July 12, 2014
Pulled by Naturalism: horizontally dead-----
Modern man is having a rough time discerning the sign of the times and that is in part due to Naturalism's pull to stay within the perimeters of a materialistic utilitarian existence. The transcendent truth of a great Love, which longs to cherish each human person personally is amiss in the swelling culture of rationalism, emotionalism, and self-gratification. Not even Descartes could have seen the future for what it has become today. He could not stomach the vast abyss between man’s dependence on matter and his lack of dependence on sanctifying grace. Although, Descartes saw rationalism as a triumph, he still worshiped the One true God until his dying day. Getting to the core of something observable or mathematically or dissecting parts until the whole is seen was and is a great triumph for the Cartesian or Naturalist and Descartes was fine with putting God in another room, other than the lab, until his science portion of the day had ended. Today, God is kept from all rooms.
Aristotle would say that life is much more lived when we discover the divine imperfectly. When that route is taken, we really make discoveries because it is in right relation to reality and our connection to the Creator; not on a Cartesian or pantheistic course. The Divine’s omnipotence will lead us to the right discoveries at the right time. Is it submission? Yes. Is it ordered according to Someone else other than our own mind? Yes. Is it subject to ethical discernment under the law of God? Yes. Does it require a detachment from using any means to reach a desired end? Yes. But I wonder, when there was a great surge in art and science, man was very much in love with the Creator and directed his efforts vertically. Even before Michelangelo’s time, the so-called cold middle ages boomed with vertical living. Music’s notation, self-governmental ideas, Gothic cathedrals, Giotto, medicine, philosophy, astronomy, guilds, apprentices, hospitals, orphanages....Wow! Many readily wanted to live a life in accordance with their Creator. Since Heaven was considered to be “up” then man must look vertically; Not at oneself for meaning but toward something Divine, and that Divine cared about the work man was doing.
It is hard to imagine such a society today. With the advent of the Renaissance and every age afterwards, man has lived more and more horizontally, if not actually tilting toward a descent downward. Can we turn as a whole nation toward:
“All Being within this order, by the laws
of its own nature is impelled to find
its proper station round its Primal Cause.
Dante
