Michel Foucault believed the sciences of man
furthered scientism
the belief science has all the answers
which led to the “Age of Man”
in which humans are studied as
objects of scientific investigation –
B. F. Skinner’s behaviorism
treats humans as “Its”
with no subjectivity.
Science can give us concrete information
about the flow of evolution and our place in it
but not a framework for ultimate meaning –
the purview of theology and religion.
There is a different way of looking at salvation –
God saves us from ourselves
by giving us meaning.
With meaning, little else is needed
without meaning we are caught up in endless
addictive consumerism, rivalry, competition
endlessly rolling the stone up the mountain
only to watch it roll down again
as others out-compete us.
But there is positive meaning and negative meaning.
Martin Luther’s meaning in the 16th century
created the perfect storm for anxiety:
focus on sin, the wrath of God, heaven and hell
coupled with new printing press technology
to spread the Message, rats to spread the Bubonic Plague
and the dissolution of ecclesial order
an “Age of Anxiety” blossomed
whose rotting fruit persists to this day.
Believing, as Luther did,
that we are a solid, separate self
traps us in self-centeredness
but as we work through the chakras in order
we are liberated from successive prisons:
chakras 1,2,3: egocentric food, sex, power
chakras 4,5: ethnocentric love and communication
chakras 6,7: world-centric mindfulness and spirituality.
The ‘porous’ non-separated self gives and receives:
as living beings, we are part of the close-knit family
of living organisms that evolved one from another
over billions of years, products of immensely creative
energy-exchanges of matter and spirit that makes us one with
stars, galaxies, and everything.
Pharisaism symbolizes the self-centered self –
identification with your own self-righteousness
no shadow; no need of conversion
which ironically blocks your path to God
and your compassion for others –
being in touch with shadow means
you know you need, and others need
God’s grace.
To break addiction to yourself
(the only way to liminal space/transformation)
you must change your usual patterns:
fasting not eating, silence not talking,
anonymity not fame, displacement not status,
poverty not money.
Realizing that all desires are good
and the problem is only selfish misuse of desire
many mystics gave up asceticism:
punishing their bodies, suppressing their desires.
Meister Eckhart for one
replaced asceticism with non-attachment.
Desires are good, but on the other hand
pain burns through illusions
of false pleasures
and shows us what is truly beautiful.
But what you see, the beauty of pain or pleasure
depends on how you choose to see:
positive or negative, blessing or curse.
Why is the Holy Spirit within everyone
but not everyone realizes it?
Because God does not force anything on anyone
that they didn’t desire and choose –
human freedom is respected –
and the freedom of the Holy Spirit
to overcome anxiety
and the limits of science.
Intelligent Christian Spirituality 