Jesus and Light Part 3

See these previous posts:

http://ljtsg.blogspot.com/2012/12/jesus-light-prologue.html

http://ljtsg.blogspot.com/2012/12/jesus-light-part-1.html

http://ljtsg.blogspot.com/2012/12/jesus-light-part-2.html

http://ljtsg.blogspot.com/2012/12/jesus-light-part-3.html

http://ljtsg.blogspot.com/2012/12/more-on-light.html

The Dangers of Manecheism

It is necessary to explore the symbolism of the Bible in the deepest way possible. One must risk 'overbelief' if one is to plumb the depths of the human soul. Light is one particular idea, concept, whatever you want to call it, that I am exploring in-depth. Nearly all the great mystics had some physical phenomenon that caught their attention and captivated them with the potential to boost spiritual reflection. I was just reading something by Teresa Avila last night on blood. This kind of reflection, this 'captivity' by some physical reality has the potential to inform the soul and enlighten the mind. Zajonc's book CATCHING THE LIGHT, is replete with truth both scientific and spiritual. It is an example of just this kind of mystical reflection done right. My work here is an example of 'christianizing' Zajonc's project.

There are several dangers on this road all of which must be faced if they are to be avoided. One is simply idolatry. There is a danger that one will take this physical manifestation of the divine as the divine itself. "The map is not the territory", the model is not that which is modeled, and for the Christian, the sacrament is not God. There are physical, visible, and outward signs of spiritual, invisible, and inward grace, and a skilled mind can open one's heart to these so that the physical can be transcended and the spiritual grasped. But if the physical object becomes an end in itself it destroys the relationship with God one is truly seeking. 

One also wants to avoid error that are the result of flights of fancy. I'm not against flights of fancy, this entire blog series on light has been, in part, me taking some risks with my beliefs, seeing where some new ideas might take me. This is good, and proper, but I'd like to get some truth out of it. Of course intertwining my ideas with the science of light is helpful in this regard, but only to a certain degree. More important is keeping my Bible and the study of my Bible close to my heart. The Bible is the collection of reflections and stories dealing with a direct encounter with God. It helps give form and function to personal experience. Personal experience can move beyond the Bible, it can even clarify the Bible, but for me if I leave the Bible behind I lose my anchor to any sense that what I am touching is real. 

My recent reflections on light and dark in part three bring up one way error can not only find its way into these kinds of musings (which it always will, this kind of adventure always will include many mistakes), but will overtake the entirety of the project. Manes was a Persian prophet who became obsessed with light and dark. For him all of reality was an admixture of darkness and light, and the point of life, especially the religious life, was to disentangle light and dark until only light remained. Manes suggested several prophets, including Buddha and Jesus, stood in an unbroken line that included Manes himself. He thought that they all believed what he believed, and were equally 'divine' in some sense. Not only is this wrong historically, and wrong in terms of comparative religions, it is wrong spiritually.

Life must be good, ultimately, or it cannot be trusted. This world, this world of shared experience, must be real. If it is not, the entire religious quest for meaning is lost. If good and evil are equal enemies in this world, evil is as meaningful as good, and life is hopeless. What's more, all power to succeed or fail is put in our own hands, and any sense that we are completely reliant on God, who is wholly good, is lost. There are multiple reasons why this view should be rejected. Zajonc is impressed by Manecheism, and I'd be lying if I said there was no temptation for me in it, but that temptation I reject out of hand. I refuse to take this life, this life that I live, as any less real than the spiritual realm that exists around and through it. What I do in this world matters, and in the fight between light and dark, I side with the light. Not just because I want to, but because I think the Light is primary, it is a reflection of the God of Genesis, the God from whom all things come and who pronounced them good. I can give many strong reasons for believing this, but in the end I think the best is simply that through the Old Testament, through all of scripture really, I hear a voice calling to me, a voice that says 'let there be light' and 'it is good'.