If you want to build a ship, don’t drum
up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather
teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. — Antoine de
Saint-Exupéry
We people are a funny lot as to how we can compartimentalize our
lives. We all have a story we follow, whether we are cognizant of it or not. I
am not referring to our personal story in this instance, but our big story
behind our life's story. In other words, what guides us in life, to what we are
directed for, and how we are calibrated for it.
In many cases, we are dualists when it comes to our big story. It’s
sort of a metaphysical dissonance. I recently read books by Stephen Freeman and Nancy Pearcey that highlights the two-story scenario we fall into. For example, Pearcey notes how this dualism shows up in our modern sensibilities:
In short, the lower story is what we know (in this case, the
Enlightenment with its positivism of science and reason); while the upper story
is what we can’t help believe (some Romantic notion of humanity, or a religious impulse).
As modern thinkers, we often make a “leap of faith” from the lower
story to the upper story. Intellectually we embrace the values of the
Enlightenment, but this philosophy does not fit our whole experience of life. So
we’ll attempt to affirm a set of contradictory ideas even though it doesn’t
cohere to our intellectual system or even how we direct our daily lives.
Even a secular postmodernist will fall into this trap. They will
believe we are “frisky dust” that evolved to carbon-based machines, while they
somehow affirm values that have no basis in Truth. The performative contradiction
is at hand!
Stephen Freeman says, “The word secular should never be confused with atheist. Instead it refers to a separation between our daily life and God.” We are condemned to religion: whether or not we believe in God, we will always find a god. It just comes down to what we decide our god is, and where we draw the fact/value line.
We do pay a price for this incoherent model with two rival visions.
It offers belief without conviction, existence without significance, and
relationships without joy. We are not made whole, and are left feeling doubt, confusion,
and alienation.
To counter this, and in order for us to embrace a life with dignity,
freedom, personal identity, and ultimate purpose, we need to be part of a
comprehensive, coherent story that affirms life within Reality! In his important
book After Virtue, Alasdair MacIntye says, “I cannot answer the question, ‘What
ought I to do?’ unless I first answer the question, ‘Of which story am I a
part?’”
In this, he was saying we are not defined as much from our
history, as we are from our end! When I am part of a telos, I can align my disposition
towards it in such a way that allows me to part of a story that shapes my
deepest loves and longings.
As in Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, most stories follow a typical mythic
structure. Much of this structure comes from biblical themes that include an
origin (Creation), struggle (the Fall), and a return (Redemption)
Pearcey says, “This comprehensive vision of Creation, Fall, and
Redemption allows no room for a secular/sacred split. All of creation was
originally good; it cannot be divided into a good part (spiritual) and a bad
part (material). Likewise, all of creation was affected by the Fall, and when
time ends, all creation will be redeemed.”
Yet even when attempting to overcome the long-standing
secular/sacred dualism, if our worldview is too small or partial, then we can still
bump up against powerful dualisms in the secular world as well. These meta-narratives aim at
privatizing and marginalizing the biblical message within their own teleological
stories. Once again, we are
all condemned to religion!
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| Content from Nancy Pearcey's book "Total Truth" |
The difference is these stories fail to fulfill the total Truth of Reality. They are only distorted versions of it! These stories are not comprehensive, or unified in such a way that they would address all our deepest longings and passions. What story would make our lives part of one singular story (and not a collection of fragmented parts)?
There is probably only one story that can do that, which in
essence, would be the true myth which all the others were pointing to!
Everything is
trivial if the universe is not committed to a metaphysical adventure. — Dávila