Superb essay – Sanger, I know, but it gave me much better clarity of how fundamentally this whole unobtrusively perverse worldview stems from the ideas of Bacon, Jefferson et al. and the drive for perfection (or, "the elimination of all human suffering"). And that anecdote at the end is so wholesome. I'm afraid a lot of us are affected by the Light Person perspective without even realising it.
Great historical insight into the delusion of perfectabilty that underlies our current ideological moment!
You briefly mentioned the alternative:
“Embrace of an unforgiving natural world that invites us to grow closer to God.”
Pause there.
So, God, who is all-good, all-holy, all-love, gives us an unforgiving, say ruthless, natural world to inhabit so that we may potentially choose to discover all the goodness beyond the terror.
What do you make of that?
I know this is a well-worn question, so besides indicating your own understanding, perhaps you could point me to further discussions of it? This is not simply, why does God allow evil, nor the question of hiddenness, but why it makes sense that there is the apparent design of our natural world and our empirical experience as harsh, ruthless, unforgiving, etc by God who is the opposite of these and actually wants us to discover the opposite of the world he has placed us in.
As I try to frame the question clearly, I am thinking: Perhaps there is a dichotomy between 1. the manifestation of death in the harsh natural world and 2. the equal manifestation of sublime love/life in the spiritual world embedded in our experience as humans. The creation of nature AND Man (who reveals spirit) broadens the picture of the goodness of creation by a good God. (Whatever 'goodness' may mean in Genesis). In that case, our experience of the unforgiving natural world is inseparable from our experience of the manifestation in ourselves and others of spiritual realities that reveal God.
Just thinking 'out loud' and hoping to solicit further reading suggestions.
Superb essay – Sanger, I know, but it gave me much better clarity of how fundamentally this whole unobtrusively perverse worldview stems from the ideas of Bacon, Jefferson et al. and the drive for perfection (or, "the elimination of all human suffering"). And that anecdote at the end is so wholesome. I'm afraid a lot of us are affected by the Light Person perspective without even realising it.
“They constantly try to escape
From the darkness outside and within
By dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good.
But the man that is will shadow
The man that pretends to be.”
T.S. Eliot
Great stuff, John. Keep it coming!
Love this essay. Thanks!
Great historical insight into the delusion of perfectabilty that underlies our current ideological moment!
You briefly mentioned the alternative:
“Embrace of an unforgiving natural world that invites us to grow closer to God.”
Pause there.
So, God, who is all-good, all-holy, all-love, gives us an unforgiving, say ruthless, natural world to inhabit so that we may potentially choose to discover all the goodness beyond the terror.
What do you make of that?
I know this is a well-worn question, so besides indicating your own understanding, perhaps you could point me to further discussions of it? This is not simply, why does God allow evil, nor the question of hiddenness, but why it makes sense that there is the apparent design of our natural world and our empirical experience as harsh, ruthless, unforgiving, etc by God who is the opposite of these and actually wants us to discover the opposite of the world he has placed us in.
As I try to frame the question clearly, I am thinking: Perhaps there is a dichotomy between 1. the manifestation of death in the harsh natural world and 2. the equal manifestation of sublime love/life in the spiritual world embedded in our experience as humans. The creation of nature AND Man (who reveals spirit) broadens the picture of the goodness of creation by a good God. (Whatever 'goodness' may mean in Genesis). In that case, our experience of the unforgiving natural world is inseparable from our experience of the manifestation in ourselves and others of spiritual realities that reveal God.
Just thinking 'out loud' and hoping to solicit further reading suggestions.