Francis Berger
  • Blog
  • My Work

The Point As Potential Turning Point

1/1/2021

2 Comments

 
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. 
2 Comments
Magnus Stout
1/1/2021 23:58:04

Suffering seems necessary for the spiritual development of most people (ex: Do we feel more spiritual when we are safe, well-fed and comfortable?) If the world is now a prison, and if "God is very close in prison" (as Father John recounted in "Everyday Saints and Other Stories"), then Birdemic portends the conditions to create very many saints, even if the majority of people side with Satan.

Jesus said that the End would be like "in the time of Noah." I don't know what that fully means but to say--at a minimum--that those that honor Him will be both mocked and heavily outnumbered. We--unlike Noah--are blessed to have voices like yours, Dr. Charlton, and William Wildblood (and others) to help in building our Faith. We have spiritual resources--at our fingertips--that men could not dream of a century ago. Perhaps the combination of this global totalitarianism plus our interconnectedness may lead to the "epoch of new spirituality in Christianity" that Berdyaev writes of?

Reply
Francis Berger
1/2/2021 09:07:38

@ Magnus - The "Birdemic portends the conditions to create very many saints, even if the majority of people side with Satan."

I like the way you phrased that. And yes, that is how I am inclined to see things at the current time.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Blog and Comments

    Blog posts tend to be spontaneous, unpolished, first draft entries ranging from the insightful and periodically profound to the poorly-argued and occasionally disparaging.
     

    Comments are moderated. Anonymous comments are never published (please use your name or a pseudonym). 

    Emails welcome:

    f er en c ber g er (at) h otm   ail (dot) co m
    Blogs/Sites I Read
    Bruce Charlton's Notions
    Meeting the Masters
    From The Narrow Desert
    Synlogos ✞ Aggregator
    New World Island  
    New World Island YouTube
    ​Steeple Tea
    Berdyaev.com
    Adam Piggott
    Fourth Gospel Blog
    The Orthosphere
    Junior Ganymede

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012

    Picture
    A free PDF is also available in My Work. 
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.