THE FUTURE OF WISDOM
The Rebirth of ‘Sapiential Christianity’ in the Emerging Global Context:
An ‘Integral Pluralist’ and ‘Relational Emergent’ Vision of Encompassing Reality
“We have already seen a quaternary expression of the mystery of Christ in early Christianity. The four principal yogas, or Hindu spiritual paths, correspond to four dimensions of the human person and also to the four poles of this theological quaternary, which we may call the Christian mandala. The mandala, or quaternary figure, represents the mystery of the cross, which is realized as Trinity and creation become one in Christ. The figure described by the representation of this mystery in the Pauline Letters, however, is based on and inseparable from a particular historical occurrence, the paschal event of Jesus’ death and resurrection. In contrast to a figure of cosmic and human wholeness which would correspond to the perennial philosophy, this Pauline figure visually symbolizes an event that has become the center and pivot of history and represents the progressive consummation of history as an integration, or recapitulation, of all reality around that center.
“The Christian mandala, however, also has an ontological level of significance. The ultimate quaternary, as we find it in the New Testament and in the theological writings of the second century, is that of God, Word, Spirit, and World. The Word is that Divine Word, Wisdom, or Son which has become a human person in Jesus Christ.
“This quaternary vision, as we see already in Irenaeus, offers itself today as the structural framework of one possible new Christian wisdom. Christian theology has been until now – quite understandably – largely confined to the dimension of the Word (II). This pluralistic paradigm, on the other hand, presents all reality gathered together at its center (which is first of all the Risen Christ) and unfolding into four dimensions. It is our contact with the Asian traditions—and our consequent awakening to the absolute unitive principle (1) in its autonomy and purity—that open our theology consciousness to this wider view.”
The Future of Wisdom: Towards a Rebirth of Sapiential Christianity, by Bruno Barnhart, Pg. 54, 55, 126, 127
AN INTEGRAL PLURALIST CHRISTIAN MANDALA
| The Divine Energy of PERFECT TRUTH Ethereal Rational (NT) Abstract Utilitarian The Integrative Mind The Path of Intellective Unity | I. GOD Transpersonal, Personal “Absolute Unitive Principle” Inwardness, Self-Possession, “The Interior Contemplative East” Historically Expressed in the Eastern Perennial Non-Dualist Traditions | The Divine Energy of PERFECT LOVE Oceanic Idealist (NF) Abstract Cooperative The Compassionate Heart The Path of Relational Harmony |
| II. WORD Wisdom, Son “Disengaged Reason” “The Rational Principled North” Historically Recapitulated and Reformulated in the Secular Modern Rationalist, Empirical, Analytical and Linguistic Movements | (Transcendent, Immanent, Relational) TRINITY | THE MYSTERY OF THE CHRIST-EVENT | CREATION (Unity, Plurality, Relation) | III. SPIRIT Creativity, Passion “Unitive Expressiveness” “The Romantic Passionate South” Historically Recapitulated and Reformulated in the Secular Modern Romantic, Transcendentalist, Existential and Pragmatic Movements |
| The Divine Energy of PERFECT GOODNESS Territorial Guardian (STj) Concrete Cooperative The Ethical Will The Path of Good Works | IV. COSMOS History, Action “Political-Social Freedom” “The Exterior Activistic West” ~ Historically Recapitulated and Reformulated in Secular Modern Liberal and Post-Modern Liberationist Social and Political movements | The Divine Energy of PERFECT BEAUTY Volcanic Artisan (SFp) Concrete Utilitarian The Enchanted Soul The Path of Aesthetic Creativity |
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1 comment:
The Mandala shows us certain purely formal aspects of the divine process. As such it relation to the divine can not be properly called symbolic since it does not create give us its contents. It does not mediate. Its mystery consists in its manifestation but not as a manifestation
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