Reflections on Powerlessness

I often think about the fragility of life, and how truly powerless we are. This is the result of several events in my life, and the larger events of 9/11, Katrina, etc., which have completely altered my psyche in this regard. I think about economic powerlessness, powerlessness over the fate of my children, and much more.

Several videos I have come across on YouTube recently, about the temptation of Christ in the desert, have spurred me to think about my concerns with control and fear of powerlessness.

The video embedded below is a bit over stylized and interpretive, but it is a provocative presentation of Christ's choice to eschew power over the world.



Funny then, after seeing videos of this type, I watched just this week a PBS special about the creation of the Hebrew Bible.

Touching on the question of power, this series noted that the great book was completed during the Babylonian Captivity, at the lowest ebb and most powerless time of the Jewish people. And yet, it would unite the people of Israel, and eventually the Western World.

Is there anything more that we (I) can derive from these experiences of Israel's captive powerlessness and Jesus's chosen powerlessness? And, is it any different from other myths of renunciation and redemptive suffering?

My immediate temptation is to think that just the "right" embrace of one's powerlessness might actually empower you. But, how might one "embrace" that, and what kind of empowerment does it bring? Would it be the same experience as having no metaphysical anxiety at all? I sincerely doubt it.

Yet, beyond that, I don't know the answers. I just thought I would capture the questions. More to think on for another time.

Is Facebook a Prefigurement of the Afterlife?

Growing up Christian, one becomes familiar with the concept of "prefigurement." The Old Testament, for example, is said to contains signs that "prefigure" the coming of Jesus Christ. After Christ, Thomas Aquinas would argue that the glories of accomplishment in this world are but prefigurements of the extreme glory to be found in the kingdom of heaven.

You get the idea. One thing is the sign of something greater to come.

Implicit in much of this is the Platonic idea of the world as an imperfect reflection of some higher, transcendent super-good.

Any good of the world is subject to this same kind of argument.

I can't help but think about prefigurement, then, when contemplating the good of "ambient awareness" generated by social networking.

For some of us, at least, social media's capability to provide frequent updates on the status of our friends and acquaintances makes us happy. We are the open books who long for a deeper connection with others; to have our inner life heard and validated, and do likewise for others.

Will the afterlife be the ultimate form of ambient awareness?

According to Thomas Aquinas, yes, but only insofar as that is an "overflowing" result or side benefit of knowledge of God. Call Him the Ultimate "Friend." Once God has gratuitously "friended" you, all your other friendships are perfected. (The notion of such an "overflow" is explained in St. Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica, First Part of the Second Part, "Treatise on the Last End," Question 3.)

Here's why:

For Christians, no natural longing is ever the same after Plato. "Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee" is the most haunting line of Christianity - written by the neo-Platonist, Doctor of the Church, St. Augustine. Augustine posits that natural goods can never satisfy us. We seek the transcendent God. This is rooted in a long series of arguments from Plato, and finds stirring literary exposition in St. Augustine's "Confessions."

Thomas Aquinas would later explain this argument in great, although more boring, detail, borrowing also from Plato's student, Aristotle.

Following Aristotle, Aquinas argued that we seek knowledge through causes. However, knowledge of secondary causes (all the things of the world) is imperfect. There is always more to know.

Happiness consists primarily of knowledge of the First Cause, Aristotle's Unmoved Mover, a.k.a., Plato and Augustine's ultimate, transcendent good.

When we are granted Knowledge of the First Cause, God, by His sheer gift, it will provide beatific insight into all the other causes. This is sometimes called Thomas Aquinas's "intellectualist" vision of perfect happiness.

The reason it is called "intellectualist" is because it places happiness primarily in the exercise of reason, which is most essential to human beings. But, the overflow comes when all else that we experience as human beings is perfected by this primary form of knowledge.

Social media doesn't prove anything theological. It only underscores a human need, the solution to which is always moving into a better state thanks to science and technology. (Why we must exist in an imperfect state at all is a very unsatisfying mystery of religion.)

But once you read Plato, you are next inclined to ask whether social media and other solutions to the problem of life's imperfections can reach a state of "perfection." And if so, how? Christianity volunteers a compelling answer.

Image used under Creative Commons license courtesy of ewen and donabel.