The following is in part responding to C.S. Lewis' "The Poison of Subjectivism." If you are a random passerby, take a minute, and whether or not you read the short essay, feel free to comment, question, discuss, and/or debate.
In this piece, Lewis continues in the same vein as Mere Christianity, which makes it difficult to remark on. Instead of making quite a similar post to that of last weeks, I will speak about something that was of particular interest and came up in class discussions over "The Poison of Subjectivism." That is the topic of God and good. So to begin with, let us look at John 1:1-5:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
This verse is not simple. It appears to be so, because it is so basic in rhetorical structures and wording, but the picture behind it is not. Speaking things into existence is something we have hardly figured out in a physical sense. We do speak thoughts into existence, and even can use words to help speak the power of God in some circumstances. But what will bring me to the topic of God and good is looking at these verses with a different twist.
"But it might be permissible to lay down two negations: that God neither obeys nor creates the moral law. The good is uncreated; it never could have been otherwise; it has in it no shadow of contingency; it lies, as Plato said, on the other side of existence." What Lewis talks about is the idea that good could be something that is not created, but simply is. When looking over John 1, I thought about the possibility of either the word directly be referring to "good" or if good was in the same boat as the word. Lewis also talks about how it's difficult for us to understand things like God as three in one, and maybe good is just another concept that's perplexing.
If the word refers to Jesus, this even further helps my belief in the word referring to good. If Jesus simply is "good" his ultimate power over the Enemy makes complete sense. The origin of good, then, becomes clear. It was and is and is to come, eternally existent.
So to finish this off with a mathematical question:
The Word=Jesus, Jesus=Good, The Word=Good?
Sunday, January 16, 2011
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