Briefly on the Matters of Spiritual Pride

Briefly on the Matter of Spiritual Pride

2/19/2022

I am not referring to the Luciferean sort of spiritual pride that declares man to be greater than God or that refuses to acknowledge the majesty and goodness God or that rejects God outright, but rather to the sorts of accusatory labels Christians fondly affix onto others whenever they are confronted by doctrinal differences or metaphysical disagreements.

Mainstream Christians regard anything that strays too far from the conventional Christian path as error, sin, or a combination of both.

They are suspicious of motivations to explore beyond well-established Christian boundaries and tend to consider such motivations to be "prideful".

As far as they are concerned, everything that can be known about Christianity has already been revealed. Thinking otherwise amounts to nothing more than arrogance and conceit, which can only be countered by a healthy dose of spiritual humility.

For example, challenge the traditional belief in the omnipotence of God and mainstream Christians will respond that such ideas do not stem from any potential deficiency in God, but rather from the very obvious deficiencies of man; from some errant, prideful humanistic attitude that erroneously dares to exalt man at the expense of God.

Pressed further, mainstream Christians will eventually assert that a non-omnipotent Christian God would repudiate the core essence of Christianity and make God un-worshipable.

Thus, an omnipotent God is the only sort of God mainstream Christians deem worthy of their human veneration.

But that's not an example of spiritual pride. No way.

Note added: I have no problem with Christians who believe in the omnipotence of God. Similarly, I have no problem with Christians who believe God may not be omnipotent. I believe a person can be a good, serious Christian either way.

3 Comments

jorgen

2/20/2022 03:04:14

Because they are weak people who have never had any strength, and so don't understand that exercising strength with some uncertainty is stronger than controlling all the variables and cheating.

Who is the stronger fighter, the 7 foot tall bully who insists on only fighting midgets so he punch down, or the fighter who will take on all opponents without even knowing how tall they are?

bruce charlton

2/20/2022 11:13:59

The reason why I found Barfield so valuable - is the way he describes us as emerging from Original Participation gradually, so that there used to be an automatic and unconscious spirituality that 'supported' all kinds of errors, biases and legalisms which nowadays are spiritually lethal.

We in the West particularly now inhabit a world where the unconscious, spontaneous and passive spirituality is alienated atheism; and where we get little or no support from the primal immersion in the divine.

Attitudes that used to 'work' (for most people, most of the time) are now spiritually lethal - and we observe all kinds of ultra-orthodox traditional self-identified Christians (of various types) who are spiritually blind to global totalitarian evil, and therefore end up as aggressive supporters of it - and foes to real Christians on the basis of their unorthodoxy.

But the idea that human spirituality has changed is, unfortunately, itself rejected by trad-orthodox Christianity - who insist that the spiritual consciousness of a modern Man is *identical* with Men of the Old Testament, the time of Jesus and every point since. In essence nothing significant has changed - and for anyone to assert that it has changed is merely/ inevitably anti-Christian in motivation, and a step towards liberalization and apostasy.

Francis Berger

2/20/2022 17:56:55

@ Bruce - "But the idea that human spirituality has changed is, unfortunately, itself rejected by trad-orthodox Christianity . . ."

Yes, and this is where I believe the point of choice and division will occur in Christianity. Those content with the idea that human consciousness has not changed/cannot change -- that Creation is more or less static and confined, that no new revelation is possible -- will barricade themselves in trad-orthodox obedience mode and will engage in little more than rearguard action to defend that which, increasingly, cannot be defended or has already been lost.

On the other hand, those who discern that a new revelation is forthcoming -- that Creation is constantly developing, expanding, changing, that God develops and changes along with Creation, that human freedom and agency are the keys to the further development of Christianity, that an intensification of inner life is the only way to overcome the oppression of outer life -- may assist in the further development of Christianity and Creation.

Neither is wrong -- but the former is static, passive and will add little to Creation; the latter, active, dynamic and will open up new possibilities.

". . . who insist that the spiritual consciousness of a modern Man is *identical* with Men of the Old Testament, the time of Jesus and every point since. In essence nothing significant has changed -"

I see this most in the constant references to medieval imagery and hierarchy -- that modern man's only viable way forward rests in returning to a form of fealty, in both the religious and social sense -- that all we need to do is get back to worshiping God as if He we were a feudal lord.

This is, of course, is impossible -- yet in many cases it continues to be promoted as the only viable option for Christianity.

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Briefly on the Matter of Spiritual Pride

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