Thought of the Day 12.02.08

There are two basic errors people make in their thinking about the things of this world such as pleasure, material possessions, and other people.

The first is the Eastern religious error of thinking the world is bad and we should detach ourselves from it. This leads to asceticism, thus denying the basic human need for objects of devotion.

The second is the Western secular error of thinking that the world is good and we should unashamedly indulge ourselves in it. This leads to hedonism, thus devoting people to the wrong things.

So does the good life require denying the body or satisfying the body? Well, Christianity teaches us the good life flows from loving God above everything, which then frees us to enjoy these other things to the proper degree. Having them is nice, but lacking them doesn’t destroy us.

When we love God that much, we can be satisfied no matter what else we do not have because we always have in our possession the one thing we most want.
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3 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Did you attach a bug to Brad so that you might be kept better informed?
This mirrors a conversation we had about evil doers and victims.
Error 1 being that we can only be responsible for ourselves.
Error 2 being that victims need champions and we should fly into battle against the evil doers.

Helping the oppressed is good, but the more tragic victims are the ones doing evil, because it is their souls that suffer.

When we put suffering in the context of the eternal, perhaps we can begin to see why the poor, hungry, sorrowful and persecuted are the blessed ones.

December 2, 2008 at 11:15 AM
Andrew Tallman said...

Plato (Socrates) maintained that it was impossible to do harm to a good man because the only real damage that can be done is to the soul, and the only one who can do damage to my soul is me by my choices. When others do me harm, they entice or tempt me to respond in self-soul-harming ways, but when I look instead to Christ's example, I am humbled into responding in only self-soul-benefitting ways (because they are Christ-inspired and therefore Christ-cultivating in me).

December 2, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Unknown said...

You hit the nail on the head with this one. Everything you said makes perfect sense, and should someone confront me with the same issue, I will know exactly what to say and how to present it. Thanks for the wisdom. :)

December 2, 2008 at 4:40 PM

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