LENT V

Deciphering the ‘Mystical’ Imaginally

The supreme mystery of how God could be in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself (2 Corinthians 5:19 »), via death and resurrection, is a belief that cannot be deconstructed rationally. But, while hidden from the natural mind, when the eyes of the heart are enlightened (Ephesians 1:18 ») by ‘Imagination’ through the Spirit of wisdom and revelation (Ephesians 1:17 »), then that which is hidden is brought to light, i.e. enters consciousness.

The language in which the scenes of Christ’s passion are written, spoken, and heard at this time of year are the external medium veiling the significance of the underlying mystery. When empowered by the divine Spirit acting through imagination, we ‘see’ the Mysterium as tremendum et fascinans, or ‘wholeness’ and ‘otherness,’– a transforming energy that faith can take hold of and ‘know’ of a certainty.

In Judaism, the Torah is a sacred and mystical wonder that comes in two forms: the Written Torah, and the Oral Torah.  The Written Torah is the Hebrew text, every letter, jot and tittle; the Oral Torah is the collected wisdom and commentary on the text by innumerable scholars preserved in the Talmud, with practical applications for every conceivable form of behaviour.  In the mystical tradition of the Kabbalah, these two forms of the Torah are spoken of as “Black Fire on White Fire.”  The Black Fire is the Hebrew text (masculine); the White Fire is the sum of all the collected wisdom about the text (feminine). The combination of these two seen as one is the complete Torah.

There is nothing comparable to this in Christian tradition.  The closest we come to it is in the cultivation of mystical experience.  Mysticism is something that the Christian hierarchy has always viewed with suspicion and kept a close tab on.  Nevertheless, it is the Christian mystics who have, more than anyone else, delved most deeply into the esoteric mysteries of biblical revelation, rather than the exegetical school, people like Meister Eckhard, Jacob Boehme, Hildegarde of Bingen, William Blake, and in recent times, Teilhard de Chardin.

“Behold” is an old-English translation of the Latin word, Ecce, and occurs frequently in the AV, but has been omitted entirely from modern translations, e.g. St Paul: Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.... (1 Corinthians 15:51 AV »)  cf. Listen, I will tell you a mystery!....(NRSV).  In this context Behold! packs far more punch than the anaemic Listen!  Behold! is a call to exercise imagination.  You can’t ‘tell’ a mystery; it has to be seen imaginally.  Only the Spirit of revelation can reveal it.  Once that happens, faith can lay hold of it and ‘know’ the truth beyond a shadow of doubt.

To ‘know’ in this biblical sense is to be face to face with the hidden mystery.  Paul again: Now we see in a glass darkly (baffling reflections as in a polished metal mirror), but then face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12 »). ‘Knowing’ in this sense carries the meaning of male and female coupling, as in Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived...  Illumination by the Spirit of revelation is the fruit of coupling between the text and the sub-text; the male tremendum and the female fascinans; the Black and the White Fires, where we know, not in part, but fully, even as we are fully known.

Knowing this secret is the elixir that turns biblical language to gold, transforming everything by the renewal of your mind.                                                                                          

PG
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LENT IV

Imagining Christian Hope as ‘Otherness’

We have come a long way in these past weeks.  In today’s reading we come to where it all leads.

‘Realized Eschatology’ is a phrase coined by theologian, C.H. Dodd in the early 20th century.  By it, he implied that the ‘end-time’ (eschaton), or Day of the Lord (Amos), had already arrived, and the ‘new age’ or ‘age to come’ had already begun with the advent of Christ.  This included not only the fulfillment of Jewish eschatological expectations, but also the apocalyptic language of Revelation, and apocalyptic sayings of Jesus in the gospels. These were not to be construed as occurring historically, but rather the shape of those future projections beyond time already appearing immanently in the present.

More recent understandings of ‘realized eschatology’ see the phrase in a somewhat different light.  While recognizing the symbolic imagery of Revelation as visionary, and not literal, they interpret eschatology and apocalyptic proleptically, i.e. seeing these imaginal pre-figurations already ascertained, though not yet consummated.  This is where the Go-Between Spirit mediates between the victory already won, and the far-reaching consequences yet to be revealed, enabling us to live in the tension between the two.

What we are talking about here are things like: the Second Coming of Christ to judge the world; the resurrection of the body, and the life of the world to come. These are imponderables beyond natural explication; they can be regarded as the vast ‘Otherness,’ the Totaliter Aliter, behind every mystery.

In the N.T. “mystery” is regarded as ‘hidden truth spiritually revealed.’ This ‘Otherness,’ while it cannot be described literally, can nevertheless be appropriated imaginally, and that is the work of the Go-Between Spirit speaking through our own imaginations.  This faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, that the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews writes about (Hebrews 11:1).  And St Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:7-10 adds: We speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.....’What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him’ — these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.                            
PG
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LENT III

Life in the Great Transition

The experience of making that ‘Transition,’ of migrating spiritually and thinking imaginally, is a ‘crossing over’ from living in the gospels and knowing Jesus in his human incarnation, to knowing him as the glorified, Cosmic Christ as portrayed in the rest of the New Testament, especially in Paul’s epistles, through the agency of the divine Spirit.

Bishop John Taylor of Winchester characterized this function of the Spirit as The Go-Between God, in his book by this title.  ‘Go-between’ the Father and the Son on the heavenly plane and between Jesus and human beings on earth.  Knowing Jesus ‘in the flesh’ in the gospels was followed by knowing him as the Cosmic Christ in the epistles after his resurrection and ascension.  This was ‘The Great Transition’ that would have been impossible without the aid of the ‘Go-Between Spirit.’

The Apostle Paul never knew Jesus ‘in the flesh:’ for him the ‘Great Transition’ was from Judaism to faith in the resurrected and glorified Christ, as a result of his conversion experience, and later the years spent in seclusion undergoing initiation by the Go-Between Spirit in preparation for becoming Apostle to the Gentiles.

For most Anglicans, making that ‘crossing’ is a more protracted process from baptism as infants, to confirmation at puberty, and initiation to the ‘sacred mysteries’ through regular attendance at the Eucharist subsequently.  As we know from our own experience, this can all take place without ever encountering the Go-Between Spirit as a life-transforming ‘crossing over’ into another state of consciousness.

The process by which the Spirit accomplishes this purpose is transformation through the renewing of the mind, seeding it with wisdom and revelation in knowledge of the heavenly Lord.  This comes about through the faculty of inspired visionary Imagination, focussed on the imagery of Christ’s universal reign over all things above and below, as taught by the Go-Between Spirit.

PG
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LENT II

Imagination of Human Transformation as ‘Wholeness’

Go back once again with your ‘mind’s eye’ to that awe-inspiring spectacle of Planet Earth suspended in space, as seen from the surface of the moon for the first time.  Seeing our human habitat from that perspective with everything ‘whole’ is nothing less than sublime.  Even more sublime is seeing the new creation of resurrected humanity rising above the horizon of mortality in all its pristine glory, transforming human brokenness and segregation into imaginal ‘Wholeness.’

Thanks to the Spirit’s imaginative creativity all the dualities that affect humanity in our present state of existence can be transformed into singleness of vision:–  heaven and earth, spirit and matter, time and eternity, male and female, good and evil, above and below, micro and macro, science and religion, life and death &c.

To see one’s self, body soul and spirit, and one’s entire life, including good and bad times, as a unified whole rather than as a random assortment of experiences; to see one’s interrelatedness with humanity as a whole; to see one’s connection and interconnection with the natural world, with all its vast profusion of life-forms as an integrated communion, rather than as subject and object; to see past, present, and future as a scroll rolled into one, and time, space and matter as a single biosphere or web of existence — these all become realizable once the imaginal Spirit takes possession of our mind and consciousness.

Transformation of everything in human experience is within our grasp once this ‘renewal of our minds’ takes hold, once the Spirit of wisdom and revelation i.e. Imagination, takes control of our lives.  For lack of this ‘renewal’ our generation is succumbing more and more to mental breakdown: depression, schizophrenia,  seniledementia, and Alzheimer’s disease.  Mental health requires wholeness of vision to fend off the approach of mental disability.

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.... (Philippians 2:5-11)  This incredible offer of being animated by the same mind that the highest and holiest heaven can afford can be ours by inheritance once we hand over control of our lives to the divine Spirit — our total being recreated, renewed, re-imagined, and given a new direction as we become part of a growing universal Wholeness.

PG
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LENT I

Transformation of Humanity by the Elixir of Imagination

The Holy Spirit is not only the prime Mover of Imagination in the Godhead; she employs that faculty exclusively for glorifying the divine Son.  As Son of Man, or ‘Human Being,’ the second Person of the Holy Trinity existed for all eternity before the world began (John 1:1-14).  This is the Mystery hidden from former ages, now revealed to the saints through the Incarnation.

The divine humanity manifested in Jesus of Nazareth is the Spirit’s doing, as a prototype of what humanity is capable of becoming.  Every aspect of Jesus’ persona is imaginally conceived, and likewise has to be imaginally, not literally perceived, including his birth, death, resurrection, and ascension, plus all the sayings attributed to him.

But that is only half of the story; the second half is equally dramatic.  The Holy Spirit’s imaginal conception of the glorified Christ continuing his mission to humanity by passing on his divinely-human beingness to his followers, and through them to the rest of humanity, is equally arresting in scope.  Knowing Jesus in the flesh is one thing; knowing him as the Cosmic Christ in the Spirit, and being united with him in spreading his Gospel throughout the world, has more far-reaching consequences for every Christian.

The goal of the Christian mission is nothing less than the transformation of humanity as a whole, and the formation of a new race of human beings capable of managing human society in justice and peace and for the benefit of all.  The realization of this objective is far from complete, yet from age to age the bounds of Christ’s reign are steadily increasing, with the company of faithful souls who have finished their earthly course, joining those above awaiting the time when, the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and forever.

The terms in which this faith and hope are set forth in Scripture all require the elixir of the Spirit’s imaginal power to interpret and comprehend, and then to communicate to each person’s consciousness, in accordance with their capacity to exercise their own Imagination for the renewal of their mind.

PG
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ASH WEDNESDAY

Transformation through Renewal of the Mind 

This Pauline idea (Romans 12:1-2 ») requires an exercise in Imagination peculiarly suited to Lent, that could have the effect of transforming a normally penitential season into a lively and lovely Springtime awakening.

Imagination – the Cinderella of the senses – often dismissed as beneath consideration in biblical studies, is making a comeback as a ‘princess-in-waiting.’  Unfortunately, the Bible tends to give Imagination a low rating, associating it with negative thoughts, as in the Magnificat: “He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.”  In spite of this, modern usage has reinstated this humble maidservant to her rightful position as Prima donna – first lady!

This transformation actually comes about in the New Testament in Paul’s own Imagination, though he doesn’t use the word itself, e.g.  his prayer for the Ephesian believers (Ephesians 2:16-23 », especially in the phrase: ....the eyes of your heart (being) enlightened... i.e. Imagination).  Even more significant is his association of this function with the agency of ...the spirit of wisdom and revelation... clearly a reference to the divine Spirit, through whom you may know the hidden mysteries of faith.  Sayings like this mark an important transition from regarding Imagination as something suspect, to the primary means via which the Spirit communicates revealed truth to believers.

Recognizing the Holy Spirit as ‘Imagination personified’ is an exciting current discovery that provides an alternative paradigm for reading Scripture, and what better time to learn more about it than Lent?

The following outline of Readings covering the five weeks of Lent, with suggestions as to how this subject might be approached, concentrates attention on how Imagination can transform consciousness of everything we hold most dear in Christian faith.

Lent I    Transformation of Humanity by Elixir of Imagination
Lent II   Imagination of Human Transformation as “Wholeness”
Lent III  Life in the Great Transition
Lent IV  Imagining Christian Hope as “Otherness”
Lent V   Deciphering the “Mystical” Imaginally

PG
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Visit Christ Church Deer Park  Sundays @ 8 & 10 am  | thereslifehere.org