What is Modern man? Modern man is foremost man.[i] He is the best and the worst of what man can be to date. Though we enter into this world naked and no better, smarter, faster, or genetically superior to Cain or Able. We enter into an environment that is the summation of human history to date. We have greater opportunity for we have greater resources at our disposal. As our possibility grows, so grows our purpose, potential, and responsibility.
Modern man is sinful. This means we must deal with a little word called sin, three little letters one big problem. The best definition I have found for sin that’s relevant to modern man is as follows. Sin is the diminishing of ones true humanity or the true humanity of another. Let us look a little deeper into this little word. Sin is learned, chosen, and ultimately rebellion to ones true humanity. It “subjugates the whole person.[ii]” The Principle of sin is in the world.[iii] It is a power of evil released into the world at the fall. This is our education in inauthentic existence and why reason is corrupt. In this respect sin is learned and must be unlearned. Marx, Nietzsche, even Freud all end in this conclusion about the utter corrupt of reason. Marx claimed this is evidenced in the ability of power to corrupt reason. Nietzsche leaned on reason’s capacity for self-deception and Freud stated reason’s illusion of control over instincts.[iv]
Sin is a choice. We are given in the insurmountable task of creating ourselves without a frame of reference to begin at. As one’s soul grows their capacity for consciousness equally grows. Yet we are responsible weather conscious of them or not. This is because we have the potential for conscious free choices. Our damnation originates and is implied within the apathy of not seeking conscious free choice. Original sin is evident in the freedom found in the self-awareness of the soul and learned by interaction with the world. Carl Jung wrote on this in the book undiscovered Self.
The evil that comes to light in man and that undoubtedly dwells within him is of gigantic proportions, so that for the church to talk of original sin and to trace it back to Adam’s relatively innocent slip-up with Eve is almost euphemism. The case if far graver and is grossly underestimated
Since it is universally believed that man is merely what his consciousness knows of itself, he regards himself as harmless and so adds stupidity to iniquity. He does not deny that terrible things have happened and still go on happening, but it is always “the others” who do them. And when such deeds belong to the resent or remote past, they quickly and conveniently sink into the sea of forgetfulness, and that state of chronic woolly-mindedness returns which we describe as “normality.” In shocking contrast to this is the fact that nothing has finally disappeared and nothing has been made good. The evil, the guilt, the profound unease of consciences, the obscure misgiving are there before our eyes, if only we would see.
Man has done these things: I am man, who has his share of human nature : therefore I am guilty with the rest and bear unaltered and indelibly within me the capacity and the inclination to do them again at any time. Even if, juristically speaking, we were not accessories to the crime, we are always, thanks to our human nature, potential criminals. In reality we merely lacked a suitable opportunity to be drawn into the infernal shadow. Whether the crime lies many generations back or happens today, it remains the symptom of a disposition that is always and everywhere to possess some “imagination in evil,” for only the fool can permanently neglect the condition of his own nature. [v]
For if we are truly free then we the possibility dwells in us to do the unthinkable. This shadow of possibility is the ethereal flesh in man. We can dip from the deep well of history’s dark past or create new horrors; our only limit is freedom itself. Our potential for evil is limitless thus the greatest freedom is shown in submission to limit ones potential to gain authentic direction, relation, and life.
The fact is, sin is the diminishing of one’s soul. At the root of that diminishing is ego controlled self. Twisted and bent, It is the nothing that gnaws at us. It blinds us from seeing the immense potential for both depravity and greatness, which lays dormant in us all. Self-Actualization is the process by which a man looks from spirit and acknowledges his totality. That is to say one’s full potential for greatness and depravity then he sees the freedom inherent within that potential. The consciousness of choice becomes apparent. The battle is not won for the right path must still be chosen. Those who know they have a choice still have to choose rightly. Once self-aware, right steps can be taken to combat the destructiveness and blinding pride in self. From this presupposition of consciousness, grace can be seen for what it is, and how it works. Yet, Sadly many end up like the Lover’s in the second circle of Dante’s inferno: Playing the victim while unaware that freedom is found in giving yourself away to proper ends not the controlling inner light of lust. They spin dizzily, claiming to freely follow their heart yet what seems to be is not what is. For if the vail be lifted, could we peek into hell, would the whole harvest - from seed to fruit - of their sin be revealed, the inconvenient truth of who they became would be clearly seen. They are in death what they became in life - slaves to their own passions, tortued by there own relentless lust.
Lastly, sin is the lacking of right relation to God. This is the origin of man’s individual original sin. In the garden Adam dwelled in truth for he was in relation to the Truth. In disobedience to God innocence was lost. Thus the opposite is true, when one is obedient one is innocence. Under grace obedience is faith in Jesus. through faith in Jesus completing our humanity we gain the grace to know we are called child by God himself and by way of Jesus’ life we learn the authentic relationship man can have to God. Without that grace and completeness we are an incomplete and diminished humanity. We are without. Our graceless existence is three dimensional: Fallen modern man’s spirit is in rebellion, his soul is responsible for ones own sin, and his body learns to be a better sinner by living in a fallen world.
End Notes
[i] The Word of God and the modern man, Emil Brunner, translated by David Cairns (Richmond, Virginia: John Knox Press 1964) p.11
[ii] Paul’s theology in the new testament p. 771
[iii] Paul’s theology in the new testament p. 771
[iv] Reinhold Niebuhr, the nature and destiny of man, (new york charles scribner’s sons 1951), 36
[v] Carl Jung, Undiscovered Self, (Atlantic monthly press 1958) .. 95-96p
No comments:
Post a Comment