Searching for God # 51

 Maybe what I have been attempting to focus a lens or a light onto is the mystery that is each and every human being and the mystery of God, a place where, in the human imagination, some various kinds of encounters, surprises, shocks or even mutual hymns might intermingle in a kind of soul/spirit synchronicity…..

We are much more than our cells, organs, systems, and brain….and while we continue to uncover more of the ways in and by which these various components interact with each other, along with the foods, air, water and circumstances to which we are invited or compelled, our mystery remains both an enigma and a blessing. Centuries of generations of thoughtful, insightful, sensitive and sensible (Mostly) men have pondered, prayed, written and debated the various pathways to the divine and that kind of reflection, including the exegesis of scripture, and the connections and resistances of and between various religious communities, and that process continues unabated.

Throughout these pieces I have been labouring over concepts like literal, empirical, sensate, rational, reason as compared with the imagination, images, metaphors, symbols, archetypes, and of course, personal and collective conscious and unconscious. Recently I included a piece reflecting on a contemporary political phrase, ‘virtue signalling,’ to which I was disdainful. Somehow, the notion that ‘signalling’ a virtue, without making the empirical changes needed to achieve the literal, empirical measureable virtue brings a perception and mind-set that says ‘signalling’ is useless, redundant, and therefore dismissable. A municipal politician of my brief acquaintance commented, upon being elected, ‘I will be judged by my effectiveness in making observable change.’ And while there is some political justification in that sentence, it leaves much omitted, ignored, and dismissed, as potential range of influence that a community leader can and does actually have.

In  culture obsessed with literal, empirical, sensate, reason and logic, is it not to be expected that while there are many shared benefits of this approach, there are serious omissions as well as risks to the exclusive, obsessive pursuit of such purposes and goals. Would it not be ‘expected’ that, as a counter-point to the empirical, literal, scientific and rational, theology might attempt to wrestle with the matters of the soul, meaning and belief, to borrow again from Hillman?

And would it not be expected in such a culture also to  find some who are determined to examine critically any imbalance that might be blurring any attempt to insert the ‘matters of the soul’ into the debate. Let’s start with some of the implications of an obvious imbalance on the lives of millions of individuals.

We have already mentioned pressure on human ego, that aspect/image of the person to which we attach our executive, decision-making choices. Conventionally we seem both to presume and to assume that moral and ethical choices depend on a strong, disciplined, mature and healthy ego….whatever that might mean in medical, legal, sociological and even cognitive terms. Anyone can see that those we hold as ‘examples’ of success,  maturity and icons of the values we collectively hold most worthy are wrapped in images of wealth, power, influence, skill, and something we call leadership, in some circles referred to as charisma. These leaders are featured in much of the media, both news and entertainment, and also especially social media. Go out and win the ‘brass ring’ whatever you consider that to be, and however it might take to attain it, seems to be a motto, and a mantra for our culture.

Of course, there are rebels who disdain such ‘carboard templates’ and reject those aspirations. Many lives are lived in complete privacy, while both learning and altruism continue in silence. Nevertheless, the conventional template of ‘social and financial success’ have motived millions, and continue to drive the ambitions ofu many. That is a drum-beat to which readers of this space have long ago grown bored, weary and numb.

However, it is also pertinent and cogent to note that such a model of success brings with it a plethora of expectations for the neophyte just entering the ‘fray’. References, whether in formal letters or in informal phone calls, have a way of influencing decision-makers at colleges and universities, as well as in many, if not most corporations. And, fitting in, complying with the rules, regulations, conventions and expectations all demonstrate the reliability, trustworthiness, the integrity and especially the loyalty to whatever the enterprise might be. On the back of those observations, promotions, additional references, ‘following’ numbers rise, and recruiters with their own radar of networking, come calling. The system has a way of sustaining itself, on the basis of a very elegant, easily defined and relatively easily ladder to climb….depending on one’s willingness to climb that ladder.

Concentrating on those extrinsic metrics, until forty-five, approximately,  according to Jung, one then tends to begin to look inside for whether or not those achievements, recognitions, awards, applause and elaborate networks are ‘enough’. Peggy Lee’s famous ballad, ‘Is that all there Is?’ embraces the mood, the moment and the shift in perception and expectation.

Is the search for God as relevant, as meaningful or even as necessary until that point in one’s life? Or, is the search for God precisely analogous to, as well as supportive of that shift? Or is the search for God a metaphor for the parallel search for the inner self, the soul? It is impossible to exclude issues like death and meaning from such a search, as it is also virtually impossible to exclude those issues from one’s interior dialogue.

Reflection, meditation, prayer, reading, seeking community, silence, and some degree of withdrawal are all included as both manifestations of and circumstances of support in whatever degree of intensity and depth each person chooses.

Christian churches have been theologically founded on a theology of child-like celebrations of the birth of Jesus at Christmas, the Death and Resurrection at Easter, and the various holy days, and their feasts and festivals, with little to no active engagement in a process of evolution of one’s need for and search for God, as an integral component of one’s life. Of course, crises have a way of bringing one to one’s knees, psychologically, as well as emotionally and spiritually. The very word ‘search’ seems to denote a skepticism and a tentativeness and even a doubt, as to whether a person who uses that word is really serious about being a Christian.

The concept of a certitude in an absolute faith conviction in promised ‘outcomes’….’if I am saved,’ seems to have a potential of either minimizing or eliminating any approach that smells of a search. “Look in the Bible” is one of the critical responses to the encounter of a word like ‘search’…it’s all there! There is no need for you to search!....are either or both the words and the attitudes of those already ‘saved’.

Deficient then in conviction, as well as in biblical ‘knowledge’ the ‘searcher’ is effectively and perhaps for the last time from both tolerance and inclusion in the life of the faith community. And the dominant superiority of those ‘inside’ the circle of conviction and faith, in a rational, literal, empirical culture which also frequently subscribes to a literal interpretation of the words of Scripture, tends to exclude both questions and questioners.

Books under consideration for inclusion in the Bible have been excluded because they were ‘too risky’ for inclusion, and would being about doubt among potential adherents. Women have been excluded from Church hierarchies, because Jesus had no female disciples. Slaves have been excluded from the human race, endorsed and supported by the Christian church. The LGBTQ+ segment of society have struggled and continue to struggle for church acceptance.

And the conflicts among various religious and faith communities seem to take precedence over the motive and ambition and will to co-operate, to find common ground and to demonstrate a spirit of both truth and tolerance. Would skeptics and doubters from various faith communities not be more likely to find common ground than convicted absolutists?

From my experience, the loudest voices in the room are never the ones to which I gravitate for counsel. They usually have a not-so-hidden agenda to attempt to impose that agenda on anyone who might pause long enough to listen. Perhaps it is the rebel in me or perhaps the trickster who has gravitated to the silent, reflective, meditative and the pondering man or woman as one who is already ( at least in my imagination) on the path of a search similar to this one. They are comfortable with uncertainty and wonder, mystery and questions, and far less comfortable with dogmatic answers to dogmatically based questions.

Is this semblance of a paradox another of God’s tricks for us to attempt to unpack, if we are continuing along a path of ‘searching’ for the divine…and looking for guides likes Moltmann, Tolstoy, and even Hillman to help form the questions that we consider relevant? Is the skeptic and the doubter a candidate for the search for God? Ot is the search one that has already been completed, and one needs to ‘get on the program’ if one really wants to be included, and especially if one wants to be saved?