Autor: Ormerod, Neil

Buch: Creation, Grace, and Redemption

Titel: Creation, Grace, and Redemption

Stichwort: Dialektik (Individuum): Transzendieren - Begrenzung ; der menschliche Geist

Kurzinhalt: To cut off from the transcendence of spirit is to surrender oneself to the rhythms of the psyche, leading to depression and psychosis. To deny the limitation of matter and psyche, to live "like angels," is to invite escape into manic fantasy.

Textausschnitt: Spirit and the Search for Meaning

31a Rather than begin with a definition, I would like to focus on a basic experience of life as identified by theologian Robert Doran. Doran speaks of our human life project as existential and aesthetic, a dramatic living out of the tension of spirit and matter. He speaks of this project as "the search for direction in the movement of life."1 We are all caught up in the movement of life, the day-to-day events, the major upheavals, as well as our own feelings in response to these events. In this confluence of inner affect and outer events we seek some sense of direction, of purpose, of meaning to guide our lives. Simply to drift, to be carried along by events, to be overwhelmed by our own feelings, anxieties, fears, or even our exhilarations is to lead a diminished life. We need purpose and direction. That which searches for direction, that which yearns for purpose and meaning, that principle which is within us is the human spirit. Doran would speak of this tension between spirit and matter as a dialectic of transcendence and limitation. To cut off from the transcendence of spirit is to surrender oneself to the rhythms of the psyche, leading to depression and psychosis. To deny the limitation of matter and psyche, to live "like angels," is to invite escape into manic fantasy. In a similar vein Aquinas criticized the Cathars for forgetting their human nature in their rejection of bodiliness (Summa contra Gentiles book 3, ch. 119); Aquinas always stressed the need for intellect to "turn to the phantasm [i.e., imagination]" for its proper operation (STl q. 76, a. 2; q. 79 a. 4). (Fs)

31b And so we might argue that the human spirit is that which searches, that which explores, and what it searches for are meaning, truth, and value. This is not a search with the eyes-we open our eyes to search the horizon; but this is not the type of search we are talking about. This is not an exploration that begins with a single physical step, putting our best foot forward. Rather it begins with questions: What am I to do? Where is my life heading? What am I to make of myself? There is something basic about these questions. German theologian Karl Rahner suggests that we cannot "question the question," in the sense that the question is indubitable, beyond doubt.2 To question questioning is simply to affirm the reality of questioning by raising yet another question. (Fs)

32a But there is something more basic, more primordial than the question. The question is a verbal expression, but behind the question is something more elemental. It is a hunger, a thirst, a wonder, an awe, and a desire. It is a desire for meaning, truth, and value. Simply as desire, it knows no limits. Whenever someone tries to say, "so far but no farther, your search for meaning must end here and now" we can rebel and say, "Why?" Our questioning transcends any arbitrary limits. Inasmuch as our desire bears fruit in finding meaning, truth, and value, it grows in confidence and surety that the cosmos is meaningful, not deceptive, and worthy of our love. Inasmuch as our desire is frustrated in its search we grow more and more anxious, more desperate for meaning, latching onto whatever passing fad catches our attention. Or we may despair of any possibility of meaning, truth, and value. The universe becomes an empty void, meaningless, deceptive, and unlovable. (Fs)

32b So we may think of the human spirit as that within us which desires meaning, truth, and value as the sources for direction in the movement of life; it is a desire that potentially encompasses everything and so is not limited by materiality. Still, in practice we often truncate the human spirit's search to the immediate, the commonplace. We remain satisfied with the limited reach o£ the present and ignore the breadth and depth of our primordial desire. Is this desire within us nothing more than a cosmic joke, a freak of evolutionary nature? Is our unlimited desire for meaning, truth, and value forever to be frustrated in an indifferent or even hostile universe? Or is there something or someone who can fulfill that desire? Is there someone who is so meaning-full, so truth-full, and so full of value that in this one and this one alone our spirit finds its true rest? Indeed, is our spirit simply a pale reflection of that greater Spirit, a dim echo, a sheer potential for what is fully realized in that greater Spirit? And is our desire not simply a plea into the void but in fact a call from that greater Spirit? For then we are not alone in our search, but we are actively engaged by the greater Spirit. We do not just seek that Spirit; that Spirit draws us on, as a partner and friend. This is something of what Aquinas meant when he called the human intellect a "created participation" in the divine intellect (STI q. 84, a. 5). (Fs)

33a Do other higher mammals-higher primates or dolphins-also share in this spiritual dimension? People who study animal behavior often point out the similarities between human behaviors and those of other higher mammals. Is this proof of their intelligence or of our animality? Are other animals simply conditioned by instinct and biological drives, or do they also search for meaning and value? While there are some intimations evident in some higher primates in some situations, there is little evidence that such a search is the central concern of their existence, as it is in the case of human beings. (Fs)