Tag: systems

PARADOX AND PAROUSIA

Paradox allows us to understand realities too complex

to be explained from a single point of view –

it allows us to speak the whole truth by juxtaposing

two seemingly contradictory statements –

Jesus is both fully human and fully God

 

it is paradoxical that through deeply living/looking into

our own religion we become free/able

to deeply look into/listen to other traditions

and see the beauty in both

 

our worldview is not just a system of thought

but a way of imagining the world –

how it is and how it ought to be –

and it is prescriptive – it informs/is informed by

our actions in the world

 

“Nothing is just a part or a whole –

everything is both whole in itself

and a part of something bigger –

a ‘holon’ – an integral system” – Ken Wilber

 you are whole in yourself yet part of society

your religion is whole in itself yet

part of the world which is whole in itself yet

part of the solar system/galaxy/universe

 

although science is just beginning

to understand integral systems

the idea that everything is interconnected

has been around in mysticism

in every major world religion for millenia –

science is finally catching up/catching on

to religion – science and religion are becoming one

 

the New Testament writers did not run wild

with their interpretations of Jesus –

rather there was a gradual deepening of insights

into his Message and who He was

 

the “Parousia” – the coming “kindom” of God

is already here

just not fully developed yet –

we are in a time of decision and choice –

do we get the Message of Paradox

or not?

YOUR TRUE CALLING

Rosemary Radford Ruether, the great feminist theologian

was one of the first to see patriarchal/dualistic thinking –

that things are divided not one –

causes not only sexism but also racism and environmental destruction

 

theology itself can be patriarchal/dualistic

if it does not paradoxically give up

what it has always asked other disciplines to give up: supremacy –

like all sciences it must submit to the greater wisdom

of evolutionary cosmology – the blueprint of the universe –

the unrelenting progress from atoms to humans to divinized humans –

astronomy blesses us with a scientific revelation of God’s Plan

 

whereas classical thermodynamics said closed systems dissipate energy

and thus the whole cosmos is winding down –

which breeds nihilism – we are ultimately doomed so why care about anything?

but biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy, inventor of General Systems Theory

revealed that open systems do not run down

because they get new energy from their environment

 

but systems are not The System that wants to fool us and rule us –

the culture we live in is deceptive and hegemonic –

“We need Christ and the poet/artist/mystic to give us liberated vision –

new ways to see” – Canadian folk legend Bruce Cockburn

 

the journey to find new ways to see

the departure of the hero on the Hero’s Journey – has sub-stages:

The Call

The Refusal of the Call (and the folly/futility of resistance)

Supernatural Aid

Descent into the Night:

God calls Moses to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt

Moses says “No way, I cannot go, who am I to challenge Pharaoh?”

God says “I will be with you”

Moses leaves for Egypt and the rest is history

 

“The True Calling for all of us is the Present Moment –

that’s why they call it the “Present” – the “Gift from God” –

the bigger miracle is not for one person to walk on water

but for all of us to walk on our blue/green planet

in the Eternal Now”

– Thich Nhat Hanh

 

if you live in the One and the Now

dualistic thinking has no power over your True Calling.