In a post from earlier this week, I explored the idea that the recognition and acknowledgement of "the point" was the point of 2020. The point refers to C.S. Lewis's concept of 'things coming to a point', a concept Bruce Charlton has referred to and continues to refer to on his notions blog to describe a process in which "Good and evil are becoming so extreme as to lose the grey areas and be starkly separated; it means that there is no neutrality and every-thing of any possible public significance is now-and-increasingly either positively/ actively/ purposively-Good or positively/ actively/ purposively-evil."
A sound metaphysical understanding of good and evil is a prerequisite to recognizing and acknowledging "the point" reached in 2020. Without this sound understanding, individuals fail to comprehend the spiritual dimension of what transpired in 2020. Not only that, but they will also likely fail to make the right choice in terms of aligning with the side of Good.
Instead, they will be more likely choose to actively affiliate with Evil, which has rolled out its own inverted version of "things coming to a point" - one that contains its own potential turning point centered around the birdemic.
In this version, the birdemic has served to lay bare the great evils of climate change, racism, and inequality once and for all. These evils are so great that they can only be addressed and, ultimately, solved by the machinations of a totalitarian, technocratic, one-world government that will doggedly work to elevate the dignity of all human beings and manifest a materialist heaven on earth.
But what about individuals who recognize and acknowledge the evil inherent in this inversion - who understand the above as part and parcel of the real "point." How can they ensure they make the right choices and align with the side of Good? And what will such an alignment hope to achieve?
At the purely individual level, an active choice to align with Good is an active choice for Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. It is also a conscious choice for salvation. It signals an awareness that much of the meaning of our mortal lives resides in believing in heaven after earth rather than the illusory promise of heaven on earth.
All of this certainly counts as a turning point in the lives of individuals. As such, each one is of infinite importance, but will these individual turning points add up to anything bigger? What about communities, societies, nations, and Christianity?
I am not currently an optimist when it comes to anything at the collective level, but mass recognition of "the point", were it to occur, would contain the potential for a larger turning point, one entailing a shift in human consciousness - the emergence of a new spiritual consciousness.
And what might this shift in consciousness comprise?
In his book Freedom and the Spirit, the Russian spiritual philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev describes the potential turning point in the following manner:
We are entering an epoch of new spirituality that will correspond to the new form of mysticism. It will no longer be possible to argue against a heightened spiritual and mystical life that human nature is sinful and that sin must first be overcome. A heightened spiritual and mystical life is the road to victory over sin. And the world is entering a catastrophic period of choice and division, when these will be required by all Christians, an uplifting and intensification of their inner lives.
The external, everyday, moderate Christian is breaking up. But eternal, inward, mystical Christianity is becoming stronger and better established. And within mysticism itself, a 'paraclete' type is beginning to predominate. The epoch of new spirituality in Christianity can only be an epoch of a great and hitherto unheard of manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
And what might this potential turning point bring about? In The Divine and The Human, Berdyaev states:
The new revelation is not at all a new religion, distinct from Christianity, but rather the fulfillment and completion of Christian revelation, bringing to it a true universality. This we do not have as yet. But we cannot simply wait for the revelation of the spirit. It depends upon man's creative activity as well. It is not to be understood as only a new revelation of God to man: it is also the revelation of man to God. This means it will be divine-human revelation. In the Spirit, the divisions and contradictions of the divine and the human will be overcome, while the distinction between them will be maintained. This will be the crowning of the mystical dialectic of the divine and the human.
Do I believe the kind of turning point Berdyaev describes may be at hand? That is difficult to say. But I do believe in the potential of it, and I believe this potential greatly depends on our recognition and awareness of "things reaching the point" in 2020.
A sound metaphysical understanding of good and evil is a prerequisite to recognizing and acknowledging "the point" reached in 2020. Without this sound understanding, individuals fail to comprehend the spiritual dimension of what transpired in 2020. Not only that, but they will also likely fail to make the right choice in terms of aligning with the side of Good.
Instead, they will be more likely choose to actively affiliate with Evil, which has rolled out its own inverted version of "things coming to a point" - one that contains its own potential turning point centered around the birdemic.
In this version, the birdemic has served to lay bare the great evils of climate change, racism, and inequality once and for all. These evils are so great that they can only be addressed and, ultimately, solved by the machinations of a totalitarian, technocratic, one-world government that will doggedly work to elevate the dignity of all human beings and manifest a materialist heaven on earth.
But what about individuals who recognize and acknowledge the evil inherent in this inversion - who understand the above as part and parcel of the real "point." How can they ensure they make the right choices and align with the side of Good? And what will such an alignment hope to achieve?
At the purely individual level, an active choice to align with Good is an active choice for Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. It is also a conscious choice for salvation. It signals an awareness that much of the meaning of our mortal lives resides in believing in heaven after earth rather than the illusory promise of heaven on earth.
All of this certainly counts as a turning point in the lives of individuals. As such, each one is of infinite importance, but will these individual turning points add up to anything bigger? What about communities, societies, nations, and Christianity?
I am not currently an optimist when it comes to anything at the collective level, but mass recognition of "the point", were it to occur, would contain the potential for a larger turning point, one entailing a shift in human consciousness - the emergence of a new spiritual consciousness.
And what might this shift in consciousness comprise?
In his book Freedom and the Spirit, the Russian spiritual philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev describes the potential turning point in the following manner:
We are entering an epoch of new spirituality that will correspond to the new form of mysticism. It will no longer be possible to argue against a heightened spiritual and mystical life that human nature is sinful and that sin must first be overcome. A heightened spiritual and mystical life is the road to victory over sin. And the world is entering a catastrophic period of choice and division, when these will be required by all Christians, an uplifting and intensification of their inner lives.
The external, everyday, moderate Christian is breaking up. But eternal, inward, mystical Christianity is becoming stronger and better established. And within mysticism itself, a 'paraclete' type is beginning to predominate. The epoch of new spirituality in Christianity can only be an epoch of a great and hitherto unheard of manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
And what might this potential turning point bring about? In The Divine and The Human, Berdyaev states:
The new revelation is not at all a new religion, distinct from Christianity, but rather the fulfillment and completion of Christian revelation, bringing to it a true universality. This we do not have as yet. But we cannot simply wait for the revelation of the spirit. It depends upon man's creative activity as well. It is not to be understood as only a new revelation of God to man: it is also the revelation of man to God. This means it will be divine-human revelation. In the Spirit, the divisions and contradictions of the divine and the human will be overcome, while the distinction between them will be maintained. This will be the crowning of the mystical dialectic of the divine and the human.
Do I believe the kind of turning point Berdyaev describes may be at hand? That is difficult to say. But I do believe in the potential of it, and I believe this potential greatly depends on our recognition and awareness of "things reaching the point" in 2020.
RSS Feed
