Modernity, Depravity, and Inhumanity of Man

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

Dante on Lust

The whirlwind in the second circle is one of the most memorable places the pilgrim encounters on his journey through the Inferno in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. The whirlwind holds within its sway the wayward souls lead astray but lust. Danta describes the circle: “All light is mute, with a bellowing like the Ocean turbulent in a storm of waring winds, The hurricane of hell in perpetual motion.” [1] As Dante and Virgil look on, two souls come near and converse with the traveler. He asks then why they were here. Love was given as the answer. He then asks how they came to such an end. Dante learns that they had committed adultery after being overcome by intense passion incited by a novel.


Ary Scheffer’s recreation of this part of the inferno reveals Dante and His guide shrouded in darkness as they watch the two twisting in a whirlwind of lust. Their bodies are heavily intertwined within a large sheet – it seems difficult to tell where one ends and another begins much like the complex and confusing feels insisted by lust. The painting at once expresses intense passion and intense agony, revealing the difficulty with which we can discern sinful behavior.

This is Dante’s point also; he used the imagery to show the reader life inside out. The Inferno itself was written to teach the reader the dehumanizing affect of sin. How sin deforms the soul, and what you become in life you will be in death. So each circle shows the distructive truth of sin and the affect it has on the character.

The picture of the "Hurrican of hell" is an allegory for the vice of lust. Its shows lust in its true bibical nature. We see that lust is deceptive for the two adulterers speak of lust as if it where love. Dante wrote that the people rested “so lightly on the wind” yet they where in the whirlwinds grip. This shows us that lust is a subtle trap. Lust is controlling and once its in control it it is hard to get free. if you follow lust to its end -the whirlwind never lets go. Lust twists the soul in how it blinds and controls. A soul is dehumanized but believes that “following your hearts” will lead to finding freedom. The freedom promised becomes an eternity in chains, chains that exist on the inside. Lust is a light controlling wind that will carry you away as it convinces you of the purity in an impure moment. We can also see that lust is progressive.A light wind in life gives way to a hurricane in hell. Thus, Lust true nature is seen as a powerful whirlwind. That controls from the first tempest to it's entire flow. The truth of this picture is seen in what the bible says of Lust. Here is a list of what lust is like biblically.

Focuses on self Gal - 5:13 NKJV
Leads to frustration - James 4:2 NIV
Continually wants more - Eph 4:18-19 NIV
Enslaves self - Rom 6:16,19 NKJV
Desires to gratify the sinful nature with things contrary to the spirit - Gal 5:19-21
Excludes Christ -Rom 1:28-29 NIV
Sins to gratify desires - Eph 2:3 NIV
Entices with evil desires - James 1:14 NIV
Wars against the soul - 1Peter 2:11 NIV
Avoids commitment and leads to tragedy - Pro 6:25-26 TLD [2]

Fighting the wind
Further, the use of wind also shows an antithesis with the biblical metaphor of the Holy Spirit as wind. Lust is the opposite spirit to the spirit of real faithful abiding love. So lust is understood to rise from the incontinence, lack of restraint, a vice that is just as intellectual as it is biological. Dante writes that there sins raise from “reason mastered by desire,”[3] So this shows us the virtue that we are to seek. Dante’s schooled in the Augustine moral system, which saw reason as a mind capable of perceiving truth and not just being logical. A reason that guided and anchors our desires.[4] The virtue of level headedness helped along by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit points us to our proper end, the love of God and covenant-keeping faithful abiding love.

Winds of wisdom
Further was can see some truths that illuminate our understanding of lust and its trappings. For one, in the fact that it was a novel that incited the adulterers to act shows the power of media to incite lust. We also see the lack of thinking reasonably in putting themselves in situations to incite lust. The two should not have been reading alone together. The fact that the two where bound to each other shows the product of such sexual infidelity – a shared shame of oneness.
So in the end, what are we to do? The answer is simple be level-headed, cultivate a desire to follow the Spirit, and enjoy life in true freedom; the freedom of the children of God.

End Notes

[1] Dante Alighieri, THE INFERNO. Canto V, trans Robert Pinsky (Noonday, New York, 1997) 37.

[2] Dennis Rigstad “Is it love or lust?” Psychology for living, February 1988. As Quoted in Daniel Akin “god on sex: the creator’s ideas about Love, Intimacy and marriage. (Broadman and Holman, Nashville, 2003) 130-131

[4] Dante Alighieri, THE INFERNO. Canto V, trans Robert Pinsky (Noonday, New York, 1997) 39

[5] Dante Alighieri, THE INFERNO. Canto V, trans Robert Pinsky (Noonday, New York, 1997) 313-314