WE NEED TO LOOK INWARD

[Liberal Catholic]

THAT WHICH IS MOST PERSONAL IS MOST UNIVERSAL

"In pride, in reas'ning pride, our error lies; All quit their sphere,
and rush into the skies! Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man.
[Alexander Pope. Essay on Man]


WE NEED TO LOOK INWARD TO FIND THE TRUTH
by Bob Shepherd


Have we quit our sphere and rushed into the skies? Isn't this not what
man has done with religion? Where the core of our concern is properly
"anthropology" -- we rather have put in its place a distant THEOLOGY.

I mean no disrespect to wholesome religion or spirituality.
But if we go back to beginnings, we may discover that the best wisdom
is what is nearest at hand. Homo sum: human nihil a me alienum puto (I
am a man, and nothing human is alien to me)

Martin Buber emphasized that in Judaism, the focus was essentially
this-worldly. What Christendom did, when it articulated and
systematized a theology, was to elevate religion to a pie-in-the-sky
realm, all too far removed from the humble soil of this life on earth.

They erected an elaborate theological ediface, far removed from the
humble this-worliness of Genesis, with its tribal duties, and familial
life, and essential anthropology.

After a dozen generations as a tiny, persecuted sect; Then as a
suspicious minority religion, Christianity finally traded places with
its former persecutors, and became the official established religion
of the Empire.

A governing body of scholar-priests set about defining and elaborating
"correct" beliefs and doctrines. As they did so,

Christianity became more and more intricate, layered, and officially,
at least, hardened. As details were defined, issues, ironically,
became more convoluted, circuitous, complex.
Aboriginal truth, which had been more primitive, yet at the same time
more emphatic and direct, soon found itself clothed in an
unrecognizable raiment.

The simple gospel with its hebraic and judaic character found itself
arrayed in a fancy new dress only remotely reminiscent of its
authentic shemitic roots.

As a young man I came under the instruction of a Cherokee preacher
(Bishop Whitlock) who liked to say, "Jesus didn't teach go-to-heaven;
he taught kingdom-of-heaven."

Whitlock believed that the "promised land" would be thias-worldly,
right here on earth. He rejected the eschatology of a "rapture" and
instead said our eyes must be opened to truly "see Jesus."

Interestingly, I think the Bible, even if the main Hebrew focus was
this-worldly, nevertheless offers the hope of an unseen world. I
believe the Bible holds out the promise of a REWARD for our labors. As
with any pursuit, therer is a spiritual principle of persistence.

Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it
shall be opened unto you.

Whitlock, like Thomas Jefferson, like Leo Tolstoy and others, directed
our attention to the teachings of Jesus.

The answer is in the red letters (the teachings of Jesus). A hurdle I
am trying to overcome is the fact that, steeped in the heritage of
European Christianity, I believe I lost sight of the essential Semitic
and Jewish character of the words of Jesus.

We know that the Christian religion was grafted on to something far
older. The stock of "the olive tree" had roots deep into Shemitic and
Cushitic and Hebraic soil.

It certainly was not European in its origins.

Martin Luther King reminds me to turn again to the Good Book, the
scriptures esteemed in our biblical gospel heritage. Turn again to
doing justice and loving mercy, as commanded by the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. The book of Genesis (or even older, the pre-Jewish
book of Job) is a good place to start.

We all have a tribal subconscious. Our authentic genetic identity is
very much in the humble reality of kinship and tribe and reproduction.

Freud commented that we are an iceberg, which floats "with only one
seventh of its bulk above water." The genius of Freud is that he
directs our gaze inward. We must look within for answers.

We must look within for the truth that will set us free.

The interpretation of dreams, of our most personal myths and
narratives, is not a bad place to begin.

The theology of Christendom aimed at "objectivity" and "certainty" and
tried to hammer down the specifics of a definition of "God."
But a humbler wisdom contents itself with the lowly realm of the
subjective, with doubt and inexactness, with human struggle and
weakness and need.

Like the book of Genesis, and truly most of the heroes of the Bible,
human character shines through with the authentic flavor of flesh-and-
blood humanity.

Jesus didn't teach go-to-heaven; he taught Kingdom of Heaven.

Put not yor trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is
no help.

His breath goeth forth, he returneth to the earth; in that very day
his thoughts perish. [Ps 146: 3,4]

As Freud's theory evolved, he came to propose what he referred to as
the 'death instinct' as a counter-part to the 'life instinct' (sex).
Anthony Storr describes this death concept (thanatos) as the ultimate
expression of the Nirvana principle, of the organism's striving to
reach Swinburne's 'The Garden of Prosperpine' -- where no stimuli from
either within or without disturb its everlasting peace.


Then star nor sun shall waken,
Nor any change of light:

Nor sound of water shaken,
Nor any sound or sight:

Nor wintry leaves nor vernal,
Nor days nor things diurnal;

Only the sleep eternal
In an eternal night



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