THE DUALIST CONCEIT
03/09/24 10:40
Dualism is beloved by politicians and fundamentalists. It thrives on exaggeration, conflict and scape-goating. Dualism gives a split mind and split reality. We are not delivered from the illusion of dualism just because we have an eclectic knowledge of theology/philosophy and the Bible. Some Biblicists are confirmed dualists, especially those of the fundamentalist kind. Mind/body dualism is embedded in some of these cultures.
Dualism is a function of the fall and its obsession with the categories of good and evil, since it is produced by the culture of the knowledge of good and evil, whether in its humanistic or religious form. The categories of secular and sacred are themselves a function of dualism and its pervasive epistemology.
THE DUALISTIC IMAGINATION
Some societies may attach sacredness to objects and landforms. In the Kingdom Mindset all of life is sacred, all days are sacred, and all locations are sacred because we live an incarnated life. Our opportunity is to mediate the spirit and life of Jesus into our Everyday.
Religion that operates from false dichotomies and exaggeration, as in politics is divisive and fragmenting. Genuine Christianity is inclusive and focussed on the belonging that is ours in Christ. Real Christianity is a state of being and a kingdom more than a religion about good and evil, as C.S. Lewis, Leanne Payne and Thomas Torrance attest.
MIND/BODY DUALISM
Torrance writes, “When the Christian Church spread out from its centre in Judaea into the Mediterranean world its preaching and teaching of the Gospel came up against a radical dualism of body and mind that pervaded every aspect of Graeco-Roman civilisation, bifurcating human experience and affecting fundamental habits of mind in religion, philosophy and science alike.
THE DICOT IMAGINATION
The Platonic separation (χωρισμός) between the sensible world (κόσμος αἰσθητός) and the intelligible world (κόσμος νοητός), hardened by Aristotle, governed the disjunction between action and reflection, event and idea, becoming and being, the material and the spiritual, the visible and the invisible, the temporal and the eternal, and was built by Ptolemy into a scientific cosmology that was to dominate European thought for more than a millennium. The combined effect of this all-pervading dualism was to shut God out of the world of empirical actuality in space and time.” (1) This is an apt description of dualism in all its forms. It’s why in the post cross age we have a Sabbath life instead of a sabbath day.
Dualism runs counter to the essence of the Gospel in which humanity is united to God and the creation in the person of Jesus Christ. Thus, ‘In Him we live and move and have our being’ speaks to our union with God and our relationship through God to the created world and the social environment.
REALITY IS CHRIST
There is no compartmentalisation in Paul’s ‘Christ who is our life’ or his ‘Christ is all and in all. This is not just a religious utterance but a decryption of reality which is why Paul can also affirm that Reality is Christ. It is John who makes the bald statement that real life/holiness/wholeness/righteousness is found in what Jesus has given us – union with God in Himself.’
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you’ John 14.20 NIV. This is the day we cease living in self and religion and start living our union with God. From this point on we become agents of Christ’s New Creation Life, rather than place-holder of religion.
(1)Torrance, Thomas F.. The Trinitarian Faith (T&T Clark Cornerstones) (p. 47). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Dualism is a function of the fall and its obsession with the categories of good and evil, since it is produced by the culture of the knowledge of good and evil, whether in its humanistic or religious form. The categories of secular and sacred are themselves a function of dualism and its pervasive epistemology.
THE DUALISTIC IMAGINATION
Some societies may attach sacredness to objects and landforms. In the Kingdom Mindset all of life is sacred, all days are sacred, and all locations are sacred because we live an incarnated life. Our opportunity is to mediate the spirit and life of Jesus into our Everyday.
Religion that operates from false dichotomies and exaggeration, as in politics is divisive and fragmenting. Genuine Christianity is inclusive and focussed on the belonging that is ours in Christ. Real Christianity is a state of being and a kingdom more than a religion about good and evil, as C.S. Lewis, Leanne Payne and Thomas Torrance attest.
MIND/BODY DUALISM
Torrance writes, “When the Christian Church spread out from its centre in Judaea into the Mediterranean world its preaching and teaching of the Gospel came up against a radical dualism of body and mind that pervaded every aspect of Graeco-Roman civilisation, bifurcating human experience and affecting fundamental habits of mind in religion, philosophy and science alike.
THE DICOT IMAGINATION
The Platonic separation (χωρισμός) between the sensible world (κόσμος αἰσθητός) and the intelligible world (κόσμος νοητός), hardened by Aristotle, governed the disjunction between action and reflection, event and idea, becoming and being, the material and the spiritual, the visible and the invisible, the temporal and the eternal, and was built by Ptolemy into a scientific cosmology that was to dominate European thought for more than a millennium. The combined effect of this all-pervading dualism was to shut God out of the world of empirical actuality in space and time.” (1) This is an apt description of dualism in all its forms. It’s why in the post cross age we have a Sabbath life instead of a sabbath day.
Dualism runs counter to the essence of the Gospel in which humanity is united to God and the creation in the person of Jesus Christ. Thus, ‘In Him we live and move and have our being’ speaks to our union with God and our relationship through God to the created world and the social environment.
REALITY IS CHRIST
There is no compartmentalisation in Paul’s ‘Christ who is our life’ or his ‘Christ is all and in all. This is not just a religious utterance but a decryption of reality which is why Paul can also affirm that Reality is Christ. It is John who makes the bald statement that real life/holiness/wholeness/righteousness is found in what Jesus has given us – union with God in Himself.’
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you’ John 14.20 NIV. This is the day we cease living in self and religion and start living our union with God. From this point on we become agents of Christ’s New Creation Life, rather than place-holder of religion.
(1)Torrance, Thomas F.. The Trinitarian Faith (T&T Clark Cornerstones) (p. 47). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.
