I recently became fully aware of the plagiarism "scandal" at one of America's premier citadels of darkness; however, when I first saw this individual's image flash onscreen about a week ago... ...I honestly thought I was looking at an image of this fictional television character from the 1990s.
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In Book V, Chapter 5 of The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan describes Satan as,
The wise and dread Spirit, the Spirit of self-annihilation and nonexistence. Other translations of the text have the line as, The terrible and clever Spirit, the Spirit of self-destruction and nonexistence. The dread and intelligent Spirit, the Spirit of self-annihilation and non-being. The above is among the best and most concise descriptions of what the devil is and what the devil does or aims to do. First, it elucidates that the spirit in question is a whip-smart, higher-order thinker whose base motivations are, or should be considered, alarming, horrible, and dire. Second, it clarifies Satan’s overarching aims of damnation. The devil works to persuade others to annihilate and destroy themselves spiritually. More specifically, he wants a person to exterminate the self that is capable of choosing resurrection and everlasting life; the self that could leave the world with a high degree of integrity, cohesion, and selfhood; the self that can freely align with God’s divine creative purposes and add to or expand Creation. If the devil can entice an individual to willingly destroy that self, he fulfills his objectives as the spirit of negation. The primal self is eternal and cannot be destroyed; however, the affirmation of selfhood within that primal self can be smothered and stamped out. The self-destroyed self continues to exist in a veritable state of non-existence. Instead of an evolved, developed self – a being committed to working in harmony with other beings to further God’s divine plan – the self enters a state of existent non-selfhood; an unaware, unknowing being whose existence is non-being. Ivan Karamazov uses the words terrible and dread to describe Satan but these do not adhere to conventional notions of the devil as some scary, fear-inducing horror film monster. The devil is fundamentally the spirit of negation. His motivations are operational. He strives to convince the world that Jesus is not the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Listen, the choice the devil wishes to instill – the contra with which he opposes Christ’s pro – is not irrational! A wise and dread spirit indeed. Thou didst desire man's free love, that he should follow Thee freely, enticed and taken captive by Thee. In place of the rigid, ancient law, man must hereafter, with a free heart, decide for himself what is good and what is evil, having only Thy image before him as his guide.
I have referred to the passage above — taken from Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov — as the best non-biblical encapsulation of what the essence of Christianity is. Following Dr. Charlton’s incisive suggestions, I augmented the passage to include heaven, resurrection, and everlasting life: Thou didst desire man's free love, that he should follow Thee freely into heaven, enticed and taken captive by Thee. In place of the rigid ancient law, man must hereafter, with a free heart, decide for himself what is good and what is evil, and with a free heart, actively choose resurrection and everlasting life, having only Thy image before him as his guide. The augmented passage above still serves as my touchstone concerning the “is-ness” of Christianity. Upon reviewing this augmented passage today, I was struck by the limited role of the symbols within it. Two references to symbols appear. The first — the ancient rigid law — is supplanted, while the second — the image of Jesus — is only meant to serve as a guide. The limited role of the symbol within the original Dostoevsky passage is significant, particularly when juxtaposed against freedom, which appears three times in the passage — free love, follow freely, and free heart. The rigid ancient law and the image of Jesus within the passage are intermediaries. The passage clearly states that the ancient law no longer serves; that it can no longer act as a bridge between the subject and reality. The image of Jesus, on the other hand, does still serve as an intermediary, but only as an intermediary. The image is a guide, not a final destination. It points to reality but is not reality in and of itself. It is worth noting that the bulk of the heavy lifting within the passage lands firmly on the shoulders of the subject. Jesus desires the subject’s free love — love that the subject generates from within himself without the need for external influence, persuasion, or coercion. Jesus also desires that the subject be enticed and taken captive by Him, but only by following Him freely. Again, the absence of all external influence, persuasion, or coercion. Upon discerning the spiritual limits of the ancient rigid law, the subject must decide what is good and evil from his own free heart. Once again, the subject must decide, and he must decide with his own free heart, not his free mind, which is prone to wander into the realm of external symbols. And within all of that, the image of Jesus serves only to guide. The subject motivated by free love should follow Jesus freely and free-heartedly decide for himself what is good and what is evil. Without symbols and with the image of Jesus serving only as a guide, the subject must freely and directly know - heart-know - Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He must allow the image to guide him to that directly-known reality. Lacking that, the subject only gets as far as the image of Jesus. |
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May 2024
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