Post a Comment On: Bruce Charlton's Notions

From the Classical-Medieval era of human consciousness, we have inherited an habitual way of planning life according to a blueprint. We make a picture of how ideally we want things to be; and - obediently to the blueprint - work-towards making it, realizing it; often by making rules and following stepwise plans. This has been common in traditional religions. There was a more-or-less explicit model for how Men ought to be, for the trajectory of their lives, for the kind of society and how it should function. This mode of living was inherited and adapted by the early secular ideologists such as communists, nationalists, fascists - they worked towards some ideal blueprint by means of encouraging obedience to stepwise plans. It is still the usual way of proceeding for the rulers of this-world; and indeed over the past few decades it has been extended down to even medium sized human institutions, via mandatory (law- and regulation-driven) bureaucratic requirements for 'transparent' auditable structures - from 'mission statements' at the top; all the way down to micro-monitored, micro-managed functionality of all personnel.
But Man's consciousness has developed such that this way of proceeding has become first ineffective, then actively destructive. This applies to the ideals and procedures of traditionalist churches, as well as to corporations and government - these do not work as they used to work, nor as intended.The means defeat the ends. The ultimate reason for this failure is that in the 'Medieval' consciousness era, Men did not (and could not) distinguish between spirit and matter. Material manipulations were therefore effective at shaping (including improving) Men's spirituality toward ideal blueprints exactly because the material manipulations arose-from Men's spirituality. 
For instance; until recent centuries Men did not (could not) distinguish between the consecrated host and the body of Christ; only around the reformation did Men begin to separate the spiritual and material aspects of the host, and ask what was the relationship, and 'how it worked' when the host was consecrated. Modern Man is much further down that path, and does not spontaneously experience that the material is a 'subset' of the spiritual; and so the link between what we Do and our Spirit, has become 'problematic'. The answer decided is not the point; but instead the fact that there is experienced a question to be answered. Now we can-not (because we do not) take-for-granted what used to be known unconsciously and spontaneously.
Yet, for most serious Christians, there seems to be no alternative to the traditional ways of creating a blueprint and striving to realize it. It seems to be the choice between that - or else a surrender to the evils of mainstream-materialist-atheism. This is experienced as the contrast between order and chaos - God's order versus the devil's chaos. Such a framework envisages human life as a static conformity to order - our proper life is allocated to each, and Goodness is to obey that allocation, and to behave as set-out by the ideal situation; and how to get there is a function of laws and practices - which it is each Man's job to follow. For traditional religion; the aim is the blueprint: each Man's job is to conform to that blueprint*.
It may be helpful instead to consider the ideal of living in Harmony with Divine Purposes. This sees the opposite of demonic chaos as being creation, rather than order. The principle of life is creation - not order; in other words we are intended to join-with and add-to God's ongoing work of creation - which is a matter of continually-repeatedly bringing our own selves and resources into harmony with God's purposes (instead of fulfilling a pre-decided role). In principle (as an aim) all of life can be conduced on that basis. Whenever we need to decide; we might do so on the basis of how our choices fit with our knowledge of divine purposes - and aiming to remain always in harmony with God's existing creation. 
('In harmony', that is, with creation - not with 'this world' - because 'this world' includes much evil intent, corruption and chaos - as well as creation.) Such a life-ideal depends on each Man being able and willing to discern divine purposes, and the presence or absence of harmony between our choices and ongoing-creation. We each need to be able to know (or to learn) the relationship between our choices - and that harmony-purpose.This is possible because we are each and all Children of God: that is, we have divinity in us, and therefore innerly partake of God's purposes; also because outer guidance from the Holy Ghost is available to all who wish to follow Christ to resurrected eternal life.Yet it is also essential to be aware that this ideal of living in harmony with divine purposes is a guiding ideal - and not actually attainable; because this mortal life is ultimately for learning, not to be perfect. In mortal life on this earth we are learning for Heaven. 
Thus, we Modern Men are intended to learn from our failures (and successes) in living in creative harmony with God's purposes. This is in contrast to the traditional framework, where we were intended to learn from our failures (and successes) in conforming to an ideal blueprint of life. Now we are meant individually to be creative in our stance; whereas in the past we were (to some partial but significant extent) operating from the situation of being immersed-in God's creativity: the challenge was to conform to it. We can only add to God's creativity (as we are called to do) when we are no longer immersed in it. And creating in-harmony only becomes a problem (only something to strive-for) when we are Not already and spontaneously a part of God's creativity.   
Living in harmony with divine purposes requires faith; because the inner and outer guidance concerning what is divine purpose and harmony, is a direct experience relevant to exactly that specific situation in which we currently find ourselves. ...And not, therefore, a consequence of either external instruction from some blueprint, nor a consequence of reason working upon evidence.  This means that we may need to conduct our lives, make our decisions, in ways that violate both the blueprint and the dictates of reason-applied-to-evidence. Hence the need for faith.
*NOTE added: Traditional Heaven could be characterized as having No purpose, but only harmony. In other words (and deriving, probably, from Plato's conception of the realm of ideas) Heaven is not going-anywhere. Traditional Heaven Just Is. Because Heaven is perfection, there is nowhere for it to go. This contrasts with the idea of Heaven proposed here; which is that Heaven is the situation in which Men have become fully-divine and therefore fully in harmony with God's creative purposes; and thus Men participate (each to to the limit of his or her capacity) to the unending work of creation.