NATURE OF THE WORLD
WHY MATERIALISM AND IDEALISM DO NOT FIT CHRISTIAN DUALISM
Metaphysics: Nature of the World
Why Materialism and Idealism Do Not Fit Christian Dualism
Materialism and idealism from a metaphysical point of view remain outside the belief of Christian dualism because of the lack of spiritual context of these two perspectives of the nature of the world. History reveals without a social expression of the understanding of Divine Law civilizations held little stability. Of all the civilizations embracing the ideal of Divine Law including Vedic India, Sumer, and Egypt, it is Christianity who "more than any other civilization seemed capable of realizing the ideal which Plato had adumbrated in The Laws."
Again, history under Christianity placed the fundamentality of the soul along with government, and the order of the temporal fixed upon spiritual ends with the understanding of humanity, thus explained, "in the words of St. Thomas, a great community or republic under the rule of God were formerly accepted as the unquestioned principles of the European social order."
Things changed, however, and a new philosophy emerged from these foundations of Christian ideology embracing liberal humanitarianism offering a pragmatic option to the religious faith of the modern Western civilization foundation on Christianity. This reformation came from the scrutiny of the influence of power Christianity held over State and people politically. "Not only was Christendom divided, but its energies were so absorbed in religious controversy that it was powerless to check the progressive secularization of culture."
Consequently, "the idealism of the great Liberal thinkers ended in the materialism of the acquisitive capitalist society against which the conscience of the modern world is in revolt. The following academic discourse first discusses the precepts of the metaphysical nature of the world based upon materialism and idealism then counters why Christianity's precept of dualism does not align to the other two. The fact remains researching this academic investigation reveals a plethora of aspects of the three points of view. The task proved complex getting to the heart of the reasons for the disparity of the materialism and idealism not fitting the Christian dualism that on its own turned out to have its own set of rationales for the meaning of dualism.
Metaphysical Materialism
Materialism exists in the physical world as a part of the natural world. From an empiricist point of view, in the natural world the one underpinning holding all things including materialism is one structure solely consisting of "a single all-embracing spatio-temporal system." The link between materialism and naturalism comes from a historical perception by some philosophers. Through the empirical process of experimentation and observation evolved the natural sciences according to certain points of philosophical views.
Precepts of materialism do not "affirm immortality of the soul" after death as does the standard belief of the standing theistic religions of the world including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. "Resurrection is in fact the standard view of the afterlife in all of the major theistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam."
The philosophy of materialism achieved an ethical form of materialism as offered by Lange. Explanations of Lange's view of the material world took a stance "that both a normative principle of ethical egoism and a principle of sympathy for humanity can both be “derived” [abgeleitet] from theoretical materialism (Lange 1873–75, 3:260, 303). Ultimately, Lange's position on materialism attributes certain types of human behavior. "His label 'ethical materialism' seems to be a label for the kind of ethical positions that materialists tend to accept as a matter of sociological or psychological fact rather than some particular ethical position required by materialism."
The human holding to materialism then points to this as a desirable behavior – an ethical type of behavior for humans. "Part of the problem is that ethical materialism has a mistaken account of the human good. It claims that “a man is all the happier the more wants he has, if he has at the same time sufficient means for their satisfaction” (Lange 1873–75, 3:239). The main point of materialism no matter who posits definitions or ideals is the concept remains framed in the temporal world without any connection to the spiritual. This alone precludes its inclusion as a part of Christian dualism.
Metaphysical Idealism
Idealism – metaphysical idealism for some may have a more difficult time seeing how this philosophical view explaining the world comes into conflict with Christian dualism. Idealism remains explained as sourced from two origins. "Idea" remains the original term derived from the philosophical discourse of Plato, "who himself took over the term from some of the scientific and philosophical writers of the fifth century B.C."
Hoernlé explains idealism as a philosophy in relation to Christian dualism:
Christian ethos transformed the "motives of Greek idealism" through its own philosophy and scholasticism. In other word, "The metaphors which Plato and Aristotle used to connect the ideal world with the phenomenal world made it possible to transform this idealism into the theism of Christian theology." Since Christian philosophy incorporated for its own reasons Greek idealism, this brings to the forefront the question where does Christian philosophy and Christian Dualism part ways.
St. Thomas explaining Christian scholasticism embracing Greek idealism because as a scholastic Christian St. Thomas represents the forefront of idealism as the doctrine of the transcendental philosophy emerging centuries later. In short, "To say that 'whatever is, in so far as it is, or has being, is at the same time and for that very reason also true, good and beautiful,' is to assert the essence of idealism as we have defined I, namely, the notion of intelligibility which underlies the entire idealistic movement."
Christian Dualism
Explaining Christian Dualism from an anthropological perspective looks at it beyond simple duality. This view constructs how the "true light" exists in Heaven and that earth exists as something akin to a shadow world. This Dualism exists as an absolute state of duality. Christians therefore see reality or the temporal and physical world as a place of lies, unreal, just a temporal existence used by God for His Purpose for the true image of God in humanity – the Soul – to return from where it came – the Source of God when the flesh finally dies.
Christian Religious Dualism
The Christian religious dualism view consigns faith to a limited section of life. Faith remains a private process with no interaction with the comings and goings of daily life. From this perspective, the idea of faith remains one of the vessels containing life in the temporal world. In other words, religious dualism diminishes a Christian's faith demoting it to classical religion. Consequently, a state of unadulterated, non-integrated faith exists. Christians viewing his or her faith as a part of whole of life therefore are Christian Dualists. This establishes the stage for explaining how materialism and idealism further counters acceptance by the Christian Dualist and dualism.
Taking the point of view of the Christian Dualist considering materialistic versions of the holy sanctity of the resurrection therefore looks at the assumptions of the Christian Dualist with the persisting personal identity of the individual soul existing between death and the resurrection. For the materialism view there is no possible manner for bridging the spatio-temporal gap believed existing between the resurrected bodies of the body that dies because no concept exists to explain how a dead person's body can be the same person resurrected.
There exist those humans continually debating and searching to answer the materialist point of view about life after death. It is only the materialist and the idealist who seek determining reconciliation, between death and life after death. Christian dualism has no such process to reconcile the rejection of materialism and idealism. That is the totality of the differences between the three philosophies.
Discussion and Conclusion
As posited in the thesis of this academic investigation, materialism and idealism from a metaphysical point of view remain outside the belief of Christian dualism because of the lack of spiritual context of these two perspectives of the nature of the world. The subsequent findings in this academic exploration remain subjective for making the diversity of points of view of the three philosophies discussed in this paper make sense.
Materialism fits the temporal world, idealism at most fits Christian philosophy for some Christians, and Christian Dualism certainly fits only a portion of people professing Christian belief. The subjective understanding of Christian precepts espouses that when a person dies there is one day a resurrection of the soul (at the very least) and a promise of a new body without pain, without worry, without the continual disharmony of the temporal world. The materialist view says there is no afterlife, and the idealist view at most hopes there is an afterlife. Both these views lack faith that is the framework of Christian Dualism. Therefore, in a pragmatic even methodical process the outcome shows there remains no room to reconcile materialism and idealism with Christian Dualism.
Without seeming cavalier, the underlying question remains to what end what matters whether any of these reconcile with the other. While humanity continues collectively and individually exploring the reason for existence, the identity of the spiritual truth of life, or not, and the methods for discourse within this search, the end results come down to a day of reckoning when each person does part from this world. The faith of Christians (and the other theistic religions) posits the "best" means for answering this ongoing debate.
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