planet earth itself belonged to Satan and that only with
in the walls of the established religion, was it possible to
find a foretaste of heaven. And even within the peace of
the cloister the dominating conception of the body itself
being a prison made it impossible for the full freedom of
the Gospel to be realized. Only in St. Francis of Assisi do
we find a spirit who found in all of God's creation the
beauty and the blessedness which He put there in the be
ginning.
But the bliss of God's creation, the realization of
our true place in the City of God, comes to expression in
consciousness only by degrees. Like the "light that
173
shineth more and more until the perfect day." Were we to
see all things as they really are without the gradual adjust
ment of our vision to the light of truth, we would be blinded,
bewildered and confused— unable to use that which we would
see. So we proceed by degrees to acquire that insight
which makes it possible "to judge all things."
As each new aspect of Divinity comes into view and we
gaze upon it with single attention until we.are entirely
absorbed in what we behold, we are that much nearer to that
Eternity for which we pray— Thy Kingdom come. For God is
wholly present in every part. And to behold Him in love is
to behold Him in Himself.
Gradually we are transformed from small, limited,
ungenerous, uncharitable creatures who seek only their own—
creatures who try to piece together the broken fragments of
mixed-up lives to no avail— we are transformed into citizens
of the Kingdom of God who see things in the clarity of
simple vision.
The simplicity is so utter that we fail to comprehend,
it in our predeliction for complexity and involvement— the
simplicity of spiritual transformation. All is in the "let- '
ting." For Christ did once for us all what so many of their
own a.ccord have tried and failed to do. Just at this time
,in the history of the west, one finds an increasing number '
of those who are attempting to find a new dimension of
..... 174
existence by applying the disciplines of oriental religion.
They are trying to force their way into the Kingdom of
realityr-^-little realizing that all they need do is to turn
around, accept Christ and they shall find themselves within
the realm of certainty and truth.
There is that subtle pride, particularly strong in
the intellectual mind, which insists upon doing everything
for itself. It puts up a great show of nobleness and pre- '
tended maturity. This attitude results in a loss. The King
dom is entered through simplicity and love and acceptance.
Furthermore the Kingdom of heaven is within us now,
as our Lord has said. It is even more a matter of making a
place for it in our hearts and minds— that the Kingdom of
God may be not only a reality but a fact in our lives.
Giiristians have now all things that they need. For
God has given the Son once for all— that we may be the in
heritors of His glory. It is for us to attain to the
realization that “now are we the sons of God" and then to i
allow ourselves to be led by His spirit.
Comparatively little has been said about the doctrine
of Holy Spirit. In this time, we are beginning to hear more
discussion about this aspect of the Trinity than we have
since the close of the Middle Ages. Particularly from the
Eastern Orthodox religion do we receive a considerable
literature dealing with theological matters that properly
175
relate to the doctrine of the Spirit. N. Berdyaev is the
most outstanding representative of this emphasis.
Christians should endeavor to listen with interest to
what these representatives of the Greek tra.dition are trying '
to tell us. But it must he clearly recognized that there is
a profound reason why we do not have much opinion expressed
concerning the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. I submit that
it may be the simple reason that the Spirit must be witnessed
to rather than talked about. There is a danger that a kind
of neo-gnosticism may spring up in the West, ostensibly in
the name of the Spirit, the result of which may confuse many
into thinking that the imaginative speculations of some may
be the authentic declaration of the Spirit. We are passing
out of the age of rationalism and skepticism. We are in
fact entering a period when men believe— all sorts of things
in the name of religion.
We must not be too hasty in dismissing the assevera
tions of Spengler s imply because he committed himself to a
determinist theory. Quite often, a person will perceive a
trend with accuracy only to place it within a warped frame
work. Not only Spengler, but Count Keyserling and Berdyaev,
each writing from entirely different presuppositions, have
held the view that we are entering a period when men will
grasp more deeply and inwardly the content of their re
spective creeds and confessions. In this sense, symbolic :
176
.statements will acquire a genuine symbolic value, which
value will be more widely apprehended than is now the ten
dency for the major portion of our society. In other words,
western civilization is conceived of as entering a period of
greater maturity (which Spengler likens to the period of
late antiquity) wherein the values of meaning and signifi
cance will take on their due proportion in the minds of the
many, or at least the dominant minority, as Toynbee calls
the creatively articulate group within a civilization. P.
Sorokin, from a still different point of view, comes to the
same general conclusion with of course the modifications re
quired by his intellectual position.
The greater consciousness of depth and subtlety which
these eminent men perceive in the historical trend does not
mean that in the future, humanity will necessarily be more
'Spiritual or more Christian in the real sense of the word.
It only means that Christians must become more profoundly
rooted in Truth. For the possibilities of deception, dis
tortion, and confusion in general, will be greatly multi
plied as they were,comparatively speaking^in late Roman
antiquity with its many varieties of gnosticism.
Organized Christianity must therefore make its
'preparation to meet the need which is already apparent among
■a number of the more sensitive artistic mental.!ties (who
usually sense the cultural trend that is beginning to emerge
177
in their time). From this point of view, it is very likely
that Augustine is much more our con temporary than John Locke
or Jonathan Edwards.
There will be only one way that the false Christianity
and spirituality that is gradually emerging in the historical
context can be overcome and that will be an increasing number
of Christians who will have found the Spirit of God within
them. And having found the true spirit they must radiate it
in all its beautiful simplicity to every person they meet and
to whom they are vitally related. For organized Christianity
will no longer be able to invoke the power of an emperor to
crush heresy when it becomes a serious rival for membership.
This instrument of control is no longer available. Particu
lar sects may conduct heresy trials and expel the offending
member. But in these times, when thought is more fluid and
influence more contagious than ever before, such measures do
not help much in ridding society of the confusion.
The Church, however, is secure regardless of the con
fusion that is sown by the opponents of Christ. For God
will continue to raise up saints who will testify to His
Word. They may not be canonized by men. They may live in
obscurity and be of little reputation. But these are the
witnesses of the Church and they shall be with us until the
world is caviled to account.
; These things are written, not to imply that the ,
178
historic institution has no place in the advancement of
God's decrees. But too much emphasis has been placed on the
organizational aspect of religion. The world will not be
made Christian by having every member.of the human race be
long to one organization. The ecumenical movement is not
the key to the Kingdom of God.
Now the real essential Church is and remains the body
of Christ of x^hich regenerate persons are members.
Therefore the Church on earth consists only of those who
have been inoorporaled into Christ, who bow before Him,
live in His Word, and adhere to His ordinances. . . .4
The Word of God is addressed to each man and each woman,
alone. The response to the Word Includes f elloxfship in
obedience to Christ. But felloxfship is not the criterion of
Christianity as some unfortunately think, even at this late
date.
Christians must become increasingly aware of the
subtle and complicated patterns of thought which disguise
themselves as expressions of Christian truth. Yet they must
be able to see through to the pure simplicity of the Word of
God— and having seen, to abide in the vision of truth.
The world in which we now live is in process of
constant change. Today one set of conditions prevails. To-
morroxf there are other circumstances to contend xvith.
^ Abraham Kuyper, Calvinism (Mich. : ■ W. B. Ferdmans
Publishing Co., 19^3;, p. % .
179
Rightly we must be concerned with the whole complex of
changing relationships which define our part as Christians
in this world of change. Yet it is no blind change. Nor is
fellowship exhausted in mutual helpfulness. When we have
completed this life, we stand in a new relation to the
Eternal. Then no one can point to society as his frame of
reference and find his significence in the pattern of human
values. Then he faces God as an individual and his pos
sibilities for righteousness and truth have either become
facts or failures.
But in eternity each shall render account as an in
dividual. That is, eternity will demand of him that
he shall have lived as an individual. Eternity will
draw out before his consciousness, all that he has done
as an individual, he who has forgotten himself in noisy
self-conceit. In eternity he shall be brought to ac
count strictly as an individual, he who intended to
be in the crowd where there should be no such strict
reckoning. Each one shall render account to God as an
individual. The King shall render account as an in
dividual; and the most wretched beggar, as an individ
ual. No one may pride himself at being more than an
individual, and no one despondently think that he is
not an individual, perhaps because here in earth's
busyness he had not so much as a name, but was named
after a number.5
S^ren Kierkegaard, Purity of Heart Is to Will One
Thing (New York and London: Harper and Brothers, 1938),
p. lo9.
CHAPTER V
EPILOGUE
I. GRACE IS THE SEED OF GLORY
The concern of this thesis has been principally with
the nature of prayer as the key to the understanding of
Christianity. For Christianity is simply the term which
covers the relationship between God and man through the
Word of God and the Kingdom of God.
God has been so merciful to us in visiting us with
His salvation that our response to Him can only be one of
extreme gratitude for all that He has given us through His
Word.
The study has tried to indicate the points which need
greatest clarification in a consideration of basic truths.
Prayer is so little understood because men have come
to associate God with the idea of distance from His crea
tion— man being thought of importance in the universal scheme
of things. The concept of abstract generalized man is so
prevalent in the West today except among a few, that it was
found necessary to show the foundations of the notion which
blocks clear understanding of man's position in life. We
I
have seen how this abstract man is a pure fiction. We
I !
realize that the Word of God addresses only individual men—
181
the only kind of man that exists in the eyes of God. For
each individual is a special creation of God.
Man is not only to become free from the tendency
which leads to disintegration but also to arrive at that
most wondrous state through the love of God viz. , to be
called a son of God.
We have come to see that the legal concept of man is
not able to contain the rich meaning of sonship. Yet it is
only now that we are beginning to see more deeply into the
richness of this promise. So long as we fixed our attention
mainly on the legalistic categories of guilt and acquittal,
we were unable to appreciate the fulness of the love of God
who not only forgives us but draws us into a relationship
.with Him which is covered by the term son, yet which must
remain inaccessible to the mind which still operates entire
ly within the realm of sensate values.
The reality of the Spirit so far transcends the realm
of man in his fallen state that we can only speak of the
Spirit in terms of faith and acceptance. Yet it is the realm
of the Spirit which is promised to all who persevere till the
end. And the realm of the Spirit is the Kingdom of God.
The scope of this study has been concerned with three
.basic aspects of the Ghristian religion. In the section
dealing xfith prayer and fasting we looked into the basic i
concepts of prayer (thought of primarily as an attitude of |
182
mind) which we find represented in the teaching of Augustine,
Bernard of Olairvaux and St. John of the Gross.
The principal approach of these three men was through
the application of the great principle evolved in Glassical
thought (but deepened and enriched by a Christian content),
the principle of Know Thyself. For Augustine prayer meant
the ascent of the mind and heart to God, until, gazing upon
that Splendour which gives our very breath its movement and
its life, we realize through the grace and truth given us
in His Son, the Son of that Glory which caused the stars to
shine emblazoned with His radiance, that glory and that
light which shines in our hearts to give the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Ghrist. How truly
wondrous is that radiance and that glory ! How truly in
finite is the love of that most Holy God who breathes His
Spirit into us and causes our hearts to move in union with
His own; upheld and sustained by His gracious Word which
feeds us with light and arouses our response-— shaking loose
the dust and encumbrances of this world which through sin
has lost its way amidst the stars.
We first hear from Augustine, among the early leaders
of thought within the Christian communion, how all that is
human may be left behind without being destroyed when we
enter into that dearest fellowship possible to man— possible,
not with man— but with God and ^ man through God. We learn
183
to leave behind— yet not destroy— leave behind and yet oome
back to— human to still be human, yet no longer bound— free
to rise to Him who made us— Him who gives us peace— yet
responsible and thus responsive to the impulse of that Love
who made us and contains us, bringing into all things human
the glow of charity which lights up the temple of the Living
God— that most Holy Presence who lives in us when we allow
our lives to take on that quickening which first came into
' the world with Jesus Christ— the last Adam was a quickening
spirit. To be quickened into His glory— even while on
earth— and to be humbled so completely tiiat not even a
breath stirs within us but that we give thanks to Him for
it— knowing, knowing xvith all our hearts that it is He who
causes us to breathe, knowing beyond all chance of forget
ting, that our very lives are but dust and ashes save as we
consciously receive them from Him who is our very Life it
self.
We learn from Augustine that there is no labyrinth
so deep and winding, so tortuous and filled with aching
perplexity, but that the Mind of God is there— able with '
'His infinite Intelligence to direct on these paths which ;
; lead to peace and still more perfect peace, endlessly deeper,
I
' fuller, richer, boundlessly pure, serene, able to draw out
care from every heart— able to fill all pain with radiant
i ecstasy entwined with light. We learn from Augustine, the
184
example of man struggling with brain and heart, to pierce
the veil of myth, imagination and human songs of desire and
emptiness— to seize with all his being and thus receive the
.wisdom which makes us live this life more meaningfully.
Charity is born in the heart of every man who has lost
:the will to live in himself. Charity comes into the heart
of every man who has lost the love to love in himself.
Charity assumes the heart of every man who has lost the light
which lights only self. Charity bears every pain, not as an
effort, not as an injustice inflicted by life, but as a
means to closer communion with the God in every heart— the
God first in the heart made charity— the God then who still
resides though unseen in the heart of bitterness. Charity
makes this life sweet through penetration. Charity makes us
I grateful and receptive to the glory which our God gives to
every heart that passes through the change of humility.
Charity releases man from that struggling, tense pursuit of
wisdom— releases and gives what is sought. Charity frees
us from desire and longing— and gives us love.
Charity is that point in the eternity of God where
man receives the radiance of eternal love. For man truly
exists every moment in the eternity of God. But charity ;
is that "point" where man knows eternal love and therefore
what is the eternity of God. Who else can receive the
I
knowledge of the eternal save he who first has overcome ;
183
the pall of the longing which knows no bounds— that nameless
thing in man whose only stirring is to stir in hunger. And
man abides in hunger until he abides in Charity.
Out of his tremendous need Augustine found that faith
which leads to Charity.
What then of man who finds himself again in Christ?
Scripture calls him the spiritual man. And he is placed
in sharp contrast with the "natural" or psychic man. Who
is this natural man? He is the man whose whole existence is
bound up with change— who sees every part as though it were
the whole of life— who grasps at every minute as though it
were a fleeting moment— not knowing that in every minute
shines the glory of eternity— that the whole of life is
within every part— that that change is man's cloud upon
leternity— not that eternity is a static, motionless realm—
but that change is the natural man's fragmentary view of
'Time.
In Augustine, we see the man who looks upon all
things from the point of view of the spirit— not that he
saw all things with the eyes of the Spirit. For he was in
many ways conditioned by that which remained of the point
of view of the "natural" man.
When the Spirit breaks through into our lives, there
is a new beginning— a beginning from above. But this new
'beginning implies a way to be walked— the way of , the Spirit i
186
which leads to the City of God. But the man in transit (and
it is still a "natural" man in transit; the Spirit does not
walk the way, but the man) may not see all with eyes of the
Spirit. Only Jesus Christ has seen all with the eyes of the
•Spirit. We see only where we have truly walked in the Spirit.
The rest is not truly seen. It is as though one were walk
ing in the night and at times the light of day were to shine.
When we have the light we see, when we walk id darkness we ;
"feel" our way and carry in our consciousness the memory of
.what we saw in the light. (Of course, as with all analogies,
this illustration cannot be applied literally.)
What needs to be conveyed is that the birth of tlie
Spirit does not bring an immediate transformation of every
aspect of life. But we have begun to see with the Spirit
what we in Eternity shall see alxvays and entirely— seeing
with God because we shall with Him as He is.
I :
Augustine refers to the final achievement of this life
■as a "foretaste" of heaven. We begin to be here what we
shall completely realize hereafter. In this sense, grace
is the seed of glory.
Augustine also recognized the difference between the
state of bondage and the state of freedom^ He was the first
great writer since the writing of the New Testament— and
therefore he was writing as a man given grace without per- .
8on ad contact with the Lord or His apostles— who realized
18?
from personal experience and wrote from that personal ex
perience— that the locus of freedom is in the will. Without
the freedom which comes with the Spirit, one is truly s . slave
to impulse and the conditioned Judgment of his temporal ex
istence. The psychic man is truly the servant of sin because
everything he does is done with the motivation that springs
from natural craving. He is either seeking pleasure or avoid
ing pain. The motive may be concealed from himself and the ‘
natural man may think that he is spiritual, but he is only
deceiving himself. In the name of the finest ideals, he may
be serving the very basest of motives. (One of the best
studies in the subterranean life of psychic motivation is
Count Keyserling's South American Meditations.)
Therefore, since we all start in this life upon the
foundation of a "natural" existence (not in the sense of
having a body, but a nature which stands in need of redemp- .
tion) it is only logical that the first step in preparation
for that transformation which is truly spiritual and gives ^
us a new foundation "in the heavens," is that self-knowledge
that lays bare one's very motivation to be seen for what it '
is, self-seeking and entirely unGodlifce. When one really
sees how unGodlike he is, how completely he has "lost" the
likeness of God both in the sense of resemblance and in
the sense of inclination, a man is in a position to see
how abject his condition really is and how much he stands
188
in need of help. When once he sees that he does not possess
a single thought uncolored by a selfish, egocentric motiva
tion, he is in a position to realize just how warped his
perspective actually is. If he can face this fact and ac
cept it as an evaluation of his actual condition as a sinner,
he has by that very act become humble, truly humble— not
merely self-effacing or weak as many unreflecting people
conceive humility. In fact, it is only when one comes to
grips with the full impact of one*s "natural" condition,
that one reaches out to the throne of grace. These things
have nothing to do with that emotionalism which passes for
religious revival in America. The latter is superficial and
does not deal with the deep and hidden motivation within
man. One only finds this technique of thorough facing of
the self (the natural man) in the writings of those men who,
following closely in the examples set by Augustine, Bernard
and John Yepes, have actually come to grips with that warped
self, that unlikeness in the land of Unlikeness.
Modern psycho-analysis is a weak caricature of the
great classical tradition, of the gnoscef teipsum.
And the Protestant tradition, which has in recent gen^
erations, given increasing attention to psychology, would
profit immeasurably by developing a serious interest in the .
mode of self-examination of the great saints mentioned. For'
'Protestants have been sadly negligent in the understand
189.
ing of the se matters which, although only preliminary to the
task of growth in grace and sanctification, must nevertheless
be given their right and proper place in the building of
Christian life and in the preparation for that glorious ful-
.fillment in eternity prepared for all who wait upon the Lord
in prayer and fasting (the exclusion of all unlikeness from
the heart and mind).
Protestantism has too often taken a static view of
the "natural" life of man. It has passed abstract theologi
cal judgments upon the condition of man in a fallen state
and then gone on to praise the new life given to man through
'the Word of God as though this too were something static and
Juridical— something which did not actually change the actual
life of man from slavery to sin to freedom in Christ.
It is well that Protestants be reminded tliat for
Augustine there was nothing purely formal and extrinsic about
man's existence and man's hope for grace. For him it was
all vital, real, and experienced as a deep and living trans-'
formation which took him out of the bondage and compulsion
to sin in which he found himself into the glorious liberty
of the sons of God which is promised in Jesus Christ.
Once we have gained the humility which comes with the
I
knowledge of what the "natural" man actually is, and we see ■
1
in ourselves that tendency x*7hich leads away from God, we
will call upon God and He shall renew us after the pattern ;
190
and example, in the image and likeness of His Son, Jesus
Christ.
The first part of this section treated upon the fact
of man's existence as a state in need of redemption and re
generation.
But man has not yet come to know himself when he has ‘
discovered his unlikeness to God. He must go further. And
the saints have gone further. For to Augustine, and all the
great saints, there yet remains that in man which no sin can
touch because it is that which God Himself has conceived viz.
the image of Himself which is the essence and being of man. ,
Man would not even exist as an entity without the image of
God's splendour. And it is this image of Eternity at the
center of man's being which is eternally with the Father,
This also is our true self— the Self which our Lord said
we would find when we would have lost the "self" for His
sake. Our real identity therefore is in God and since it
is His image. Who is Infinite, it likewise is a partaker of
Infinity. When we have found God we find our true selves, '
our immortal identity, and we then are in truth partakers
of the Divine Nature. At first we see but dimly, then
» I
gradually face to face— even as Jesus said Blessed are the
' pure in heart, for they shall see God. ■
The name of St. Augustine has been used mostly in con
nection with this process of self-discovery. For as was
191
brought out in the body of the work, he set the pattern and
the others developed their variations. Not that they were
imitators (for each was an individual, a soul created by God
with a unique destiny). But the others contributed in the
terms of the original teacher, viz. Augustine.
Jacques Maritain, whose genius is respected alike by
Catholics and Protestants has this to say about Augustine
which in my judgment is a statement, balanced and accurate, !
xvhich condenses much of what has been written in this book
.in the attempt to see the August ini an synthesis and approach
to truth in a comprehensive and intelligent way instead of the
piecemeal, narrowly biased attitude which takes a fragment
here and piece there to justify some pet theory or supposi
tion.
The philosophy of which St. Augustine made use (one
of the greatest religious philosophies of the world)
is incontestably deficient, torn by force from the ul
timate defences and spiritual fructification of dying
paganism, the system of neo-Platonism* (He took it
as he found it. And who is there who can read Plotinus
without gratitude?). But with Augustine this philosophy
is an instrument in the hands of the gift of wisdom; and
no one has a clearer sense of the superiority, the
heavenly transcendence of that gift, of the divine
mastery x\dth which it makes use of whatsoever instru
ments it will, than the great Doctor of Grace himself.
What has an absolute primacy, what Illuminates, dis
cerns, commands, rules, measures what gives a right of
jurisdiction over all things, spiritualis judicat omnia,
what exults in the breast of the Christian like the
waters of paradise x^hich springs up to nourish and renew
all the earth and all knowledge, is the gift of the
■ Spirit in the power of love. A human instrument, which '
j is certainly not mediocre, but which is imperfect,
' awkward and dangerous, and to direct it the most
192
perfectly endowed hand, sensitive and holy, intelligent
and wise, powerful, prudent and sagacious, the irresist
ible light of the superhuman Spirit— this is the admir- ,
able paradox of the widsom of the Christian Plato.^
A return to the practice and theories of the Middle
Ages, either to be applied by individuals singly or in groups,
is not advocated. But a deeper penetration into the spirit
of prayer which the men discussed in the first chapter came
to realize and understand is strongly suggested. An attempt,
has been made to present the essence of their understanding
of prayer in such a way that the principle is readily ac
cessible and usable to the modern mentality. And this en
tailed the separation of that which was purely traditional
in thought and expression from that which was truly in the
intent of the persons involved. We must for ourselves gain
that entrance to the full understanding of the way of life
which enters into Eternity.
II. TRANSFORMATION
There can be no Intelligence and understanding
apart from the Word of God. This injunction, which is so
meaningful for every Christian, did not enter the hearts of
our rationalist ancestors. They were so busy trying to
prove that man was the measure of all things, and they so
; completely gained the attention of the dominant minority in
I 1 Jacques Maritain, The Degrees of Knowledge (New
I York __qharles_Scribner , ' _ s _ Sons, 193.01 , . PP ___
193
their time, that we are still being entertained if not be
wildered, by their peculiar notions of the scheme of things.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that
giveth to all men liberally, and uobraideth not. (James 1:5)
That is a very clear and simple statement- But is was not
the kind of clarity and simplicity which men, beginning with
the prominent example of Descartes, down to the present day
in many cases were seeking. ^
Augustine used the intellectual tools at his dis-
; posai to the extent that they could be made serviceable to
the ends for which he chose to direct them. Thomas Aquinas
applied himself to gain mastery of the philosophy at his
disposal. And although one cannot accept many of the con
clusions to xdiich these men came in their pursuit of truth,
there is one thing these men of giant intellect kept steadily
before them. Their intellectual labors must harmonize wi th
the truth of God * s Word or else they were mistaken in their
judgments. Rationalists call this dogmatism, submission to .
blind authority, etc. But it was much more likely humility :
of mind. Augustine succeeded much more admirably than
Aquinas because he more fully understood the -place of the
intellect in the order of nature. Nor was he laboring in the
heat of the kind of intellectual debate in which Aquinas
found himself. Hence the greater maturity and wisdom which '
; we find in the thought of St. Augustine.
194
The intelligence and -understanding are set free to
operate within the mind of man only when the Word of God
shines His light upon the scope of our attentions. If there
is no light, the attention and the rational faculty can only
feel and upon this limited avenue of knowledge very little
can he taken. But when He who is the Light of life shines
in our hearts, we not only feel, we see. And seeing, we
perceive proportion, order, relationship, perspective, color>
and direction. We find the way of life. Finding the way,
we allow our intelligence to play upon the objects of life
which come to the attention until understanding is born.
The intellect that is condemned to function in a world
of shadow selves and forms has very little scope and only a
small and distorted picture of life and truth can be ac
quired. But when the light of the Word is allowed to fill
our minds then do we see indeed.
In the section dealing with the emergence of ration
alism upon the historical scene, the truncated perspective
which the rationalistic mentality generated was critically
examined. The obvious conclusion which the evidence of
this period thrusts upon our attention is that, far from
the.intelligence being cribbed, cabin'd and confined by a
I 1
close adherence to the Word of God it is immensely enlarged
I in its scope of operation because it remains in contact
with life and truth. The mentality of man is narrowed and ‘
195
made poor by the system which threw out purpose, direction
and the presence of (rod from its consideration. It was not
necessary to give a great deal of attention to the blunders
of the seventeenth century except to call attention to the
fact that the abdication of real intellectual freedom was
the result of rationalism.
The proper study of mankind is G-od. And he who would
. truly know man must first know God. And in knowing God, he
knows himself in Christ Jesus who showed us by His life in
what the true likeness to God consists.
The notion of man evolved by the rationalists was
truly a shattered image of the divine splendour— a , mere
caricature of man.
Since the seventeenth century, men have lived with
this shadow foisted upon civilization— this glorification of
the unlit intellect, until their view of life is so decimated
and piecemeal that they wander in confusion over the face of
the earth crying Light ! Light 1 and there is no light. For ,
God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Apart from
Him we see nothing.
When the intelligence and understanding of men are
set free through a close adherence to the Word of God, only
then is it possible to speak of spiritual things. For it
will be an intelligence and understanding which is given
in wisdom to all who ask of God. -
196.
It is not necessary to dwell much upon the varieties
of reaction to rationalism. They are seen for what they are.
All anti-inteliectualism is fundamentally intellectualist.
The Spirit given by God lights up our pilgrimage on
earth as we pass from eternity to eternity— and each moment,
alive with meaning and purpose, is recognized within the pat
tern of God's boundless Intelligence— making glorious our
path towards the City of God.
III. THEIOITY OP GOD
Christianity is Fedth and Love because we must cast
aside all crutches and devices we have built up in our
egocentric lives, all methods and techniques figures out by
the intellect of man, all athleticism and will worship which
passes for spiritual discipline.
, We are on our way to the City of God when once we have
entered into faith, the principle of acceptance which makes
it possible for the Divine Life to inform us and transform
us. Life on earth is the prelude to eternity which, para
doxically, is here and now. For we do not find any sequence
; of change— any relative contingency a,nd dependence in the
’ Spirit of God. Through that little door of faith and love
we enter into the Kingdom of God— or rather the Kingdom of |
God finds expression in us.
Realizing tlmt our "natural” man remains bound up i
197
with the sequential process men call time— but which really
is not time. (Time is much more than process)— we neverthe
less move freely into the consciousness of our true selves
when once Christ has become our life.
This beginning of true life— the life that shall have
no end because it has no beginning in itself— this beginning
does not lead to withdrawal from the common life of mankind.
It only puts an end to that old fixated pattern of uncon
scious, mechanical activity wiiich men call life— but which is
a mere mockery, a mere shadow existence in a world of pungent
dreams and empty longings and fears— the world of asking and
receiving not— of believing only to despair. This beginning
of true life establishes in the heart of the individual a
center of the City of God. For the City of God is not a
place with alabaster walls and golden domes— it is the liv
ing communion of all those who in this life have received
again from Christ that which was lost in Adam. The end of
this physical expression can only mean an unhindered con- ;
tinuity of life and consciousness and understanding— purified
from those last vestiges of entanglement with that which the
New Testament calls "psychic.”
The new life, which brings with it the way and the
truth which are Christ, comes because of faith which is
acceptance and because of Love which is that which we ac
cept and to which we respond.
198
Before Jesus Christ cajne into the world, there were
men in every land who strove to find that which came as a
free gift through Jesus Christ, the Word of God*
In the Mediterranean world, men longed for the
consciousness of immortality. They developed systems of
thought and worship in their attempt to find a way to life
eternal. The Epistles were not wrritten to people ignorant
I
of these things* The literary and archeological remains of '
all the Mediterranean peoples show vestiges of this deep
longing for a higher life than that which is bound by the
sense of dimensions.
We know even more about the spiritual longings of the
people of India in the age before Our Lord came to the planet
earth. For here there is an unbroken continuity of tradition.
All of these religious and ascetic disciplines can be
grouped together as the religions of Eros, the striving on
the part of man after an infinite existence beyond the con
fines of this world of limitations. Those who lived by the ■
law of these teachings may have gained some knowledge of
Eternity. But what they gained waSv nevertheless a gift al
though it may not have been recognized as such. For the
Word irias always been with Mankind in every age and time.
But since the Word was made fiesh and dwelt among us, we
have a new relation to the Eternal. All the work of salva
tion has been done for us and we who believe are the ^
199
recipients of this eternal life— no more as something to be
■struggled for and gained through heartbreaking and extreme
exertion— but a life given to each one who has faith to ac
cept it. let how lightly do men hold their opportunity.
They do not even know the gift of God which is for them.
No longer to strive by oneself unaided and alone—
now to receive the agape which is in Christ. That is the
possibility for every man.
The strange notion of a , generalized abstract man with
a puny intellect able to penetrate only the outer surface of
things has such a hold on so many people that they do not
see themselves as individuals with the potential capacity
to receive the gift of sonship to God.
The Reformers, Luther and Calvin, caught the vision
of the free gift of God's Word which is able to save our
souls. But how many have had the faith to accept the Word
_ of God? How many still believe that they must do everything,
' for themselves— allowing no part in their lives for the
,living Word L
There are so many who fail utterly to see the sim- |
plicity of the situation in which man has been placed since ‘
' the coming of the Son of God. Man has only to accept— to
! receive and to respond with thanksgiving and gratitude for
^ the privilege of becoming a son of God, a . living member in
I the true Vine whose love encompasses the heart of every
200
living being.
The word of man must become silence. Then he will
hear the Word and hearing, he will be able to comprehend
the speech of Christ Jesus.
The whole thesis is simply a consideration of the
Word of God. The first part looks more directly to the Way
by means of which we men can enter into the Kingdom of God.
The second part is concerned with the necessity of perceiv
ing and adhering to that which is, the truth of our exist
ence, by cleaving through the intellectual nightmares of
man-made systems. The last part of this work is essentially,
concerned with the acceptance of the Word in its pure sim
plicity, the Spirit which is life.
Now are we the sons of God St. John tells us. Hot
tomorrow or the next day or the hour of our last breath on
earth--but now. The Mow that is God Himself— the Mow of God
who fills all space and speaks to us now forever.
Now— the very essence of our existence— shaping the
moments into a pattern with which we can harmonize. The How
in which God is— in which I am; the Mow in which I turn and
behold His Face; the Now which becomes my very life, as I
Iwith all men who value Christ above all, accept that which
is given— freely and without any earning on our part— the
Mow which is God, as love.
L . . ____________________________ _ _ I
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. CATHOLIC
Augustine, St., Confessions. E. B. Pusey, translator. New
York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1926. 3^8 pp.
Bremond, H., A Literary History of Religious Thought in
France from the Wars of Religion down to Our Own Times..
London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1928.
Dawson, Christopher, Enquiries Into Religion and Culture.
New York: Sheed and Ward, 1933* 347 pp.
Francois de Sales, St., Treatise on the Love of God. London:
éuros, 19^3* 26? pp*
Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene, Fr., St. John of the Cross,
Doctor of Divine Love. Westminster, Md.: Newman Book
Shop, 1^6. 202 pp.
Gardeil. A., W Structure de l'Ame et I'Exoerience mystique.
New York: Scribner, 1929* 234 pp.
Garrigou-Lagrange, R., Cliristian Perfection and Contempla
tion* London: B. Herder Book Go., 1942. 470 pp.
_______ , God: His Existence and His Nature. London: B.
Herder Book Co., 1939~4l.
Gilson, Etienne, God and Philosophy. New Hampshire: Yale
University Press, 1941.
_______ , The Mystical Theology of St » Bernard. New York:
New York: Sheed and Ward, 1940. 2^5 pp.
The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy. New York: C.
Scribner's, 1938. 490 pp.
John of the Cross, St., The Gomplete Works of Saint John of
the Cross. Translated from the critical edition of P.
Silverio De Santa Teresa, C.D., and edited by E. Allison
Peers. Westminster, Md. : The Newman Book Shop, 1945*
3 Vols.
Maritain, J., Degrees of Knowledge. New York: Scribner's,
1929. !
202
Poulain, Augustin, Grac e s of Interior Prayer. London:
Routledge, 1950^ 665 pp*
von Hugel, F., The Mystical Element of Religion as Studied
in Saint Catherine of Genoa and her Friends. London:
J. M. Dent and Sons, 1923* 2 Vols.
B. RATIONALISM
Burtt, E. A., Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical
Science. New York: Earcourt, Brace and Co., 1925*
349 pp*
Creed, John M., and John S. B. Smith, Religious Thought in
the Eighteenth Century. Cambridge, England: University
Press, 1 9 3 4. 301 pp.
Dawson, C., Progress and Religion. New York: Longmans,
1929# 234 pp.
Descartes, R., Discourse on Method. London: J. M. Dent
and Sons, Ltd., 192?. 254 pp.
Palmer, Robert R., Catholics and Unbelievers in Eighteenth
Century France. Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1939* 236 pp.
Randall, Joim H., Religion and the Modern World. New York:
Frederick A. Stokes, 1929* 249 pp.
Voltaire, F. M. A. de. Works. Paris: Dul4ont,[ I90I. 10 Vol.
Whitehead, Alfred N., Process and Reality. New York: The
Macmillan Co., I929T 54? pp*
C. REFOmiED TRADITION AND OTHERS
Baillie, Donald M., Faith in God and its Christian Con
summation. Edinborough: Clark, 192?^ 3^4 pp.
_______ , God Was in Christ. New York: Scribner's, 1948.
213 PP*
Baillie, J., Interpretation of Religion. New York: C.
Scribner's Sons, 1938* W i pp*
203
,> Qhr Knowledge of God. New York: Scribner, 1939*
263 pp*
Barth, K. , Oredo. New York: Scribner, 1936. 203 PP*
, , Doctrine of The Word of God. Edinburgh: T. and T
Clark, 1936. Vol. 1.
, Epistle to the Romans. London: Oxford University
Press, 1933- 54? pp*
, The Knowledge of God and the Service of God. New
York: Scribner, 1939* 255 PP*
Brunner, Emile, Man in Revolt. New York: C. Scribner's
Sons, 1939* 564 pp.
Buber, Martin, I and Thou. Edinburgh: Clark, 194?. II9 pp;
Calvin, John, Institutes of the Christian Religion. Phila
delphia: Presbyterian Board of Christian Education,
1928. 2 Vol.
Kierkegaard, S., Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing.
New York: Harper and Bros., 193^T 20? pp*
Luther, Martin, Works. Philadelphia: A* J. Holman Co.,
1932. 6 Vol.
Maokay, John, Preface to Christian Theology. New York:
Macmillan, 1941* lE? pp.
Pascal, Blaise, Provincial Letters. New York: E* P. Dutton,
1 931* 297 pp*
Nygren, A., Agape and Eros. New York: Macmillan, 1941.
2 Vol.
Unamuno, M., The Tragic Sense of Life. London: Macmillan,
1 9 2 1. 832 pp.
APPENDIX
APPENDIX
THE GATHOLIG POSITION
The tradition of St. John of the Gross has come into
great prominence in the Roman Catholic Church within the
last few decades, partly as a renewed interest in the
spiritual life of man x^rithin that communion as well as xfith
in other sects.
Leading Catholic writers, such as Jacques Maritain
and Fr. R. Garrigou-Lagrange, have given a great deal of at
tention to the possibility of associating John of the Cross
with Thomas Aquinas. Maritain, in a happy phrase calls
Aquinas the doctor of the light and John the doctor of the
night.
While the author’s views lie distinctly outside the
conception of Roman Catholicism, he feels that is is of
value to have the contrast of the Catholic view of tradi
tional spirituality.
The following summary is an attempt to present the
Catholic position in a fair and unprejudiced manner*
As Dorn John Chapman points out in his article on
' " 1
Roman Catholic mysticism,-’ - the life of prayer was intensely
, narrowed after the reaction against spirituality in France '
^Dom John Chapman, "Roman Catholic Mysticism," En-
Lcvclo.-pedia . of. - Religion- and - Ethics. ___ ___ ____
206:
during the latter part of the seventeenth century. The lead
ing Spanish and French theologians, Jesuit and Dominican
alike, gave little attention to the more advanced stages of
prayer. Contemplation was simply the term of the meditative
(discursive reasoning) process. The gifts of the Holy Ghost,
the understanding of the Trinity,., the Incarnation, etc. were,
listed as graces gratis datae, in spite of St. John of the
Cross ! Late baroque and rococo piety stressed the sensuous
side of devotion, and the Spirit which we were made to be
hold, was neglected. Instead, a tremendous increase in
moral theology developed so that certain Jesuit tomes on
casuistry are as Legalistic as the Mishna.
Nevertheless the past half century (following a
period of aridity that lasted throughout the nineteenth cen-'
tury) has shown a marked increase of interest in the life of
the spirit. A number of writers within the Roman tradition
have written books on the spiritual life which have tended
to bring the neglected heart of religion back into the sphere
of the normal way of Christian development and integration.
Although Poulain, who wrote his Graces of Interior
Prayer in 1910, still tended to make the contemplative life ■
an extraordinary way, the more recent writers in Catholic
spirituality, pre-eminently Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, have
"proved" that Christian perfection is based on the fulfill
ment of the commandment, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy ■
207
God. ..."
And therefore it is the normal way of Christian life.
That is to say, perfection is a precept rather than a coun
sel.
In order to establish this claim, Fr. Garrigou-
Lagrange (who W8.S instrumental in having St. John of the
Cross named Doctor of the Church in 1926), in his excellent
treatise Christian Perfection and Contemplation, has set
forth the doctrine of perfection as an integral part of
moral theology. His authority is pre-eminently St. Thomas
Aquinas, who had much more to say about that branch of moral
theology commonly called ascetical and mystical than is
generally supposed. In addition to St. Thomas, who supplies
the doctrinal basis, the author draws on the testimony of St.
Teresa d’Avila for the practical applications, augmented by
the more doctrinal writings of St. John of the Cross and
other Carmelite writers such as Joseph of the Holy Ghost.
St. Thomas, the prince of Catholic theologians, held
to the unity of spiritual doctrine both in its theory or
speculative aspect and in its practical aspect.
. . .moral theology, as expounded in the second part ’
of the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas, keeps all its
grandeur and its efficacy for the direction of souls
called to the highest perfection. St. Thomas does not, ,
in fact, consider dogmatic and moral theology as two ^
distinct sciences; sacred doctrine, in his opinion, is
absolutely one and is of such high perfection that it
contains the perfections of both dogmatic and moral |
theology. In other words, it is eminently speculative ;
2o8
and practical, as the science of God from which it
springs. That is why he treats in detail in the moral
part of his Summa not only human acts, precepts, and
counsels, but also habitual and actual grace, the in
fused virtues in general and in particular. The gifts
of the Holy Ghost, their fruits, the beatitudes, the
active and contemplative life, the degrees of contempla
tion, graces gratuitously bestowed, such as the gift of
miracles, the gift of tongues, prophesy, and rapture,
and likewise the religious life and its various forms.^
The cycle formed by the different parts of theology,
with its evident unity, is thus completed. Sacred
science proceeds from revelation contained in Scripture
and Tradition, preserved and explained by the teaching
authority of the church. It arranges in order all re
vealed truths and their consequences in a single doc
trinal body, in which the precepts and counsels are
set forth as founded on the supernatural mystery of the
divine life, of which grace is a participation. Lastly,
it shows how, by the practice of the virtues and docil
ity to the Holy Ghost, the soul not only arrives at be
lief in the revealed mysteries, but also at the enjoy
ment of them and at a grasp of the profound meaning of
the word of God, source of all supernatural knowledge,
and at a life of continual unity with the Blessed
Trinity who dwells in us. Doctrinal mysticism thus ap
pears as the final crown of all acquired theological
knowledge, and it can direct souls in the way of ex
perimental mysticism. This latter is an entirely super
natural and infused loving knowledge, full of sweetness,
which only the Holy Ghost, by His action, can give us
and which is, as it were, the prelude of the beatific
vision. Such is manifestly the conception of ascetical
and mystical theology which has been formulated by the :
great masters of sacred science, especially, by St. '
Thomas Aquinas.3 [italics mine.]
From the above quotations, there can be no question
left as to the vital part played by spiritual doctrine in
2
R. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., Christian Perfection
and Contemplation, p. 13*
3
Ibid., p. l4.
the unity of dogma.
Once it is established that mystical theology is an
I
integral part of sacred science, the question of its signifi
cance and value arises. Particularly in modern times, one
is confronted with this question; not in the terms expressed
here, but as a contrast, almost contradiction, to the prac
tical, empirical approach which confines itself to the de
scription of phenomenal states and the practical means of
inducing them. The latter method of approach ends logically
in psychology. It is evidently subjective in its apprecia
tion and since it does not distinguish between the gifts of
the Holy Ghost among which is infused contemplation, it tends
to lump together extraordinary phenomena with the normal
signs of spiritual development. The result is that the
whole aspect of the spiritual life is divorced from the con-:
text of normal Christian experience and relegated to the do
main of extrajordinary graces which are arbitrarily conferred
upon the soul without preparation. The natural consequence
of this attitude is a discouragement of interest in what
,Garrigou-Lagrange calls the normal way of sanctity. Evidence
of this sad state is found in the narrowing of the Christian
way to an avoidance of sin and a moral adherence to the
virtues available to the natural man. Also the tools of
psychology, by means of which t ii e greater is measured by the
lesser, are used to pass judgment upon the life of the spirit
with its transformation of the individual soul. Let the
psychologist become a saint and he will be in a better posi
tion to understand, the laws of the spiritual life. Fr.
Garrigou-Lagrange assumes the inseparableness of the specu
lative and the practical in approaching the problem of
Christian perfection.
Ascetical and mystical theology is the application
of theology in the direction of souls toward an ever
more intimate union with God. It must use the in
ductive and deductive methods, studying the facts of
the spiritual life in the light of revealed principles
and of the theological doctrines deduced from these
principles.4
Before analyzing the distinction and relation between
the ascetical and mystical aspects, it would be well to cite
the author’s views on the causes for the neglect of the
spiritual life. Molinism was only one contributing factor.
The formal result of the narrowed scope of Christian life
was the separation of the aseetlead from the mystical
theology.
This division followed upon lively discussions that
were occasioned by abuse springing from a premature and
erroneous teaching of the mystical ways. From the time
of St. Teresa, these ways seem to many theologians so
suspect that the writings of St. John of the Cross had ,
to be defended against the charge of Manicheism, and
superiors were aroused to the point of forbidding their .
religious to read the works of Venerable John Tauler,
Ruysbroek, Blessed Henry Suso, St. Gertrude, and St.
Meohtildis. After the condemnation of the errors of
4
Ibid*, p. 23.
Molinos, the mystical ways were even more suspect.
Since then a rather large number of authors, who are
excellent in many respects, have agreed on making an
absolute distinction between ascetical and mystical
theology. Excessively eager to systematize things and
to establish a doctrine to remedy abuses, and consequent
ly led to classify things materially and objectively,
without a sufficient lofty and profound knowledge of
them, they declare that ascetical theology should treat
of the "ordinary" Christian life according to the three
ways, the purgative, the illuminative, and the unitive*
As for mystical theology, it should treat only of ex
traordinary graces, among which they include not only :
visions and private revelations, but also supernatural,
confirmed contemplation, the passive purifications, and
the mystical unity.
Therefore the mystical union no longer appears in
their arrangement as the activating point of the normal
development of sanctifying grace, of the virtues, and
of the gifts. According to their view, infused contem
plation' is not the life of faith and the spirit of
wisdom carried to their perfection, to their full ef
florescence; but it seems rather to be attached to
graces gratis datae, such as prophecy, or at least to
an entirely extraordinary or miraculous mode of the
gifts of the Holy Ghost. Because they place the mys
tical union and infused contemplation among the graces
grati8 datae, these authors counsel already fervent
souls against seeking not only visions and private
revelations, but also the mystical union and infused
contemplation, if they would avoid all presumption and
advance in humility: altiori te ne quaesieris. This
seems quite like the mistake made by those spiritual
directors who refused daily communion to these same
souls, alleging that humility does not permit one to
aim so high. 3
Traditionally the whole of the Christian way of life
has been considered in such a way that the contemplative
^Ibld., pp. 27-28.
stage was seen in organic unity with the active life.
St. Thomas especially showed the relation between
what are today called ascetical theology and mystical
theology, by treating of the mutual relations of ac
tion and contemplation. With St. Augustine and St.
Gregory, this is what he teaches: the active life, to
which is attached the exercise of the moral virtues of
prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, and the
outward works of charity, prepare for the contemplative ■
life, in so far as it regulates the passions which
disturb contemplation, and in so far as it makes us
grow in the love of God and of our neighbor. Then the
contemplation of God, which is proper to the perfect,
leads to action, directs it, and renders it much more
supernatural and fruitful. Thus in the natural order
the image precedes the idea and then serves to express
it; the emotion precedes the will and then serves to
execute with greater ardor the thing willed; and so
again, says St. Thomas, our acts engender a habit, then
this habit makes us act more promptly and easily. In
this way asceticism does not cease when the contemplative
life begins; on the contrary, the exercise of the dif
ferent virtues becomes truly superior when the soul re
ceives the mystical grace of a continual union with God.8
Since the integrity of the Christian life is to be
upheld against all efforts to truncate the spiritual aspect
of our existence, wherein constitutes the essential nature
of the mystical life? As the term is used in this treatise
by Garrigou-Lagrange, it signifies the stage of life in
which there is a predominance of the gifts of the Holy Ghost
over the virtues of the ascetical life.
Ascetical theology. . . .treats of the Christian life
of beginners, and of those x - v h o advance with the help of
grace in the exercise of the Christian virtues, the mode
of which remains a human mode adapted to that of our
^ Ibid., p. 25
stage was seen in organic unity with the active life.
St. Thomas especially showed the relation between
what are today called ascetical theology and mystical
theology, by treating of the mutual relations of ac
tion and contemplation. With St. Augustine and St.
Gregory, this is what he teaches: the active life, to
which is attached the exercise of the moral virtues of
prudence. Justice, fortitude, and temperance, and the
outward works of charity, prepare for the contemplative ■
life, in so far as it regulates the passions which
disturb contemplation, and in so far as it makes us
grow in the love of God and of our neighbor. Then the
contemplation of God, which is proper to the perfect,
leads to action, directs it, and renders it much more
supernatural and fruitful. Thus in the natural order
the image precedes the idea and then serves to express
it; the emotion precedes the will and then serves to
execute with greater ardor the thing willed; and so
again, says St. Thomas, our acts engender a habit, then
this habit makes us act more promptly and easily. In
this way asceticism does not cease when the contemplative
life begins; on the contrary, the exercise of the dif- •
ferent virtues becomes truly superior when the soul re
ceives the mystical grace of a continual union x\rith God. °
Since the integrity of the Christian life is to be
upheld against all efforts to truncate the spiritual aspect
of our existence, wherein constitutes the essential nature
of the mystical life? As the term is used in this treatise
by Garrigou-Lagrange, it signifies the stage of life in
which there is a predominance of the gifts of the Holy Ghost
over the virtues of the ascetical life.
Ascetical theology. . . .treats of the Christian life
of beginners, and of those who advance with the help of
grace in the exercise of the Christian virtues, the mode
of which remains a human mode adapted to that of our
^ Ibid., p. 25
faculties. On the other hand, mystical theology treats
especially of the unitive life of the perfect, in which
there is clearly manifest the divine mode of the gifts
of the Holy Ghost, in the exercise of which the soul is
more passive than active, and in which it obtains a
"quasi-experimental" knowledge of God present in it, as
St. Thomas explains.7
"We ought always to pray, and not to faint" is a
statement of Jesus which applies to all Christians though
only those who have been made perfect through agape will
fulfill this precept entirely.
The term "ascetical life" refers simply to that phase
of Christian growth in which prayer is essentially active,
that is, the human mode predominates. The term "mystical
life" refers to that phase of Christian growth In*.which the
divine mode prevails. It is the Holy Ghost which prays in
us from this point on. The spirit cries within us, Abba,
father. Contemplation is "infused" which means simply that
stillness having been acquired by the soul, the Holy Ghost
can bear XAritness to the Father and the Son, leading us into
all truth. This speaking and hearing is entirely super
natural in mode. It has nothing to do with auditions,
visions, rapture, ecstasy and other phenomena which all the
masters of the spiritual life have agreed to label extra
ordinary, having no relation at all to the life of sanctify
ing grace.
Ibid., p. 33*
214
Having clarified certain basic terms applied to the
Ciiristian life which consists essentially in the way of per
fection, it remains only necessary to identify the essence
of perfection and the end for which we xvere made.
St. Thomas says that "A thing is said to be perfect
in so far as it attains its proper end, which is the ultimate
perfection t h e r e o f . Hence perfection does not consist in
the virtues which are means in rela,tion to the end, which
for man is union x^ith God.. Now God is love and as St. John
tells us, "He that abideth in love abideth in God and God
abideth in him." Also St. Paul says that Charity is the
bond of perfection. Faith and hope are sx^/allox-v'ed up in
glory when be behold the divine essence and know even as we
are knovm; but charity, the love of God in us, will remain
forever. Hence the essence of perfection is charity which
principally unites us to God, who is love. "On these tvTo
commandments bang all the law and the prophets."
The increase of charity proportionately increases our
receptivity to the gift of divine wisdom which gives us an
understanding of the mysteries of faith.
The end to which perfection tends is consummated in
glory, of xfhich grace is the seed. Father Garrigou-Lagrange
in a moving passage describes the life of the blessed in
^ Summa, Ila Ilae, q. 184, a. 1.
215
heaven thus:
. • . .they enter heaven In the cycle of the Blessed
Trinity who dwels in them. The Father engenders His
Word in them; the Father and the Son breathe forth love
in them. Charity likens them to the Holy Ghost; the
beatific vision makes them like the Word, who renders
them like the Father of Whom He is the image* In each
of them the Trinity, knowi and loved, dwells as in a
living tabernacle; and furthermore, they are in the
Trinity, at the summit of being, of thought, and of
love.^
In conclusion, it is well to indicate that by no
means all Catholics accept the analysis of the contemplative
life as Father Garrigou-Lagrange, a leading Thomist, has
presented it* Notably Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen,
professor of Spiritual Theology in the International College
of St. Teresa of the Discaleed Carmelites, Rome, disagrees
with this position.
A large part of his book, John of the Cross,
Doctor of Divine Love and Contempiation, is devoted to the
differences between the Thomists and Carmelites on the sub
ject of "acquired" contemplation. This subtle, but extreme
ly important stage of the contemplative life, has not yet
been studied and mutually decided upon by all the theo
logians of the present.
University of n California Library
Garrigou-Lagrange, pp. cit., p. 120.

Asset Metadata

Creator McCafferty, Lawrence M. (author)

Core Title The growth and development of the idea perfection in historic Christianity

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Degree Master of Arts

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag OAI-PMH Harvest,philosophy, religion and theology

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Language English

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c39-358755

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Legacy Identifier EP65210.pdf

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