Simplicity
If you cannot lean on your own understanding, then surely at least two things are out of reach: independence and knowledge. For if you cannot lean on what is your own, you must be supported by what is not; and if you cannot lean on understanding, then nothing that is known can stand.
Understanding is the basis of epistemology — that is, the answering of the question, "How do you know?" The word 'understand' itself means something like 'to stand close enough to grasp (what is true)'. But when what is true cannot be grasped, then being close enough is an impossibility, a striving after the wind.
That's not to say that there are no truths that can be grasped usefully enough, but that wisdom is not found in grasping such truths. I know I need to eat to live, but there is no wisdom in that bare fact that will tell me what exactly the best diet is, given all that I am and all that I can have. And so to are all the other things in life.
For a human to glory in the great accumulation of all the knowledge we have is like a person walking in a supermarket who has still not answered the question, "What do I need to live?" It might seem irrelevant in the midst of plenty, but if you cannot reach out your hand and take what is offered to you as life, you will starve.
The logic of salvation is simple. To be fair, it must be offered to all, and it must not be beyond anyone's reach. It must therefore be the simplest of things, so simple that formal reasoning (let alone theology!) cannot be required for it to be obtained.
Thus, the foolish things will confound the wise, the weak things will confound the mighty, and the things of no consequence and substance will confound those that are of consequence and substance. The wise scholar, the strong leader, the wealthy merchant, and others such as these — they will find that glorying in whatever gives them prominence does not bring them closer to the simplicity of the truth.
Understanding is the basis of epistemology — that is, the answering of the question, "How do you know?" The word 'understand' itself means something like 'to stand close enough to grasp (what is true)'. But when what is true cannot be grasped, then being close enough is an impossibility, a striving after the wind.
That's not to say that there are no truths that can be grasped usefully enough, but that wisdom is not found in grasping such truths. I know I need to eat to live, but there is no wisdom in that bare fact that will tell me what exactly the best diet is, given all that I am and all that I can have. And so to are all the other things in life.
For a human to glory in the great accumulation of all the knowledge we have is like a person walking in a supermarket who has still not answered the question, "What do I need to live?" It might seem irrelevant in the midst of plenty, but if you cannot reach out your hand and take what is offered to you as life, you will starve.
The logic of salvation is simple. To be fair, it must be offered to all, and it must not be beyond anyone's reach. It must therefore be the simplest of things, so simple that formal reasoning (let alone theology!) cannot be required for it to be obtained.
Thus, the foolish things will confound the wise, the weak things will confound the mighty, and the things of no consequence and substance will confound those that are of consequence and substance. The wise scholar, the strong leader, the wealthy merchant, and others such as these — they will find that glorying in whatever gives them prominence does not bring them closer to the simplicity of the truth.
Labels: Simplicity, Truth
etched with acid at 8:43:00 am
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