Synthesis: So, I assume you agree with those who have suggested that the concept of a spiritual life is repressed in the modern world, much as sexuality was repressed by the Victorians. What other factors may be involved in promoting such repression?
Coleman Brown: I do agree. You ask about the factors, and that's a dangerous question; I'm not a historian. It seems to me that a doctrine of human innocence that has grown since the eighteenth century is at least as hard to swallow as the doctrine of the original sin. We tend to say today, particularly in educational institutions, that "humanity has problems" but that we ourselves are not the problem; but I'm not so sure. The repression in part that you speak of is invited by a doctrine of human innocence. Our atomized individualism-and the sources of that are multiple but certainly our economic system and the need to be able to function as a saleable individual has led to a kind of repression.
The invitation of culture continually is to make the self-interested individual the center, and when the self, in that sense, is the center, it will be under enormous pressure to repress some of the most important things about our existence. Our narcissism requires that we repress matters that disclose our need for humility, for forgiveness, our need for others, let alone the "other."
The authority of explanatory knowledge has led us to a sense of an empty universe. Explanations tend to empty, don't they? Contemplation needs fullness. When we can see through everything, there's nothing left to see. We are in a situation in which we can't bear either our own finitude and apparent insignificance, or the awe and reverence necessary for the rediscovery of our significance.
Our significance is something with which we're endowed. It's very hard for me to understand how it is self derived. If we have no awe or reverence for the mystery of why we came into being, I tend to wonder how long we can find significance in our own being. A sense of personal significance for your life in a way that you can't get away from is a powerful anchor in times of terrible uncertainty.
Also, when a sense of personal significance is lost, when I'm only accountable to rnyself, the question arises (as Lucy in the Charlie Brown comic strip asked) "what are the others for?" People begin to think: "what is this infinite worth of the individual? I guess we made it up." Then there is a denigration of our humanity that is hard to stop without some kind of recovery of spirituality.
One other thing about repression. It seems to me that we repress these questions of meaning because of the awesome questions of justice which they raise. Jefferson (who never released his slaves) nevertheless during the slavery period said something like "I tremble to think that God is just." Spirituality divorced from the question of justice is still a thing of repression. The awful disparities of our society, or our world, lead to repression of the question of justice, and thus to repression of attention to a human community built on love and justice.
Coleman Brown: I do agree. You ask about the factors, and that's a dangerous question; I'm not a historian. It seems to me that a doctrine of human innocence that has grown since the eighteenth century is at least as hard to swallow as the doctrine of the original sin. We tend to say today, particularly in educational institutions, that "humanity has problems" but that we ourselves are not the problem; but I'm not so sure. The repression in part that you speak of is invited by a doctrine of human innocence. Our atomized individualism-and the sources of that are multiple but certainly our economic system and the need to be able to function as a saleable individual has led to a kind of repression.
The invitation of culture continually is to make the self-interested individual the center, and when the self, in that sense, is the center, it will be under enormous pressure to repress some of the most important things about our existence. Our narcissism requires that we repress matters that disclose our need for humility, for forgiveness, our need for others, let alone the "other."
The authority of explanatory knowledge has led us to a sense of an empty universe. Explanations tend to empty, don't they? Contemplation needs fullness. When we can see through everything, there's nothing left to see. We are in a situation in which we can't bear either our own finitude and apparent insignificance, or the awe and reverence necessary for the rediscovery of our significance.
Our significance is something with which we're endowed. It's very hard for me to understand how it is self derived. If we have no awe or reverence for the mystery of why we came into being, I tend to wonder how long we can find significance in our own being. A sense of personal significance for your life in a way that you can't get away from is a powerful anchor in times of terrible uncertainty.
Also, when a sense of personal significance is lost, when I'm only accountable to rnyself, the question arises (as Lucy in the Charlie Brown comic strip asked) "what are the others for?" People begin to think: "what is this infinite worth of the individual? I guess we made it up." Then there is a denigration of our humanity that is hard to stop without some kind of recovery of spirituality.
One other thing about repression. It seems to me that we repress these questions of meaning because of the awesome questions of justice which they raise. Jefferson (who never released his slaves) nevertheless during the slavery period said something like "I tremble to think that God is just." Spirituality divorced from the question of justice is still a thing of repression. The awful disparities of our society, or our world, lead to repression of the question of justice, and thus to repression of attention to a human community built on love and justice.
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