Francis Berger
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Creation is Freedom From Reaction

2/27/2022

3 Comments

 
It's no secret that the powers-that-should-not-be invest a great deal of time and energy into conditioning people to react to the external world in prescribed and predetermined ways. Lightly scratch away at the surface of our societies and you quickly discover that practically all aspects of human life -- from politics to marketing -- are ruled by this sort of external conditioning.

The end goal of this external conditioning appears to be the eclipsing of the divine self with the external world via consciousness. To put it another way, conditioning people to believe in nothing but the external world focuses consciousness exclusively on that "perceived" reality.

Consciousness disconnects from the divine self and concentrates exclusively with responding to the various stimuli and forces of the external world. Through this process, consciousness internalizes the external world and displaces the divine self, thereby displacing the only force that can "creatively penetrate", resist, and transform the external forces of the world by thinking and acting in ways that transcend reactive conditioning.    

Now, there is no denying that humans have inherent natures. There's also no denying the "nurture" influence of culture, traditions, beliefs, etc. Both of these present obvious limits to our powers, but it seems to me that Christianity offers a path by which individuals can move beyond the nature and nurture paradigm -- if nothing else, at least intermittently. This path depends entirely on our connection to what is divine within us and the understanding that the divine within us, not the external world, is the true source of our freedom and agency.

Jesus provides the ultimate example of non-reaction to the external world. He lived in the world and interacted with it within the context of his inherent nature blending with external factors such as culture and history, but He never allowed Himself to be conditioned by any of it. Instead, it was He who conditioned the external world with the inner workings of his divine self. 

Jesus never responded to the external world in the way it expected Him to respond. On the contrary, guided by his divine self -- that vast ocean of inner freedom with which his consciousness was fully aligned, and which, in turn, was fully aligned with God -- Jesus acted and thought in ways that not only dumbfounded the external world, but also inspired it to reconsider its own assumptions about "reality".  This is evident in both Jesus' teachings and in the details of His thoughts and actions on earth.

Christians need to rediscover this positive source of creation. The simplest and clearest way to begin this sort of creative activity is to practice thinking and acting in ways that go beyond the glaring external conditioning as well as the nature/nurture aspects inherent in our own "natural" human selves, all while keeping in mind that the creative thinking and action must emanate primarily from what is divine within us as individuals rather than from some source external to us.

It is through this that people can begin the process of "introducing something new into Creation" rather than merely reacting to some external aspect of the "given world" of conditioning.  

This approach immediately raises concerns. For example, how is this any different from the faux "I gotta be me" attitude of egoistic, hedonistic liberalism? Similarly, how can creative thinking be distinguished from thoughts and activities that are unaligned with God?

The answer lies in consciousness. If consciousness directs the divine self properly, the free, creative response to the external world will find itself in harmony with the God and with Creation, which will work to support and expand the creative act. 
3 Comments
Jen
10/21/2022 22:48:52

This is an older post so I hope you still see this. I have recently discovered your blog (via Dr. Charlton, also a recent discovery) and am so grateful for what you offer to the world, and the clarity and courage with which you do it. I have never been Christian—I am coming to this later in life. I was raised in a firmly atheist household and spent most of my early adulthood wandering around an incoherent stew of new-agey-buddhist-woo-woo thinking. I find myself now extremely drawn to romantic Christianity as you define it, and strongly resonate with its truths, but I know very little about Jesus's life and teachings, nor do I have any idea what is the best place to learn about them.

I find myself in a prison of reactivity to current world events, and very much want to cultivate more of the authentic creativity you discuss here. If there are useful places to read and learn more about Jesus's example that you could point me toward, I would be very very appreciative.

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Jen
10/21/2022 23:00:48

....and a follow up....of course, there is the bible....but which version/translation? Which parts in particular? I am beyond thoroughly clueless, but there seem to be contradictions depending on what perspective one takes, at least from my limited experience.

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Francis Berger
10/22/2022 08:36:44

@ Jen - Thanks. Concerning your questions, if you've read bits from my blog and Dr. Charlton's blog, then you know that we advocate for a Romantic Christian approach to Christianity rather than traditional, mainstream,"new age", liberal, or strictly institutional approaches to the faith. Dr. Charlton provides a good summary in the link below:

https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2021/10/an-attempted-definition-of-romantic.html

I do my best to add to the simplicity of the Romantic Christian approach below:

https://www.francisberger.com/blog/not-outside-but-within

The key is to focus on the internal rather than on the external manifestations of Christianity.

Concerning the Bible, Romantic Christians regard The Fourth Gospel, also known as the Gospel of John, as the most authoritative account of Jesus and his mission, primarily because it is the purest "eye-witness" account. So, I would humbly recommend starting there.

As for the rest of it, well, it all comes down to personal discernment and -- most importantly -- an active conscious understanding of rooting faith in the personal and the experiential rather than in the passive absorption of secondary, external sources.

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