In the latest reading of Cynthia Bourgeault's "The Holy Trinity and he Law of Three," she delves into the writings of Jacob Boehme, an early 17th century mystic who had and still is having a profound impact on theological thought. As the author states, one of the most remarkable things about him, and one that gives his writings such authenticity, is that he was not a schooled man. A simple German cobbler, at a young age he perceived God in everything - the classic mystical insight - and then set to writing about it without much of the baggage of the intellectual schools of his day. What he comes up with is hard to believe, given his background. I will save most of the nuts and bolts of it for another day, but in a nutshell he understood that: God, the Uncreated, was possessed by an urge to create - that is, with desire. This desire poured forth from nothing, as we understand it, and in desire, the urge felt (feels) the anguish of being. This was the resistant force that forms creation and turns creation back on itself, back to God the Uncreated. It is only in such resistance and separation that understanding is possible. Thus, creation is an ongoing process, always moving and creating anew, and creation is a direct result of the desire of God.
This is too quick and does not do the major thesis justice, I know, but I wish to get to today's point: that creation is at every moment a direct energetic thrust of God. Boehme's thesis, and perhaps this is not coincidental (in an ever-created universe, can anything be coincidental?), appeared about the time of Descartes's famous writings on the dualism of spirit and matter, a counter-poise to Boehme's contention that God is forever imminent in all. Descartes's ideas gave rise to the concept of the Clockwork God, a belief that many of America's founders had, that God made the universe with all its laws and then stepped back. The idea meant, for our founders, that we had a mandate for freedom and individual choice - but it also left us without the direct presence of an absent god. This quickly spiraled into atheistic materialism, which was formerly unthinkable. How could something of this world, after all, betray its causative properties and come from nothing?
Reading Boehme sets this straight: God is not an absent being, but something else entirely. It's being is manifest at all times and continually at work within it. As Boehme saw with his own eyes and understood with his whole being, WE are manifestations of God, not separate at all but always part of the process. As Boehme understood it, it is through this realization that we mature - exactly as God had (has) intended through creation. Creation was/is meant to generate self-understanding and absorption. We, then, are part of God's process and thus always and at all times we are part of the outflowing of the Godhead (Godhead is used by mystics to denote the active principle of God, the unformed and eternal).
And so, in a round-about way, I get to an essential point. Recent news has been very depressing, at least for me. The ascent of Al Qaeda in the Mideast is a horror story in the making. Anything but godly, these are expansionist Nazis who use their horribly misunderstood notions of God and Islam to oppress and conquer. We see how religion gets a bad name. But in understanding that we and all of creation are present and active manifestations of God, not only is there hope for the world, but an absolute certainty that true hope will prevail. This is not a clockwork universe where we can ruin the mechanics of the machine. While creation flows in various ways, it will always resolve (and continuously resolve) into the properties of God. In the overall system, love and perfection MUST prevail, as love is the necessary result of recognizing unity from non-unity - again, a process that is forever unfolding. The truth of that cannot be denied in creation.
This also means that we, as "mini" self-reflecting offshoots of God, can also realize this perfection of Love. That is our natural and inevitable (given endless time) resolution. It is, then, that we might resolve any terror or non-love at any instant. The crises in the Mideast can be solved immediately - and it will be solved eventually. We are not left abandoned. As Boehme said (I cut its length down considerably) "...remain silent (and in this) silence...the eternal will be revealed to you." It is all here, right here at our fingertips - and within our fingertips. To paraphrase Jesus, "The kingdom of heaven is within you." So it is - and hope is not a forlorn wish, but the very essence of reality. Thy will WILL be done. It may resolve itself over a long process, or it may become real right now to anyone who can achieve the silence that reveals that all is, at once, at one with the Love that is God. FK
This is too quick and does not do the major thesis justice, I know, but I wish to get to today's point: that creation is at every moment a direct energetic thrust of God. Boehme's thesis, and perhaps this is not coincidental (in an ever-created universe, can anything be coincidental?), appeared about the time of Descartes's famous writings on the dualism of spirit and matter, a counter-poise to Boehme's contention that God is forever imminent in all. Descartes's ideas gave rise to the concept of the Clockwork God, a belief that many of America's founders had, that God made the universe with all its laws and then stepped back. The idea meant, for our founders, that we had a mandate for freedom and individual choice - but it also left us without the direct presence of an absent god. This quickly spiraled into atheistic materialism, which was formerly unthinkable. How could something of this world, after all, betray its causative properties and come from nothing?
Reading Boehme sets this straight: God is not an absent being, but something else entirely. It's being is manifest at all times and continually at work within it. As Boehme saw with his own eyes and understood with his whole being, WE are manifestations of God, not separate at all but always part of the process. As Boehme understood it, it is through this realization that we mature - exactly as God had (has) intended through creation. Creation was/is meant to generate self-understanding and absorption. We, then, are part of God's process and thus always and at all times we are part of the outflowing of the Godhead (Godhead is used by mystics to denote the active principle of God, the unformed and eternal).
And so, in a round-about way, I get to an essential point. Recent news has been very depressing, at least for me. The ascent of Al Qaeda in the Mideast is a horror story in the making. Anything but godly, these are expansionist Nazis who use their horribly misunderstood notions of God and Islam to oppress and conquer. We see how religion gets a bad name. But in understanding that we and all of creation are present and active manifestations of God, not only is there hope for the world, but an absolute certainty that true hope will prevail. This is not a clockwork universe where we can ruin the mechanics of the machine. While creation flows in various ways, it will always resolve (and continuously resolve) into the properties of God. In the overall system, love and perfection MUST prevail, as love is the necessary result of recognizing unity from non-unity - again, a process that is forever unfolding. The truth of that cannot be denied in creation.
This also means that we, as "mini" self-reflecting offshoots of God, can also realize this perfection of Love. That is our natural and inevitable (given endless time) resolution. It is, then, that we might resolve any terror or non-love at any instant. The crises in the Mideast can be solved immediately - and it will be solved eventually. We are not left abandoned. As Boehme said (I cut its length down considerably) "...remain silent (and in this) silence...the eternal will be revealed to you." It is all here, right here at our fingertips - and within our fingertips. To paraphrase Jesus, "The kingdom of heaven is within you." So it is - and hope is not a forlorn wish, but the very essence of reality. Thy will WILL be done. It may resolve itself over a long process, or it may become real right now to anyone who can achieve the silence that reveals that all is, at once, at one with the Love that is God. FK
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