Tag: pope

SECRET SOCIETIES

Spirit is not something that goes on in time forever

but rather is a Timeless Moment, an Eternal Now

a Pure Present that never ends

and is timeless yet holds all time in its hands

across the aeons, the Holy Spirit

who John MacQuarrie refers to as “Unitive Being”

has been the principle linking the macro and micro –

the Cosmic Christ and Jesus of Nazareth

Karl Marx would criticize the above as just religious philosophy

since he criticized philosophers as a group

that just interprets the world but never changes it

changing the world takes courage and persistence

which is why boys who want to become men

must go through rituals of initiation

be separated from the Mother

experience an ordeal of pain such as circumcision

in order to be admitted 

into the Secret/Sacred Society of Men

girls on the other hand are naturally initiated

into the Secret/Sacred Society of Women

through the pain of childbirth

philosophy may seem useless to some

but Integral Theory gets its hands dirty with Earth

by linking the three main schools of environmental ethics:

– the bioequality school: all creatures have equal value

– the animal rights/Whiteheadian school: not all creatures

have equal intrinsic value – there exists a hierarchy of values

– the stewardship school: those with a higher intrinsic value

have greater responsibility for taking care of all creatures

but right-wing Christians would think this was too “communal”

too close to “communism” – acting like a community of care

so, our biggest threat comes not from secular atheists 

but from fundamentalists, Protestant or Catholic

whose absolute certainty about their beliefs

based on their belief in the infallibility of scripture or the pope

has made them into a Secret Society of Religious Atheists

so secret they don’t realize what they have done 

and what they have become

because they have stripped God of all mystery.

FAITH FROM THE GROUND UP

The ascetics looked to the martyrs

for inspiration and models:

asceticism – renouncing all worldly attachments –

was thought of as slow martyrdom –

slow movement towards non-being.

 

Anxiety is fear, not of the unknown in general

but a specific type of fear – the fear of non-being.

 

But there is no need to fear non-being –

each new development in evolution

transcends and includes its predecessor

it enfolds as it unfolds

so that evolution is integral from atoms to cells

to organisms/plants/animals/humans.

We are dust and to dust we shall return

but dust eventually becomes conscious living beings.

 

Teilhard de Chardin, the great Christian paleontologist

believed any explanation of the world

whether biological/philosophical/religious

would be condemned by the modern mind

if it did not include an essential place for sexuality.

 

Meanwhile, feminists have revolutionized our thinking

on the body/sexuality to the point that

some see feminism as a threat to Christian faith

but others see it as constantly challenging

sexist/patriarchal attitudes

that undermine faith in Jesus the Liberator.

 

There have even been anti-patriarchal popes –

John XXIII was ironically Patriarch of Venice

before he became pope

and then as pope took public transportation

so he could mingle with ordinary men and women

and Pope Francis similarly likes to dine

with Vatican cafeteria staff –

he is no martyr or ascetic

but loves good coffee and a soccer game –

coffee grounds and soccer grounds keep him grounded

in the Ground of Being

and therefore Francis is non-anxious about non-being.

 

PARADOX/CHAOS/RIGHTS

God, not just human decision alone,

is the author of sacred institutions like marriage

and this is vastly important because

God endowed sacred institutions with benefits and a purpose

that are important for the eternal destiny of the family

and for the peace and unity of the whole society.

 

But every major religion is full of paradox:

salvation is a free gift of God and yet

worked out by our own effort in fear and trembling;

salvation is bright and glorious and yet

often arrived at through pain/chaos/martyrdom.

 

All this paradox and chaos results in meaninglessness:

difficulty in making sense of life.

Meaninglessness is the absolute threat

to our spiritual self-affirmation

just as emptiness is the relative threat.

Meaninglessness is the background to emptiness

just as death is the background

to the vicissitudes of life.

 

More paradox and chaos:

Christians finding excuses for creating death.

Pope Urban II put severe restrictions on war:

only if absolutely necessary

and only in defence of Christianity.

But then this pope decided a Crusade

would unify Christianity/bring peace/end all war.

 

Perhaps today we are more enlightened?
We recognize everyone and everything

has “ground value” – all things

are works or children of the Creator.

In other words: everything and everyone

has “intrinsic value” and therefore rights –

animals have rights and all of nature has rights.

Nothing has merely “instrumental value” –

nothing is merely a means to an end.

 

In the past the end was the wealth and pleasure of the rich

with no respect for God or sacred institutions

and no respect for the common good or Creation’s rights.