Francis Berger
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Creativity - The Third Truth

1/15/2023

5 Comments

 
Christians tend to believe in two distinct paths toward truth. The first is divine revelation. The second is reason. 

Divine revelation comprises the truth God has revealed directly to man from above. Man arrives at reasoned truth empirically through his senses. As far as most Christians are concerned, there is no other viable way for man to access truth. Man receives it directly from God or figures it out via his senses. 
The first enlightens the second, and the second reveals the reality of the first.

The big problem for Christians is the treasured belief that empirical truth – truth arrived at by reason – always leads to the reality of God. In actuality, empirical truth has all but rejected divine truth and the reality of God. 

The truth man has gathered from his senses has informed him that God does not exist. This conclusion is then reinforced by the apparent centuries-long absence of divine revelation. This apparent centuries-long absence of divine revelation has led empirical man to conclude that earlier divine revelations were untrue, in the sense that they never occurred. 

Now, Christians will argue that the reasoned truth man has employed in the past two or three centuries is not reasoned at all because it is insincere and skewed. The argument is not wrong, but its correctness misses the larger point of how and why man’s use of empirical reason has become so insincere and skewed. 

I suggest that the insincere and skewed use of reasoned truth is rooted in man’s inability to recognize a third form of truth, which I will refer to here as divine-human revelation. 

To my knowledge, it was Berdyaev who coined the term, and he used it to describe another, as-of-yet, largely unacknowledged path toward truth, which he called creativity (bold added in all passages): 

Creativeness is something mysterious and hidden. The revelation of creativeness does not come from above but rather from below – it is an anthropological, not a theological, revelation. God revealed His will to sinful man in the law and granted man the grace of redemption, sending into the world His Only Son. And God awaits from man the anthropological revelation of creativity; in the name of man's god-like freedom, God has hidden from him the ways of creativeness and the justification of creativeness. (Meaning of the Creative Act)

Berdyaev’s introduction of an anthropological revelation turns the conventional Christian belief about revelation on its head and reveals a new and largely unexplored path toward truth. Instead of passively absorbing or waiting for God’s revelation, man must realize that he must actively reveal himself to God via creativity. Moreover, he should be pursuing creativity from within himself, from the core of his agency and freedom, rather than relying upon external sources: 

Man's creative activity has no holy scriptures: its ways are not revealed to man from above. In the Holy Scriptures which reveal to man the will of God, man always finds absolute truth, but it is another kind of truth and about something other. In creativeness, man is, as it were, left to himself, alone, and has no direct aid from on high. And in this fact the great wisdom of God is evident. (The Meaning of the Creative Act)

Creativity does not negate divine revelation or reasoned truth, but merges them, thereby ending the errant dichotomy that has been established between the two truths and, subsequently, affirming the existence of the form of truth simply through the conscious act of seeking it:

Truth is not objective, ordinary reality, reflected in the knower and entering into him from outside, but rather the enlightenment, the transfiguration of reality: it is the introduction into the world's data of a quality, which was not there before truth was revealed and known. Truth is not conformity with what we call being, but rather the kindling of a light within being. I am in darkness and seek the light; I do not yet know truth but I seek it. By this very fact, I affirm the existence of Truth and light, existence in another sense than the existence of the world's realities. My seeking is already the dawning light, and truth already beginning to reveal itself. (Truth and Revelation) 

And what is the overall purpose of the third truth? According to Berdyaev, the divine-human revelation of creativity sets the stage for the continued development of human consciousness and the fulfillment of God’s divine purpose for man:

The opening of a new epoch of the Spirit, which will include higher achievements of spirituality, presupposes a radical change and a new orientation in human consciousness. This will be a revolution of consciousness which hitherto has been considered as something static. The religion of the Spirit will be the religion of man's maturity, leaving behind him his childhood and adolescence... (The Divine and the Human)

And the core of God’s divine purpose within the third truth involves raising man up to the level of co-creator:
​

The creative act will create new being rather than values of differentiated culture; in the creative act, life will not be quenched. Creativity will continue creation; it will reveal the resemblance of human nature to the Creator. In creativity the way will be found for subject to pass into object, the identity of subject with object will be restored. All the great creators have foreseen this turning point. Today, in the depths of culture itself and in all its separate spheres, this crisis of creativity is ripening. (Meaning of the Creative Act)
5 Comments
JMSmith
1/15/2023 21:58:27

The path may reward further exploration but has been at least surveyed. The terminology changes with the times, but your creativity is what was formerly called "enthusiasm." Quakers are the best known sect in this tradition. I don't say this to run it down, only to note that Romantic Christianity is part of a tradition. Like every tradition, this one has strengths and weaknesses. Its principal weakness, as exhibited by Quakerism, is that it has a hard time sustaining itself between outbreaks of enthusiasm. I agree with most things you have said about the danger of dead routines, but routines are also the bridges that carry us over the swamps when creativity and enthusiasm sleep.

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Francis Berger
1/16/2023 08:20:04

@ JM - I'm not well-versed in Quakerism, but my cursory knowledge informs me that it was an example of the pre-Romantic movements in Protestantism that reflected the continued emerging of consciousness toward individuality and direct knowing. Much can be learned from these Christian sects and denominations, but I think there is a limit to how much these can be compared to our current situation and challenges.

I don't believe we should aim for a state of constant, uninterrupted creativity during our mortal lives because such a state is unsustainable in this world. If it weren't, we would be fooled into believing that this world is enough. However, a heightened awareness and practice of creativity (not just artistic creativity) in this world, however intermittent, is certain to "carry over" into heaven, where a state of constant, uninterrupted creativity is possible.

Creativity requires freedom and agency, which entails the acceptance of personal responsibility for one's decisions and choices. Traditional routines can be helpful, but only as far as we accept full personal responsibility for them.

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bruce g charlton
1/16/2023 18:16:32

I agree that Quakerism is a misleading comparison. It began with George Fox stumping the country in a leather suit preaching with great vigour; as a Bible-based, aggressive (but not physically!), and strict nonconformism.

...But - via a kind of Christian Socialism - 'liberalized' into the present formlessness - which is indistinguishable from mainstream atheistic, ultra-leftism - a kind of Western Buddhism.

Lady Mermaid link
1/15/2023 22:05:35

My last post on New World Island had linked a Twitter thread describing how our perception of paranormal events may influence reality on some level. We see this in the placebo effect w/ medicine. In today's world, we must actively seek out the divine. We are no longer submerged in it as our ancestors were.

While many people will write this off as sheer coincidence, I have started noticing divine providence a lot more in my life when I started looking for it and spending more time in prayer and trying to think spiritually. As Bruce Charlton stated, we are stuck in adolescence. Growing into adulthood will be the ultimate spiritual challenge of our age.

Reply
Francis Berger
1/16/2023 08:52:37

@ Lady Mermaid - Yes, I believe we open ourselves up to divine providence whenever we take a step beyond adolescence -- however intermittent or transitory the step may be.

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