A Picture of the World

“A nation without a metaphysics is like a temple with no holy of holies.” –Georg Wilhelm Hegel

Each idea system that effectively rules over mankind has a particular picture of ultimate reality associated with it. The idea system under which we currently live in America (Secularism) presents the universe as being only made of matter, and matter as being intrinsically dead. It also sees Man as ultimate upon the earth and perhaps in the whole universe. It carries heavy overtones of physical determinism.

There are other variations of this. Russian Communism also presented matter as most fundamental (and, incidentally, they considered it to be living): the forces of production, history, and government being the ultimate determining factors of what occurs on the earth.

The idea system of the Far East, at least before Western influence, presented ultimate reality as indeterminate or “beyond” personality, and also fundamentally non-physical. This is an image that is gaining in America through popular culture. It appeared earlier in Western civilization in the writings of Plotinus, Spinoza, and some of the 19^th century philosophers.

The Deist metaphysics of early American political philosophy envisioned the world— physical, nonphysical, and human— as governed by law and by a God who is beautiful and good. Some claimed that God did work in the world, and others saw Him as simply the Creator. In many ways this was the belief system of some of the ancient Greek philosophers; and of course the philosophers strongly influenced the Deists.

There is also the Jewish image of ultimate reality. This is that of a good and wise God who has created all things and who rules human events, especially through His Law and covenant people.

The pagans of the ancient world believed in finite deities that were essentially connected to political structures. The Nazi and Communist metaphysics were very similar to this in their belief of human government as ultimate. Of course many if not most forms of paganism dissolve into worship of their leaders: whether Roman or Communist.

Islam also has an image of the world. This was very well developed around the 11th century, and it has some things in common with Jewish and Christian pictures: especially its monotheism. One of the strengths of Islam’s picture is the emphasis on the human need, both individually and corporately, to submit to the will of God. In practice this has been easily perverted, however, because of a lack of emphasis on human freedom and responsibility.

But the Christian or Medieval picture is rather distinct from all of these, although it shares with some of them a point or two. And, I think, it is the only fully accurate image of reality and the healthiest of the pictures. I would like to briefly describe it.

Christianity presents the universe as a system filled with life, and permeated by a triune God. It sees matter as both active and subordinate to spiritual beings, and sees the entire universe governed by Persons, finite and infinite. In describing spiritual beings it presents them as intelligent, free, and capable of good and evil. At the center of the image is Christ: God, man, and infinitely good.

C.S. Lewis called this “the discarded image.” It is the view that was repudiated in the centers of Western culture in the 19^th century, and fully replaced by the twentieth. Although there is much to be said in explaining this image, at its center of it are the descriptions of God, angels, and Man, animals, plants, “nonliving” matter, and good and evil. I have touched briefly on angels, man, and Christ, although I have not fully delineated the nature of human and angelic freedom, or of good and evil. Of the elements of the picture that are left, the most important (and most fundamental) is the nature of the Trinity.