A New Direction

As human beings are free, morally responsible creatures, our greatest need is to become good—both for the sake of life in this world and for the sake of that which is to come. My posts up to this point have dealt with the need we have to be good in light of our eternal future. To be sure, this is important, and can open up a way for us to consider becoming good here and now. But most of us do not live with eternity in mind, and those who do often cannot build the bridge from eternity to our lives today. I will be taking some time to describe what a good person is, and why it is desirable in this life to become good. There will be many particular things to be examined along the way. Seeing what a good person is, and some of the necessary steps to become so, may help some in their own journey toward the Eternal City of God.

The first thing that needs to be explained is the motives of the great classical and biblical writers. These are not obvious anymore, because of our intellectual and religious history. The ancients were concerned with how human life can be happy. Many of them, in fact, were only concerned with how it could be made bearable. To see why this is so one must examine what was going on at that time.

As of 4000 years ago, human beings had become more numerous, and agriculture had been perfected enough to sustain a sizable non-farming population. Cities began to be founded, and to grow. The way human beings related to one another thus became more complex. Political power appeared for the first time, most importantly in the Near East, Egypt, and China. In each of these civilizations, a ruling class emerged, and necessarily did not have to concern themselves with food and clothing alone. Culture became the occupation of many individuals across the globe.

There were wars, famines, natural disasters, and political blunders which caused the ruling classes to consider how the decisions they were making would affect their own happiness, and that of those who were ruled. In each of these civilizations, a public understanding of God was achieved.

The most important successes at this time took place in Greece, Rome, China, and the Near East.