Is Christian Consciousness a Done Deal or Is It Still Developing?

2/20/2022

Christian consciousness can roughly be defined as the way Christians think about, understand, and relate to God, Creation, themselves, and others.

The big question is whether Christian consciousness possesses the ability to expand, develop, and grow.

If it doesn't, then Christians already have everything they need to think about, understand, and relate to God, Creation, themselves, and others.

If it does, then how Christians think about, understand, and relate to God is open to further expansion, development, growth.

The two possibilities inevitably lead to very different "sets" of metaphysical assumptions, both of which are Christian.

The major difference between the two sets of assumptions comes down to a matter of meaning and purpose.

The question of Christian consciousness is the question of what Christianity is ultimately aiming for.

6 Comments

Lady Mermaid link

2/20/2022 20:29:48

I would say that it's necessary for Christian consciousness to expand. It's part of spiritual growth in Christ. The gift of the Holy Spirit is to teach us how to follow God in our hearts. In fact, St. John Henry Newman coined something called "Development of Doctrine" in which understanding grows from an acorn to a tree. In my opinion, this explains why previous attempts to restore Christendom based on external authority have failed (Republic of Ireland, Franco's Spain). There was nothing wrong w/ the prior traditions, but God wants us to move beyond and internalize them. The Epistles of St. Paul talk about the need to move beyond spiritual milk into solid food.

This is NOT to advocate a type of Whig history in which progress is inevitable and tradition should be completely discarded. Liberalism erred greatly by doing this. Any development of consciousness must be fully aligned w/ Christ or we have the loss of freedom that you've described in a prior post.

Francis Berger

2/20/2022 21:11:20

@ Lady Mermaid - I agree. Development does not mean discarding all that has come before. On the contrary, it is from the what has come before that the development proceeds. I sometimes think of it in terms of stages - like a child becoming an adolescent or an adolescent becoming an adult. The adult could not have become an adult without being an adolescent first, and a big part of the adolescent remains firmly embedded in the adult, albeit with a deeper sense of purpose and meaning. The analogy is a poor one, but I hope you get what I mean.

Unfortunately, much the external forms of Christianity seem intent on doing away with much of traditional consciousness in favor of System consciousness. Moreover, it wants to prevent any further development altogether.

Lady Mermaid link

2/22/2022 01:35:43

The child to adult analogy is a good metaphor. I believe it was Bruce Charlton that stated that our society is stuck in the rebellious adolescent phase. It's impossible to return to childhood, but we must get out of adolescence and mature into adulthood.

bruce charlton

2/21/2022 09:49:11

Yes development.

As there is a transfer from external authority towards internal guidance, we see emerging considerable differences in the order and priority of development between individuals.

So long as the differences derive from personal spiritual need, then such inter-individual differences are a positive phenomenon.

In other words, par of this seems to be that 'development' cannot be regarded as 'following' a specific path and order of changes.

It seems that individuals need to discern for themselves what ought to be the Next Step - and then the Next.

jorgen

2/23/2022 06:23:41

Do we mean here the individual Christian or Christianity as a whole?

Francis Berger

2/23/2022 07:53:38

@ jorgen - Any further development of Christian consciousness must occur at the level of the individual Christian. Whether that "translates" into any sort of development of Christianity as a whole is another matter entirely.

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Is Christian Consciousness a Done Deal or Is It Still Developing?

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