"Reality, as in the story of creation in Genesis, is the harmonious and complex interplay of various complementarities: night and day, land and sea, fauna and flora, male and female. Unreality, which manifests after the fall, renders all categories confused and even at odds with each other and with themselves."
This is the critical reading — differentiation finds unity in the ultimate ground of reality, God. The myriad things are each a gift and created good. The fall introduces non-being, which we know to be evil itself.
Self-actualization is evil, because it is the insistence upon an individual's "I Am" rather than the only "I Am" there is — God. We are all contingent. Only God is necessary.
Great piece, thanks for writing! Another song lyric which comes to mind is U2's "you're even better than the real thing" from Achtung Baby. Gomer, the prostitute, is a professional purveyor of an experience which, to her clients, is "even better than the real thing" of committed monogamous marriage. They consider it "better" because it can be controlled in a way that actual reality cannot - Gomer is an object, paid to do her client's desires, but she can be dismissed after those desires are met. Real marriage, on the other hand, doesn't go away on the morning after - and therein lies its value. The real is just as existent as we are.
I'm curious: have you read the book by Francine Rivers, "Redeeming Love", which takes the Hosea / Gomer story and transplants it to the California gold rush? It was made into a movie recently which I have not yet seen.
"Reality, as in the story of creation in Genesis, is the harmonious and complex interplay of various complementarities: night and day, land and sea, fauna and flora, male and female. Unreality, which manifests after the fall, renders all categories confused and even at odds with each other and with themselves."
This is the critical reading — differentiation finds unity in the ultimate ground of reality, God. The myriad things are each a gift and created good. The fall introduces non-being, which we know to be evil itself.
Self-actualization is evil, because it is the insistence upon an individual's "I Am" rather than the only "I Am" there is — God. We are all contingent. Only God is necessary.
Great piece, thanks for writing! Another song lyric which comes to mind is U2's "you're even better than the real thing" from Achtung Baby. Gomer, the prostitute, is a professional purveyor of an experience which, to her clients, is "even better than the real thing" of committed monogamous marriage. They consider it "better" because it can be controlled in a way that actual reality cannot - Gomer is an object, paid to do her client's desires, but she can be dismissed after those desires are met. Real marriage, on the other hand, doesn't go away on the morning after - and therein lies its value. The real is just as existent as we are.
I'm curious: have you read the book by Francine Rivers, "Redeeming Love", which takes the Hosea / Gomer story and transplants it to the California gold rush? It was made into a movie recently which I have not yet seen.
👏 attention is reality. What we worship determines what sort of meaning we’ll find 🎯