New Search for Ultimate Reality

This is very good news ! The species of action to be revealed is a tantalizing prospect.

We Must Not Confuse What Is Essential In The Church With That Which Is Mutable, No Matter How Ancient It May Be

[This is an Open Letter I sent to AMERICA Magazine today. Some issues of the Jesuits are public issues because of their very directly public purposes. Thus, the public has every right to critique Jesuit contributions to truth, worldview and ultimate reality. Let your voice be heard, pro and con. If I am totally off-base, please tell me.]

Truth, Worldview and Ultimate Reality

In his inimitable way, “Christmas-ists, the atheists are onto something”, AMERICA Magazine, December 18-25, 2006, pg 8, Fr. John Kavanaugh, SJ, deftly credits evolution atheists over the extravagance of Christmas consumerism. His style is a genius mark of Jesuit erudition in the mold of the Master. Jesus himself (given the imperialism of the time) was a “sign of contradiction”, a “voice set against” the imperial culture of Rome, which culture later became theologized into Roman Catholicism.

The Protestant Reformation was a contradiction to the imperial culture of Roman Church/State. The Council of Trent (still enthralled in the culture of dominion theology) contradicted the Reformation. Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, SJ, the Sacred Inquisition Head, gave to Tridentine Church a theology justifying dominion ecclesiology. Vatican I later endorsed Trent and enlarged on the theology/ecclesiology of dominion.

Along comes Pope John XXIII, of blessed memory, who counters by way of the Second Vatican Council with a theology/ecclesiology that contradicts imperial church. The last King-Pope, Pius IX had the Council declare him infallible in order to add weight to the many anathemas he pronounced on Modernism — with which Vatican II sought accommodation, and not the least of which issues was evolution. [Gaudium et spes, Intro #5]

Vatican I apologists yet labor mightily to deny and discredit the real differences of Vatican II with Vatican I. Reconciling the two Councils and their popes is a challenge. How do Jesuits reconcile their oath of allegiance to contradictory papacies and Councils? How do Jesuits reconcile the theology of evolution (Teilhard de Chardin, SJ) with the fixity theology of Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, SJ? Can the Society of Jesus, in its public witness, espouse both sides of polarized opposites within the Church and be credible? Can such contradiction be waged in Church without damage to the Church?

Loss of credibility in Church today can largely be attributed to the cross-purposes of imperial theology/ecclesiology with today’s accepted worldview, in my opinion. Infallibilism belongs to the world of imperial fixity. The worldview of imperial fixity, politically and theologically, no longer has worldview claim. Not? Whither the future? This is an issue about ultimate reality (Truth) and fidelity to truth. Conciliarism is surely the way of evolutionary openness, not? Where does Pope Benedict XVI stand on conciliarism? How are Jesuits advising the Pope? Do Jesuits take a position for one or the other?

Weighty questions which will hugely affect society and religious authenticity. The Church should get over it, acknowledge “official” mistakes in the past and adjust so it has credibility and purpose in the public interest.

Sylvester L Steffen
Please know that this is an Open Letter that I intend to publish in the interest of the good of the Church. Thank you for your attention

Colkoch wrote ~"I hope this discussion continues with or without Ms. Rottsh."
Agree completely. My preference would include Ms Rottsh as a co-contributor. She has some very significant contributions to make.
Some of the other postings were difficult for me but the beauty of such a "metaphysical" level of subject is maybe just that ~ the breadth of perspectives.

I truly appreciate your reflections. As with Shootingstar and others, you have shown me new dimensions of relational perception on this site. Perhaps it is what has been referred to as Feminine Intuition that has had its greatest impact on me here.

As for the near future I am still digesting what Fr. Greeley has referred to as his major work in , ' Religion as Poetry '. I look forward to knocking these ideas around some more. As a professional listener he has sought out the roots of concern in contemporary church and social thought.

Many self-described conservatives remind me of the Mickey Mouse character in the Disney film , ' Fantasia ' . The Sorcerer's Apprentice induces a reckless flood until the frenzy of unchecked authority is becalmed by the Master.

These discussions are a good start toward editing the stories we tell ourselves about life. Being a facilitator takes a great amount of courage. The Priest at the mass must vacate his ego as best he can and accommodate all dimensions of the Spirit available. The rules of the ritual are, at best, a beginning to the encounter with the Totally Other and not the end.

We Must Not Confuse What Is Essential In The Church With That Which Is Mutable, No Matter How Ancient It May Be

"The rules of the ritual are, at best, a beginning to the encounter with the Totally Other and not the end."

Yes, absolutely. They are an onion, and our job is to clean up the junk that keeps us from peeling back the layers. In order to do that we need to peel back the layers of the onion which is us. Starting with the ego.

I love Floral metaphors of the Culinary Arts !

We Must Not Confuse What Is Essential In The Church With That Which Is Mutable, No Matter How Ancient It May Be

With apologies for some repetition in the below preamble, shall we proceed with a "big onion" that cries (grin) to be peeled back?

"Psychic Precondition" is the qualifying cosmic circumstance of evolving energy / matter, which wholly envelopes the conscious/subconscious rationality of intentional relationships — what is Intelligent Design.

“…as we survey the principle features of [the] post-Einsteinian world…step by step we [move] into the Hebrew prophet’s eschatological world. A universe bound fast to grim, timeless necessity gives way to a stochastic or chancy universe in which contingent and irreversible time begin to count again. For Western culture, which has always been essentially time-oriented, this is of enormous importance. It means that our physics and astrophysics can be contextualized within the biblical perspective.”
[David Toolan, “At Home in the Cosmos”, pg 179, 2001, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY]

For five decades I’ve been struggling to develop an understanding (theory) of “ultimate reality” in a way compatible with Catholic Faith Tradition and cosmic evolution. In the principled compatibility of divinity/humanity, humankind supposes divinity even as divinity supposes humankind. The reconciliation of the divine/human perspective is necessarily ongoing and changing as is human awareness; my understanding as of now is offered below.

I have a theoretical sense that constellations of "Psychic Precondition" (the superstring theory of everything) exist in infinite realms of consciousness — what is “divine instance”. The physical calculus of superstring theory allows for multiple universes, what are realms openly psychical and immaterial in character. This suggests that there are ordered constellations of interactive harmonic energy, qualified psychically but not necessarily physically — what are the preconditions of personal spirituality and the after-life postcondition.

"Psychic Precondition" invests a constellation theory of harmonic complexity, the “theory of everything” that functions in orchestrated hierarchies of cosmic energy, what might be called “possible universes”. The realms of harmonic resonances underlie later complexities of energy/matter — which is to say that: evolving energy/matter supposes the prior realms of energetic resonance.

Energy resonance (light energy) preconditions cosmic substantiation, physical constructs and the energetic relationships within and between them. The various hierarchies of psychic consciousness function in multiple realms of rationality and may be accessed by intentional focus, whether within or outside physical constructs. An analog of hierarchical “precondition” may be suggested, for example, in the signs of the zodiac that give insight into predispositions of emotional/rational intelligence, and in the indigenous wisdom of ancient cultures.

"Psychic Precondition" (predisposition) permeates dark and light energy; alterations and bondings of wave resonances weave complex patterns of continuity and stability, more enduring than erratic physical bondings that are subject to entropic degradation. The harmonic complexes of superstrings endure beyond material decomposition. There is in these harmonic realms no entropic degrading as we know it. Human soul, Earth-soul and intentional consciousness are commonly stabilized and secured in faith awareness, in the resonance compatibilities of preconditioned harmonics accessible for attenuation.

Earth-life, for example, interactively builds on gradations of light complexes which endure in phases of wave/particle iterations. Self-reflectivity finds its grounding, its continuity, its subjectivity, its stability and its amplification in preconditions of hierarchical resonances. Intuitional reflectivity communicates consciously and subconsciously with energetic (spiritual) insights intentionally accessible. We ourselves metamorphose from within the “sea of infinite substance” (St. John Damascene’s description of God); we are nurtured in amniotic consciousness and delivered purposely in/from the Cosmic Womb

The “cosmic psyche” of purposefully patterned resonances (Intelligent Design) influences social (memetic) patterning and comes to be culturally encoded. Gene-coding implicates patterns of psychological development. These patterns are rational complexes that inform religious consciousness and form the faith-basis of moral relationship. “Moral ordering” is evolving insights (patterns) of purposeful cultural consciousness in communication with reflective insights of Psychic Precondition.

The psychic connection between the living and the “non-living” is a long celebrated awareness, identified in Christian experience as the “Communion of Saints”. The holiness of cosmic order characterizes the holiness of the living person in the psychic preconditioning of intentional faith-life. We, who have experienced the passing of an especially loved one, experience a new closeness and “communion” of awareness that was not possible previous to the passing of the loved one. The journey of deep cosmic faith-life is real. Awaken to it. We belong to it and we can own it consciously.

If we buy into the above preamble, where and how do we begin to apply it in terms of faith practice and culture?

References:
BRIAN GREENE, “The Fabric of the Cosmos. Space. Time. And the Texture of Reality”, 2004, Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, NY

DAVID TOOLAN, “At Home in the Cosmos”, 2001, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY,

"If we buy into the above preamble, where and how do we begin to apply it in terms of faith practice and culture?"

The first step is to understand 'the journey of deep cosmic faith-life is real.' The second step is to 'awaken to it', and the third step is to 'understand we belong to it and we can consciously own it.' Just as you have written. The fourth step is to get over the institutional dogma and personal drama that get in the way of owning this reality. None of this is easy, but every contemporary mystic I have encountered or have read in their reflections says this ad nauseum.

Fr. Ed Hayes's thoughts in the latest NCR podcast present some interesting observations. He speaks eloquently about incarnation, the Church BC--as in Before Constantine, and the fact most Catholic mystics find themselves kind of a hybrid Catholic. A Catholic whose understanding of sacramental theology is quite a bit expanded versus the Church's. As a starting point these podcasts are worthwhile.

When enough people own this understanding, the practical applications could be enormous. We already have some pretty impressive studies done with practioners of TM, and how they have affected the situations on which they were meditating. We also have good studies on group prayer effecting the health of individuals irrespective of distance. I've written elsewhere about healings I've participated in which involved changing energy in the distant past in order to effect healing in the present. To me this is exciting stuff. Way more exciting than the latest pronouncements from our bishops.

Colcoch ~ Your posting is very impressive. My "gut" tells me to listen very carefully to your extra-time space efficacy; intellectually I will continue with, what I hope is a healthy openness and scepticism (ironic eh).

A few points I would honestly appreciate some feedback on.

1.The first is your (Colkoch) statement ~ "The fourth step is to get over institutional dogma...". Without getting into the hair-splitting over what constitutes dogma, I will continue to give serious consideration to "what the Church teaches" within the proviso that I will "quest"-ion or dissent where reason, fact and or "faith" overwhelmingly compels me.

2. Competing with the above is the recognition that the "faith system" of the institutional church is that: a system. I think it was you yourself who used the phrase: shake out the words and stay with what is left (more or less). The church over time has leaned that lesson well (traditional catacetics and scholastic system). Much of what the church teaches and or selects to teach is determined by how it would be consistent with and support (entrench) that system.

3. Whether the institution is culpable or not on this, I am of the opinion that too many Catholics believe that the only truths worthy of strong attestation are those defined as such by the church all other is to be disdained. Catholics seem to think that they are even absolved of responsibility to be respectful and charitable towards "truths" not explicitely within the system. In this sense as well I agree with your comment.

4. You wrote "He speaks eloquently about Incarnation, the Church BC - before Constantine...". The moderator critiqued a contribution I made to the first posting as, and I paraphrase, finding fault with the church past. She was correct of course, but not fully so in my mind. If I, we, are to be liberated from our traditional "system" defined perspectives we need to know how,when and why. This is particularly important for those whose urge towards freedom is fragile. On the other side of the coin, I strongly suspect that (as with deChardin, in the recent past and virtually contemporary Lonergan and Josept Campbell) much of what will lead us towards and encourage the new search for the UR is explicit or implicit in our intellectual, religious and spiritual heritage, to name just a few more: Aristotle's common good; Aquinas'"summum bonum", and of course, Christ.

The ultimate reality has many faces. We cannot lose the incarnational dimension of the search: it must be rooted in the reality of humanity and have the potential to reflect magnificance and challenge towards quest that the human mind, heart and soul will have to deny to resist.

Dennis, I had to take some time to think about how to respond to your valid points. Wiating for the muse so to speak.

When I write and talk about getting rid of the dogma, I don't mean throw the baby out with the bath water. I mean more that it's imperative you don't view a given situation or a person from the point of view of any doctrinal or personal dogma. Two thoughts come to mind: When faced with situations which transcend expected reality fear is a huge issue. To define that fear on the basis of personal dogma can be a real stumbling block. It still amazes me how often the demonology card is brought up by people whose need for a stable reality can't accept miracles happen and reality can bend without the aid of evil influence. Lots of psychicly and mysticly gifted people have been brought to a halt over interpreting a natural fear reaction in this manner. Our need for a stable reality to survive in is a strong enough basis for a fear response without adding to it.

My second thought is that in all our debate through the centuries about the nature of Jesus, we don't seem to have given a great deal of credence to that fact He was a total empath. He didn't just "know" on an intellectual level how people sinned, He felt the emotional and spiritual ramifications of the behavior and how these affected a persons life. I suspect when He said 'go and sin no more' He said it with an authenticity that struck home to the person He was speaking. Therapy and spiritual counseling would be much more effective if counselors had the 'gift' of total empathy. So would parenting for that matter. I suspect empathy was also one of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Developing this kind of empathy is a critical step in opening oneself to the innerconnectedness which is the core of all of us. It's a huge step in learning to peel back the layers of the onion of separation. Christ's human empathy needs to be emphasised.

For me the other points are inter related. When I look back on the institutional church, I see an early Church full of dynamimism, full of the energy of competing understandings and interpretations, and still open to the powerful effect of Inspiration. Once the Church became a codified system after Constantine, the process or evolution of the Church, although it continued, was retarded and now seems to be actively fought. I personally wish I would have stopped the biological process in my early twenties, but that's not how life processes work. It's not how spiritual maturation works either. Stop the dynamics of process and you get sickness. Or to go back to a previous analogy, babies die by the millions from dirty stagnant water.

"If I, we, are to be liberated from our traditional "system" defined perspectives we need to know how,when and why. This is particularly important for those whose urge towards freedom is fragile."

This is a very good sentence. Short story coming. I have this knack for taking orb photography. (Rather than a lengthy explanation feel free to google "orb photography") One day I'm in the local Cathedral taking photos and I keep getting these fabulous orb shots of the stained glass window depicting St. Helena's quest to find the true cross. On the other side of the nave is an equally gorgeous window of the conversion of Constantine. I have never gotten any orb phenomenon associated with that window. Believe me I've tried. I got the message loud and clear and have done a lot of research into this period. Apparently the search for the reality of the early Church has more significance to the unknown energies of the cosmos, than the conversion of Constantine.

Colkoch ~ Absolutely. A great impediment to learning and growth as well is the precipitous grasp on to the security of predefined solutions and/or escapes (i.e.,dogma as only one example). Like Willians's creche story, we approach experience with sets of expectations that predefine and preclude what we glean from a situation. So much learning, beauty and wonder that is virtually shouting at us is missed. The command and control direction of the institution since Constantine, (I tend to blame Augustine)is that phenomenon writ large: dogma to life, institution to history, theology to the universe. It has become an institutional and historical neurosis and we are its willing victims. Its opposite virtue or talent is exhibited in great football quarterbacks, hockey players like Gretsky and Crosby, great generals, scientists, poets and artists, some philosohers and not surprisingly children (Unless we become like children....).

Back to the age of Constantine. I have become enthralled with (the heretic) Pelagius, a Celtic monk, probably from Wales,who spent time in Rome with these lads. His condemnation was based on his supposed rejection of Original sin, but his real sin was taking issue with the hierarchy for their abuse of vocation and cuddliness with the Roman establishment and society. His theses on the presense of God in creation and thus goodness of man, creation and the essential orderliness and interconnectedness of all things as well as man's role in the whole affair appeal to my celtic blood. I can to some extent understand the Church's worry about this guy and the growing popularity of his approach. The notion of self-deception, anti-establishment,human perversity and the reality of evil are all too tangible to permit this "interior approach" hollus bolus.

Until, I came across another Celtic Christian concept that seems to have held real credence within the Celtic stream: Anam Cara. Anam cara or soul friend ~ the true spiritual buddy who loves unconditionally and within which relationship the depth of expression, including the dark side can be revealed, reflected upon and then in its assessed powerlessness can be released and on and on. I don't recall whether it was you or William who wrote in one posting about the utter dismissiveness with which Jesus cast out demons. I did not comment then but I just about fell off my chair. I had the same reaction to your treatment of "empathy". It was there all the time and I hadn't seen it. That is one of the roles of the Anam Cara: Discernment is an absolute necessity for the interior approach and though Ignatius saw it as a learning process towards personal discipline, it is also a segue for Aristotle's ethics that love (or friendship as you referred to)with another (mutual benevolance mutually known) is pretty much identical with shared empathy and an essential component of and/or step towards "the good" (or Aquinas' Summum bonum")via community and society.
That is pretty close to a "Christ message" via the route squelched in no uncertain terms between Nicea and the Synod of Whitby.

It has been my personal thesis for some time (in a dillitante way) that if we go within ourselves with candid and dispassionate introspection and reflection we will find the need and desire for order and healing of that which is inconsistent with order, the pleasure of insight, peace of order and joy of increased awareness within and whithout are the stimuli and rewards. Simultaneously,the inward journey is impossible without sensation, i.e, contact with the "outside world" Increasing awareness (maturation) leads us to empathy/compassion in the realization of other and us-likeness. We then become partners in the evolving process. So all these seeming disparate references are coming together, a bit, for me in a salutary way.

This posting is something of a babble but I felt a need to share it in this context of the new search for the ultimate reality.

I will "google" orb photography.

Yes. :)

To shift to the present: in one sense "ultimate reality" is the "present reality", for the most current reality is the reality of the moment or the "ultimate" one, the one present to us now. "Reality" changes with perception and with what we do with-to it. So, the question "How do we, how should we, interact with ultimate reality to cause it (us) to change for the better rather than for the worse?"

Ultimate reality, the reality of the present moment has many faces, one of them is "religious", our perception and execution of moral relationships. Over time experience with the credibility and utility of certain beliefs and practices either validates or discredits their worth. From this perspective I would say that dominion theology is no longer valid because of the evident personal injury it causes (enables) and because of the ecological/environmental destruction it causes (enables).

To the point is, how how do we get out of the trap of bad habits that do harm and move on to habits of doing good? How to move from "dominion" habits to "liberation" habits? First, by separating the good and the bad of dominion theology/habits and by pursuing the good and moving from the bad — toward liberation theology/habits. Remedying the bad requires a course change and COALITION EFFORT.

I see the ralationship of Vatican II to Trent & Vatican One as steering the Church to a course change, to purging out the bad of dominion culture.

[9. A Call for Global Networking] Pg. 89 quote from (my) "The Possible Journey"

"Action Groups are so many ships on shallow seas, passing each other in the night unaware on their way to troubled harbors. Troubled harbors are out-of-time minds conformed to dominion theology and patriarchal politics. Vatican I theology is shallow water prevailing in many ports. Small capacity ports need deepening. Vatican II called for updating and for new analysis and synthesis to deepen waters and prepare ports to receive modern fitted vessels.

"Vatican II is an uplifting tide. The rising tide lifts all ships. But the tide hasn't come in. Pope John Paul II took harbor repair (Liberation Theology) off the table, and the pre-Vatican II status-quo still obtains. More than ever ships are stranded in shallow water. But today is a new day, more open perhaps to port reconstruction. The People Church must rise to the occasion and ably assist. The People need to accept the task of rebuilding ports — developing a theological openness with minds deep enough to facilitate the consciousness of symbiotic evolution. New strategies of adult faith formation are needed. They are here.

"The iteration patterns of evolving symbioses obtain in emergent life, including the consciousness of human relationships, which evolve in the evolving continuum by way of Trimorphic Resonance, the repetitive processing of word-communication, light-consciousness and love-conscience. Life’s quest is for a pattern in an emergent mode. We are ships on shallow water. And until the perplexity of public shallowness is re-patterned intentionally in deeper insights, our works and our lives will remain perplexed and unsatisfying. Distrust will be yet and again advanced."