My friend Ike posted this excerpt from a book on his blog and asked for thoughts... I'm posting mine here instead of on his blog. Because I can, that's why.
From Dallas Willard's Renovation of the Heart:
We each become a certain kind of person in the depths of our being, gaining a specific type of character. And that is the outcome of a process of spiritual formation as understood in general human terms that apply to everyone, whether they want it or not. Fortunate or blessed are those who are able to find or are given a path of life that will form their spirit and inner world in a way that is truly strong and good and directed Godward.
The shaping and reshaping of the inner life is accordingly, a problem that has been around as long as humanity itself; and the earliest records of human thought bear eloquent witness to the human struggle to solve it - but with very limited success, one would have to say.
True, some points in human history have shown more success in the elevation of the human spirit than others. But the low points far exceed the high points, and the average is discouragingly low. Societies the world around are currently in desperate straits trying to produce people who are merely capable of coping with their life on earth in a nondestructive manner. This is as true of North America and Europe as it is of the rest of the world, though the struggle takes superficially different forms in various areas. In spiritual matters there really is no "Third World." It's all Third World.
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Now, some of the other comments to this post include opinions on cultural development, spiritual relevance to character and vice versa, as well as just how darned dark and depressing this makes the future of mankind in it's journey to "getting better" or Enlightenment, or what you call it. I think that the one point Mr. Willard is making is a valid one: as a society at large, we have barely created a structure that maintains human decency, nevermind spirtual awakening. That secular society, regardless of faith, is developing spiritually, but at what rate and to what end?
If it is "the fortunate or blessed" that get to go "Godward" and be "truly strong and good", which to me implies a minority, where's everyone else headed? Man-ward? Satan-ward? Is this the root of the doom of man? Is the reluctance or outright denial of acknowledging that being a spiritual being is akin to being a human being mean we don't get to play with the other reindeer? It starts to sound traditionally exclusive, as most Xtian writing tends to, in that there's an us and a they, that awareness is necessary for "salvation", (very specific awareness, mind you) and that at the end of the day the answer is there but we're all to shallow, materialistic or demonically possessed to see it. But join us on Sunday...
I could very well just be knee-jerking because of my defensiveness when it comes to my religious upbringing, but at the heart of it, it seems quite arrogant, if not omniscient, to claim that the entire world is spiritually Ethiopian and living in the flies, waiting for the second coming of Sally Struthers. Not that it's the days of wine and roses, fer pete's sakes, but I'd rather have a more balanced view - considering I am not omniscient (yet); that in the end the love you make is equal to the love you take.
Ok, so that was trite, but in the end I'm much more concerned with what I do, with my life, my family, my love and my time, than about postulating about the planet's spiritual development strategy. (yes this blog proves me a hypocrite, get over it.) Back in the day when we didn't know what was going on all over hell's half acre, we cared about our communities, our families, our livestock and the crop. I'm not trying to glorify Little House on the Prairie, but once upon a time, we pretty much had to mind our own business, cuz it's all we knew. If the energy that is spent on worrying about who was saved or not was spent mending the fabric of our neighbourhoods, the issues of "the wages of sin" would be drastically reduced, and Sally Struthers would be out of a job. Hallelujah.
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