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.
Thanks for your comment, Jonathan. It reminded me of the ideas of David Abram, particularly in his book The Spell of the Sensuous. It's always sobering to contemplate what we have lost as we have gained so much more 'knowledge.' CS Lewis called the Scientific Revolution a time of new learning - and a time of new ignorance.
Rather than lose hope, I'm heartened by the thinking of Owen Barfield and his ideas on the axial shifts our consciousness as humans go through collectively. As Vernon explores in the book I cited, we exited the Garden, which was our lost of 'original participation,' and went into a period of withdrawal as we gleaned knowledge of ourselves as distinct individuals, rather than members of a tribe. This allowed us to conceive of a monotheistic ominpotent deity, rather than localized anthropomorophic deities isolated to landscapes or animals, etc. Then, Christ introduced us to the pinnacle of reciprocal participation, where we have knowledge of ourselves as individuals and the knoweldge of God as an individual, and we can tesselate between the two in a profound way - the Kingdom of God is within... With the Reformation, another period of 'withdrawal' was initiated, but it is giving us a deeper understanding of ourselves as individuals and we've learned even more about our place in the world, so that eventually, when we come to another period of reciprocal participation the experience will be that much richer...
Thank you again for your comment, I really appreciate it.
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.
Thanks for your comment, Jonathan. It reminded me of the ideas of David Abram, particularly in his book The Spell of the Sensuous. It's always sobering to contemplate what we have lost as we have gained so much more 'knowledge.' CS Lewis called the Scientific Revolution a time of new learning - and a time of new ignorance.
Rather than lose hope, I'm heartened by the thinking of Owen Barfield and his ideas on the axial shifts our consciousness as humans go through collectively. As Vernon explores in the book I cited, we exited the Garden, which was our lost of 'original participation,' and went into a period of withdrawal as we gleaned knowledge of ourselves as distinct individuals, rather than members of a tribe. This allowed us to conceive of a monotheistic ominpotent deity, rather than localized anthropomorophic deities isolated to landscapes or animals, etc. Then, Christ introduced us to the pinnacle of reciprocal participation, where we have knowledge of ourselves as individuals and the knoweldge of God as an individual, and we can tesselate between the two in a profound way - the Kingdom of God is within... With the Reformation, another period of 'withdrawal' was initiated, but it is giving us a deeper understanding of ourselves as individuals and we've learned even more about our place in the world, so that eventually, when we come to another period of reciprocal participation the experience will be that much richer...
Thank you again for your comment, I really appreciate it.
This is excellent writing and edifying! I love Duffys book, have you ever looked at Michael Davies book cramners godly order?
I haven't, should I put it on my list? Sounds intriguing!
It's good. The first of a trilogy, a historical argument based on his analysis of the english reformation against v2 and the novus ordo missae.
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.