Never Mind? 

 

A very important lacuna among theists is the mind.  It is a fact of history that the western tradition has been much more extroverted than the east.  We westerners know that when it comes to introspection we can hardly hold a candle to the navel gazing mystics to the east.  This has never been our forte.  We are still seemingly paying a price for the one time that we traipsed into that corner, thanks to Sigmund.  The political dynamics of the still unfolding sex scandal of the RCC is not unrelated to those collective unconscious anxieties that the Viennese doctor managed to put his foot into.  This peculiar bit of history does nothing to encourage a broad theological inquiry into this dimension or our reality. 

Let me not overlook the continental phenomenologists.  In part, their roots can be traced back to Hegel and German idealism.  Yet, the fact is that in both their sectarian and secular guises, phenomenologists have opted for existence over being.  This is a decided turn toward the irrational, like their counterparts in the east.  It would seem that we rationalists are swimming against a strong tide.  Rationalism has almost never found fertile soil in either the east or the west.  The high point of rationalism was in Greek philosophy and then to a lesser extent in Thomism, which until very recent times was the canonical philosophy of the Roman Church.  

In the midst of a very imperfect world, rationalism can't help but inspire a revolutionary utopianism.  The vested interests look askance at such proclivities.  How is today any different from the past?  In a word, it is the Internet.  There is something new under the Sun.  There are other positive and negative aspects of technology that come to bear on a new millenarianism.  A distinct subset of the scientific community is likely to be a prime candidate for any new momentum in this direction. 

Down through the ages, the human mind has demonstrated a great affinity to the story form.  Science struggles constantly to feed us stories, but it has been an uphill battle in a 'meaningless' universe.  The only thing greater than our fear of an overwhelming cosmic coherence is our thirst for it.  The messianic path lies directly between the fear and the desire.  This is where divine minimalism will be of the essence.  

 

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6/8/02