The Order of the Ages: The Hidden Laws of World History (3rd, Revised Edition) by Robert Bolton

Author:Robert Bolton [Bolton, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781621381211
Amazon: 1621381218
Publisher: Angelico Press/Sophia Perennis
Published: 2015-03-29T22:00:00+00:00

The Spiritual Dimension of Distinctions

Heidegger’s idea of modernism as an ‘onslaught of the demonic’ is relevant for the schools of modern thought examined above, because it is only from the interior level of self-awareness that any ‘world-creating movements of the spirit’ can come. To deny the reality of self-awareness and its level of being is to deny the most essential of human possibilities and to dethrone the intellect with what purports to be intelligence. This is not to say that the work of individuals alone could effect so much, however, because the thought emanating from Darwin, Marx, Freud, Wittgenstein, and Derrida, for all its professed radicalism, merely follows the general downward drift of human consciousness, and rationalizes the limitations which come with that drift. As a result, the development of the personality on Schumacher’s ‘fourth level’ of self-awareness becomes weaker and rarer on average, and spiritual maturity is harder to reach. In all the above philosophical movements, what used to be recognized as a quite ordinary spiritual immaturity (i.e., something essentially negative), is reinterpreted by the new thought as something positive, and those who suffer from it are re-evaluated into torch-bearers of a new wisdom, even of a new dispensation, without their having had to do anything.

Where the same conditions affect religion, the reduction of distinctions has effects which are both similar and more confusing, because in this realm it is possible for a superior meaning to mingle with the more general negative one. The world religions themselves are only subject to equalization to the extent that a global culture equalizes their members, but internally the effect is more marked, as in Christianity, where well-meaning efforts are made to lower the barriers between the different churches. While the same entropic forces are acting here as elsewhere, the question of merging is complicated by the fact that today’s diverse churches were at one time all one from quite an early date. The reductive process at its best is therefore working to restore something which had been lost for long ages. But while reunification is obviously desirable in principle, there is no doubt that it is being approached by negative means. An indifference to and an incomprehension of doctrinal issues may make reconciliation humanly easier, but the resulting union would be lacking in content.

Besides, the levelling process has also reduced the differences between believers and unbelievers in a number of important ways, particularly where the natural and the supernatural are concerned. Christians are increasingly drawn into the humanist mindset in which the natural person is not seen as fallen or in need of supernatural grace. This coincides with a major change in the way human nature is understood. The sovereignty of the will and intellect over all the other parts of the personality, always basic to Christian values, is replaced by the relativist view that all parts of the personality are of equal value, so that no one of them should have any powers over the others. In practical morality, Christians as

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