The loss of the visionary experience and even the capacity to have such was the result of the rise to cultural dominance of the left brained spirit-killing zeitgeist/paradigm the origins, developments and cultural consequences of which are explained in the book by Iain McGilchrist titled The Master & His Emissary.
And as you point out the consequences of the Protestant Reformation which in turn was further "empowered" by the phenomenon of mass literacy enabled by Gutenberg's movable type printing press. In and of itself reading is primarily an activity involving spirit-killing left brained thinking. Even the very act of such reading reinforces the presumed separation between the reader and the (thus objectified) topic being studied.
The medium very quickly became the message. We now all "live" in left-brained towers of babble/Babel. Or using another metaphor an endlessly boundless flatland - the desert of the "real'.
A very interesting book on this topic was written by Leonard Shlain titled The Alphabet Versus the Goddess The Conflict Between Word & Image http://alphabetvsgoddess.com in which he describes the all-the-way-down-the-line cultural changes caused by the emergence of wide-spread left brained literacy.
All of the conventional acts and states of experience of sinners or the separate and always separative ego-"I" are hellish, tormented, samsaric, unhappy and Godless.
There is no real existence until sin is transcended. All actions and states of knowledge and experience are empty, painful, problematic, and sinful until the presumption of separation from The Living Divine being is utterly transcended.
All beings, both human and non-human require Divine Compassion, Love, and Blessin, the thread of Communion with the Living Divine Presence made certain and true and directly experienced.
There is no truly human life without such conscious God-Communion. or the submission/surrender of the entire conscious and functional being to the Living Divine Reality within which it spontaneously appears, on which it depends completely, even for the next breath. Without that Divine Communion there is no true humanity, no real responsibility and no real freedom. Without such God-Communion the individual is simply a functional entity living an unconscious adventure in the plane of gross functional relations. There is no Sacred or Divine plane to his or her awareness.
A preliminary comment.
The loss of the visionary experience and even the capacity to have such was the result of the rise to cultural dominance of the left brained spirit-killing zeitgeist/paradigm the origins, developments and cultural consequences of which are explained in the book by Iain McGilchrist titled The Master & His Emissary.
And as you point out the consequences of the Protestant Reformation which in turn was further "empowered" by the phenomenon of mass literacy enabled by Gutenberg's movable type printing press. In and of itself reading is primarily an activity involving spirit-killing left brained thinking. Even the very act of such reading reinforces the presumed separation between the reader and the (thus objectified) topic being studied.
The medium very quickly became the message. We now all "live" in left-brained towers of babble/Babel. Or using another metaphor an endlessly boundless flatland - the desert of the "real'.
A very interesting book on this topic was written by Leonard Shlain titled The Alphabet Versus the Goddess The Conflict Between Word & Image http://alphabetvsgoddess.com in which he describes the all-the-way-down-the-line cultural changes caused by the emergence of wide-spread left brained literacy.
This is excellent writing and edifying! I love Duffys book, have you ever looked at Michael Davies book cramners godly order?
Can sinners re-enchant the world? Of course not!
Sin is the presumption of separation from God.
All of the conventional acts and states of experience of sinners or the separate and always separative ego-"I" are hellish, tormented, samsaric, unhappy and Godless.
There is no real existence until sin is transcended. All actions and states of knowledge and experience are empty, painful, problematic, and sinful until the presumption of separation from The Living Divine being is utterly transcended.
All beings, both human and non-human require Divine Compassion, Love, and Blessin, the thread of Communion with the Living Divine Presence made certain and true and directly experienced.
There is no truly human life without such conscious God-Communion. or the submission/surrender of the entire conscious and functional being to the Living Divine Reality within which it spontaneously appears, on which it depends completely, even for the next breath. Without that Divine Communion there is no true humanity, no real responsibility and no real freedom. Without such God-Communion the individual is simply a functional entity living an unconscious adventure in the plane of gross functional relations. There is no Sacred or Divine plane to his or her awareness.