Letter #27: Gone With the Windy

There’s Really Only One Question

Spong.

Much as I love talking philosophy, I’ve always been, at bottom, a very practical person. Windy orthodoxies don’t mean much to me. Likewise, the Christianity of Condemnation — that faith that defines itself by declaring what other people should not be getting up to. In the end, for me, there’s really only one question: What do I have to do today to bring myself closer to God?

In my final letter last week (#26: Through the Glass Darkly), I pointed out the ferocity of Paul’s rhetoric in 1 Corinthians 13: “Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.”

Basically, you can go to church and condemn all the naughty people and explain doctrine to the guy sitting next to you on the plane until he’s ready to yank open the emergency door in an effort to escape — but if you don’t have agape love, you’re zero. Nada Nothing.

So what is this agape? And how do I get me some? Because, all things considered, I’d prefer to be something. Instead of, say, nothing.

Whatever else agape is, it’s apparently not about what you do. You gave all your money to the poor? You’re a prophet? A martyr? Great. But no agape? Honk! Thanks for playing. It’s not about what you know either. You understand all mysteries? All knowledge? Congratulations. No agape? Ooh, sorry. Too bad.

And it can’t just be about what you feel. Feelings come and go. What then? Not in windy words. Practically speaking. What is it? How do I get it?

If agape for God and for neighbor is the basis of all law and scripture, it must be some powerful connection, a way of relating spirit to spirit that brings God and neighbor into the circle of your self-love. Obviously, you can’t achieve this in an instant or by an act of will. It has to be fashioned in you over slow time. You can’t just refrain from sin or give charity or learn scripture. You have to approach these things, and your work and your marriage and a lot else besides, with the willed purpose of letting God create in you a new state of consciousness. You have to make yourself the marble to his Michelangelo, so he can chisel away at the stony carapace of your ego and bring out the shape of the image of God within.

Philosophy aside, I think I need to keep coming back to this, honing the details. Because to me, this is the heart of the human mission.

Back to you.

Dad

P.S. For anyone interested, I have a relevant article up at City Journal: Shakespeare vs. the Transhumanists: Our King Lear moment, our Tempest hope.