THE UNIVERSE:
Status Of The Everyday World
Finite Reality
In pure perennial philosophy(1) the existence of the finite world is inexplicable. It is a direct contradiction to the supposed unity and perfection of the higher realm. It is impossible for mystical systems to supply any reason or purpose for the existence of the finite realm. To justify this lower realm, it is seen as an illusion, a seeming-to-be, a dream, a reflection, a process of transient and impermanent moments without any knowable reality,(2) or a "least real" emanation of Oneness. In each of these cases, perennial philosophy implicitly denies significant reality to the natural world. The thrust of its logic has given the perfect state of Pure Spirituality a monopoly on reality and abandoned the rest of existence to a type of existential limbo. Creation may thus be seen as flawed, even as a sinful alienation from true reality.
As Christian (as well as Jewish and Muslim) theology evolved, a synthesis of mystical/perennial and biblical thought resulted. It has become taken for granted that metaphysical dualism is the accurate perspective for theology, even for comprehending the Bible. Pelikan's comment on mysticism is illuminating:
The mystical can be defined as the immediate experience of oneness with Ultimate Reality. At first examination nothing seems further from this mystical spirit than the prophetic tradition of biblical religion. Nevertheless, the mystical has flourished in the Judeo-Christian tradition, not merely as an example of Hellenization but as an authentic expression of the faith of Israel and of the church.(3)
Whether the mystical is an authentic expression of the Christian faith or a distortion is an unsettled matter. With Cherbonnier, this writer is convinced that it is a distortion.
Although the early Church repudiated most perennial notions of creation, certain principles were accepted:(1) The only God is the Creator of the Universe; (2) creation is a free act of God, not out of any necessity; (3) creation is not eternal, nor is matter, which is created by God; and (4) creation is not an essential extension of the Divine, but wholly distinct from the Creator.(4) (A departure from these principles occurs in Origen, who taught that the world is eternally in the process of creation.) In an effort to guarantee the independent majesty and mystery of God personally and metaphysically, the dualism of
(1) By "pure" this writer means not blended with biblical thought.
(2) Classical Buddhism generally prefers to not address academic issues of reality.
(3) Jaroslav Pelikan, The Melody of Theology (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard, 1988), p. 171. Pelikan writes as an historian of theology; his criterion for "authentic" is unclear.
(4) See Claude Tresmontant, Christian Metaphysics (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1965), pp. 47ff.
classical Greek philosophy established a presupposition of two realms of reality: God's and the universe (and whatever else constitutes physical reality). To bridge the gap, the logos (employed in perennial ways rather than as its Hebrew predecessor dabar) was introduced. Even the traditional ex nihilo aspect of the doctrine of creation (incorporated by Augustine and Aquinas) is noted as extra-biblical:
It is doubtful, however, whether this teaching is found explicitly in Gen. 1 or anywhere else in the OT. ... The notion of creation out of nothing was undoubtedly too abstract for the Hebraic mind...
The creation faith represents a repudiation of all metaphysical dualism which leads men to suppose that the created world is evil and to seek a pathway of escape into the higher realm of pure Being.(5)
Recognizing God as an active agent, biblical religion asserts that the finite world (all that exists) is real. Though much of it is measured by time and remains impermanent, while it exists it is as real as God. It has reality by virtue of its formation as an act of God. With the intention to create, God designed the human environment. By the power of his action, God gave that intention substance, reality, form, and goodness. Creation, therefore, is no contradiction to the existence of God. Cherbonnier notes:
Throughout the Bible there rung a single criterion of both truth and goodness, equally applicable "on earth as it is in heaven." This is the philosophical significance of the concept of God as Creator. It contradicts the tragic notion that the relation of God to the world is properly expressed as that of the infinite to the finite, the absolute to the relative, or the timeless to the temporal. Whereas tragedy regards this present world as the negation of the "divine," the Bible asserts that there is no necessary incompatibility between it and the very nature of God himself.(6)
To make this point more clear, the attitude held by each system toward the nature of life in the finite world can be contrasted. In the pure perennial view, human existence is either a diminished state or an unfortunate evil. Humans are trapped by their environment, restrained by their physical bodies and/or their minds. For many mystics, to attain enlightenment, one must minimize, neutralize, or sever all contact with finite existence. Human beings may suppress all urges to encounter the movements and issues around them as truly significant and real. In this way, they affirm the illusion or insignificance of the world and open themselves up to the only true reality, the spiritual state of the One, an at-oneness with all, or the like. This approach is the necessary extension of perennial duality that makes it impossible to accept the common reality of the finite and the infinite.
The recognition of the world as a product of God's intention, inherent in the biblical system, generates an almost complete reversal of the perennial attitude. Rather than escaping from the world, human existence is a natural part of it. Moreover, humanity has a direct stake in the events that affect the environment, because they mark the passage of history toward its fulfillment. If those events impede
(5) Bernhard W. Anderson, "Creation," The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible(New York and Nashville: Abingdon, 1962), pp.728f. Millar Burrows provides similar comments in An Outline of Biblical Theology (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1946), pp. 117f.
(6)Cherbonnier, A "Biblical Faith and the Idea of Tragedy," The Tragic Vision and the Christian Faith, ed. Nathan A. Scott (New York: Association, 1957) p. 40.
the intention of God, then that fulfillment is set back, but if mortals can act to help God work out his intention, then the time when history will reach fruition is brought closer. The primary quality of this state is cooperation; both God and humanity share a common interest in the condition of human life. The universe is not split into two halves, but remains a single reality in which the divine and the finite share a mutual concern and interaction.
Creation
The justification of biblical religion in maintaining its approach to the relationship between God and humanity is inherent in the biblical view of creation. The importance of creation as a philosophical concept should not be underestimated. It marks a significant difference between the perennial and biblical systems. As Cherbonnier explains:
For the Bible, the relation of God to the world is that of Creator to creation. That is, he is related to the world as an agent is related to his act. Because his act is free, you can never deduce it from the "essence" of the agent (which is possibly one reason why this solution has not occurred to the Platonist). But once the act is given, it is perfectly reasonable to account for it as an expression of the agent's will. The famous problem of "the one and the many" is thus only a problem for a metaphysic from which free agents are excluded. In the Biblical metaphysic, for which free agents are central, the Creator is related to his creation by an act of will.(7)
Classical mysticism makes a pronounced distinction between the Absolute and the everyday world. The relationship is indirect; the finite realm is a "subset," an included element, in the larger context of ultimate reality. Consequently, there is no conscious, purposeful connection between the two realms. The natural world is more of an afterthought, an accidental happening. In the biblical system, on the other hand, there is no ontological transcendence, but instead a direct relationship between the status of the everyday world and the intentions of God. This idea is embodied in the Hebrew concept of a God who is involved in history. Unlike the cyclical patterns of time in perennialism, the Hebrew notion of time is linear; it moves from a point of origin, the creation, to some goal: the Kingdom of God. This means that creation is the introduction of God into history; it is, in a real sense, the beginning of history. Mankind, therefore, is not trapped by time; even though women and men are finite creatures, they have the ability to act, to cause things to happen, and by their actions to change events, to alter the course of history. The differences between God and humanity become more a question of degree rather than a rigid barrier between two mutually exclusive realms. God and the finite are compatible; their relationship is properly seen as that of the Creator to his good work. Consequently, there is an implicit understanding in biblical religion of the interdependence of reality that is lacking in the duality of perennial thought. Regarding this point, Cherbonnier states:
In the Bible, God certainly is conceived as "a being besides other beings." To the complaint that this implies that God is related, and therefore conditioned, the answer is that of course God is related. The doctrine of creation can mean very little if it does not at least mean that the world and man are distinct from the Creator. And from cover to cover the Bible testifies that God is indeed conditioned, in the sense of "influenced," by what man
(7)Cherbonnier, "Is There A Biblical Metaphysic?" , pp.462 f.
does never of necessity, of course, but voluntarily.(8)
The Order of Existence
Once these two views of the relationship between the finite and the infinite have been clarified, then it becomes possible to draw other comparisons between the two systems. For example, there is the question of order. What orders the universe and whatever else might constitute reality?(9) What holds it in balance and measures the passage of time? These are valid philosophical questions that each system must answer. The answers given are dependent on the nature of the philosophy as a whole; the criteria of consistency and logic play a significant role in maintaining perspective. In mystical religion it is possible to diagram the order of existence by reference to the hierarchy. Each element of reality is linked to its position by necessity; it includes some other elements and is, in turn, included by others. This is order by definition. It implies that reality is arranged into categories; the blocks are set one upon another until the whole structure of the universe is complete. Consequently, to remove one of these blocks or to alter it changes the entire nature of reality. The ultimate part of existence, the Wholly Other, is the key part of this system. It must remain true to its definition; it must remain static, for any change in its condition would send vibrations all the way down the hierarchy. Perennial philosophy, therefore, must be very careful in handling the nature of the One; it must affirm the One's absolute status, but maintained in a kind of suspended animation. In this way, the larger body of its philosophy remains consistent and answers questions concerning order by reference to the hierarchy.
The biblical approach is much more fluid. The nature of God as an active agent, and his relationship to the finite world as the Creator, makes the question of order a matter of intention, not definition. In speaking of God's character, biblical religion insists upon anthropomorphic qualities: God speaks, acts, judges, etc. Ultimate reality, then, is conscious. It lies in the mind of God, and what gives the diverse elements of reality their order and position is his plan. He wills order. Like an architect, God places those objects he has designed into balance; he arranges them, and he does so with two very important conditions: reality and human freedom. The order of the universe is maintained by the natural laws that govern its function as a tangible, real substance. It is not illusory, a seeming-to-be, insignificant, or "less real;" it is only finite. Time, therefore, is the thread of order laid down by God to shape the reality of the finite. Decidedly open-ended, the finite world orders itself through its exercise of freedom. As Cherbonnier notes:
Biblical categories are "unique" and "distinctive," not as compared to the "naive" language of ordinary men, but in contrast to the esoteric tendencies of most other philosophies. If freedom were established at the center of metaphysics, then the key words at the heart of the biblical thinking, words as close to everyday living as they are foreign to
(8)Cherbonnier, "Biblical Metaphysics and Christian Philosophy," p. 363.
(9)Different from both mystical and biblical views, atheistic, evolutionary naturalism dismisses the notion of order. As reported on page A20 in the Chronicle of Higher Education, XLII, Number 36 (May 17, 1996), Mr. Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist at Oxford, takes this tack (against religion) in River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life (Basic Books, 1995). Evolution, he believes, is a digital river of DNA, a program embedded in the world, which exists without having been designed. And it can explain everything. ... The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind indifference.... DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is. And we dance to its music. Nonetheless, Dawkins convictions about the bottom line ("no design,") etc.) is compatible with some mystical tenets.
most metaphysics would become decisive for philosophy itself.(10)
In biblical terms, when humanity is given "dominion" over the earth, individuals are given freedom to act within the limits of time and space. Consequently, mortals share in the responsibility of ordering existence by their actions in the world. Human beings are God's guests and stewards of their surroundings. Nonetheless, the patterns can be broken. If God's intention is the framework upon which reality is placed, then human freedom is its regulator. The unity and order of existence are dynamic; it is active. Reality, therefore, is not seen as a static arrangement of blocks in a hierarchy, but as something that is growing, something in motion, in process.In any discussion of the Bible and the universe, it should be noted that biblical cosmology resulted not from scientific inquiry. In fact, the Bible's "lengthy history of composition and transmission has led to a striking variety of quite different cosmological views;"(11) nonetheless, one may generalize that in the Hebrew Bible, "the earth on which humanity dwells is seen as a round, solid object, perhaps a disk, floating upon a limitless expanse of water. Paralleling this lower body of water is a second, similarly limitless, above, from which water descends in the form of rain through holes and channels piercing the heavenly reservoir. The moon, sun, and other luminaries are fixed in a curved structure which arches over the earth. This structure is the familiar 'firmament' of the priestly account, perhaps envisioned as a solid but very thin substance on the analogy of beaten and stretched metal. ...the great majority of biblical texts assume the three-storied universe so clearly assumed in other, ancient traditions."(12) The same general view is assumed in the New Testament writings. Thus, the Bible presupposes that reality is, in the broadest sense of the word, "physical." The visible and the invisible constitute an ontological monism. The monistic creation myths of Genesis portray a Creator who "forms" (bara'), brings order to, coexisting "stuff" (as did Aquinas). Only God can bara'. Later commentators proposed that an ontologically transcendent God created existence ex nihilo.(13) The science of these beliefs was not speculated upon, because the biblical writers were concerned, not with the Creator's own being and mode of existence, but with his activity, his emerging sovereign purposes.(14)
Thus, the Bible's overall world-view appears to be different from other many other ways of understanding existence, including those with a metaphysical otherness.(15)
The Nature of History
(10) Cherbonnier, "Jerusalem and Athens," p. 270.
(11) Robert A. Oden, Jr., "Cosmogony, Cosmology," in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, ed. David N. Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992), Vol. 1, p. 1162.
(12) Ibid.
(13) W. Gunther Plaut, et al., The Torah: A Modern Commentary (New York: The Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1981), p. 18.
(14) John S. Kselman, "Genesis," in Harper's Bible Commentary, ed. James L. May (San Francisco, Harper & Row, 1988), p. 87.
(15) See "Transcendence and Immanence" in the previous section "THE NATURE OF THE BIBLICAL GOD."
A good working model to use in clarifying the biblical view is the notion of history. That God's intention is the primary ordering factor in existence implies that God wills the reality of the finite; he supplies it with both form and meaning. If God is capable of doing this, he must necessarily be a free agent, i.e., anthropomorphic. In biblical religion, this interpretation is underscored by the nature of human life. In his capacity as the Creator, God imparts freedom to humanity. He makes humans "in his image." In essence, this means that women and men have the same mode of action, though to a lesser degree, as does God. Consequently, human freedom is a corollary to God's freedom. Cherbonnier states, regarding this issue: If the events of human history are at all meaningful, they must be performed by free agents. Conversely, if there is no such thing as the freedom to act voluntarily and responsibly according to chosen purposes, then life is indeed a shadow play, and the entire biblical metaphysic a delusion. In addition to the reality and metaphysical importance of this world, then, the biblical metaphysic also assumes the freedom of God and man.(16)
When the two forces work in conjunction, when God and humans share the same intention, then events are altered. When God and mortals are drawn into a unity of purpose and action, history is brought closer to realization. History, therefore, has a goal. It is not cyclical, but linear. This shifts from the emphasis found in pure perennial philosophy. It implies that the true quality of life, the goal of living, is not to sever the ties which join human beings to their environment, but to improve them. The impassive, mystical state of indifference (or negativity toward the world) is replaced with a concern for the nature and character of an active participation in the events of the world. Individuals become part of history; they move it in a definite direction. This can either be in a positive direction, toward communion with God, or in a negative direction, impeding that fellowship. Consequently, matters of daily life and questions of what constitutes moral conduct become extremely important in biblical religion, because they have a direct bearing on the history of the world. The lines of communication drawn between the divine and the finite are of the utmost importance; the manner in which women and men conduct their lives is crucial.
(16)Cherbonnier, "Mystical vs. Biblical Symbolism," The Christian Scholar, XXXIX (March, 1956), p. 37.