L. William Countryman's Blog, page 2

Finitude (cont.)

20. Any effort on the part of finite beings to speak about the infinite will be in one or the other of two modes. One is the way of negation: that which is not finite, not mortal, not bounded, not changing, not relative, not in need of anything or anyone else, and so forth. At first, this seems to tell us nothing at all, but those who move deeply into it sometimes find it a way into an understanding of reality that is not the less real for being impossible to express clearly. In the words of Henry Vaughan:
There is in God (some say)
A deep, but dazzling darkness; as men here
Say it is late and dusky, because they
See not all clear;
O for that night! where I in him
Might live invisible and dim.
The other is the way of metaphor, in which we speak of the infinite in terms drawn from our finite experience, though always under a reserve that reminds us that this is a gesture toward what we cannot actually grasp. Thus we call what is not finite "spirit," or "the muse," or "providence," or "fortune," or "justice," or "wisdom," or "love," or perhaps "god." Or any of a thousand other names.

Finitude (cont.)

19. Human beings are finite by nature. If the infinite chooses to enter into the circumstance of finitude, it can only do so by choice.

Finitude (cont.)

19. Human beings are finite by nature. If the infinite chooses to enter into the circumstance of finitude, it can only do so by choice.

Finitude (cont.)

18. Trust is possible only when we see finitude as bound in with and sustained by something greater and more generous, something that wills connection as well as separation. Then we can begin to imagine and construct a human existence that embodies hope and love. The infinite, by definition, cannot be available to us in the same way as the finite. We cannot know it with the same kind of confidence as we have regarding the finite world around us—fragile as even that confidence may often be. But when the finite is placed in the context of this something greater, we find it is no longer simply "the flesh," in the negative sense. It is not necessary to make our own survival and well-being the only value we pursue. We can see the finite not simply as battleground, but as a place of celebration, a dinner-table, a place of music and dance, of color and of companionship.

Finitude (cont.)

17. "The flesh" is the grasping way of being in the finite world that follows upon an anguished recognition that we are closed in by others and have no final control of our fate. What, then, is its opposite? Paul would have said "spirit," but this is as much metaphor for him as "flesh." "The spirit" is not some non-material component of the human being, placed in contrast with the material body—particularly, as we tend to assume, with the genitals. Contrary to what some Christians have supposed, virginity does not save a person from "the flesh."
The opposite of living in "the flesh" is to live by trust, hope, and love—the means by which a finite but conscious being can discover and build on the riches of finitude. This is what it means to live in the spirit.

Finitude (cont.)

16. This negative construction of finitude is what Paul called "the flesh." Odd that "flesh" has become for modern readers of scripture so exclusively identified with sex, when that is only one arena for its expression. Paul's choice of language it is not a coy way of referring to the genitals. What lies in the forefront of his conception is a certain way in which we may understand and respond to our finitude. "Flesh" is the effort to escape the consequences of being fnite by seizing as much as possible for ourselves, by endeavoring to build buffers of possessions around us, by striving to control people and other beings (gods, demons, animals, property, natural resources), to take from others what they have, to place ourselves at the center of our own little universe, and to make of others mere instruments of our aggrandizement. I suspect there is no human sin that cannot be comprehended under "the flesh" thus understood.

Finitude (cont.)

15. Finitude, however, is not in itself either a good or an evil. It is a condition and a context which can be turned to either purpose. If we respond to the uncertainty of finite existence with fear and grasping, we make something very different of it than if we respond with attraction and love. Finitude then becomes an occasion for anger, hatred, pride, greed, covetousness, lust, gluttony—all the basic building blocks of sin that have in turn been built into the massive construction of modern evil: totalitarianism, brutality, indifference to the suffering of others, the easy resort to violence, the subordination of others to one's own ends, the cult of the self, whether taking the form of individualism or masquerading as service to ideals that only I (or my coterie) understand and am therefore obliged to impose on you.

Finitude (cont.)

14. Scriptures treats finitude in both positive and negative ways. The positive, for example, in the Song of Songs, for the erotic, including sexual desire, can exist only in a finite world, where there is an "other" to be desired and enjoyed. Indeed, God's passion for us, giving rise to creation and to the whole long story of God's seeking to make this passion known to us and to awaken our love for God—this is most readily expressed, for finite beings, in erotic terms. It should be no surprise, then, that for centuries the Song was a central text for both Jewish and Christian readers, though it fell strangely out of favor in the era of self-conscious modernity—a topic to be considered further at another time.

Finitude (cont.)

13. It is humanly necessary to seek the "other," whether this other is another finite being who inspires in us a sense of kinship, love, delight, or whether the other is God, the Infinite who becomes, in practice, finite to our finite, allowing infinity to bounded by our finitude. If we fail to become aware of this Other, to find or be found, the prospects for our lives are diminished. If we take finitude to be not only a chief defining mark of our existence but the only relevant mark of it, we shall be tempted to see ourselves as lone battlers, strugglers, competitors in a war of survival, each monad against every other. This is how finitude becomes what Paul called "the flesh."

Finitude (cont.)

12. God is infinite in Godself, but to us God is, in effect, an example of "the other" because we are finite. We may, in a way, be "other" to God because of our own finitude. To be sure, we may indeed find God by going "within." And yet, what the saints find "within" is more than simply themselves. What they find is "the other" at work in and with us, as near to us as our life and breath, and yet greater and more ultimate than we.