The New Humanity - Part 1

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

Here is Part 1 of " A New Humanity " from Bede Griffith's " A New Vision of

Reality " .

 

Enjoy!

 

violet

 

 

 

The New Humanity - Part 1

 

(P.96) In this chapter we will look in more detail at the biblical vision of the

new humanity. Just as the Bible begins with the creation of heaven and earth and

ends with the new creation, so it begins with Adam and ends with Christ. Christ

is the second Adam, the new Man. The whole Bible is thus placed in the context

of creation. There is the first creation and the new creation, the first Man and

the new Man. The Hebrew word 'adam' which we usually take to be a personal name,

in fact means " man " , mankind in general. In Genesis Adam, meaning mankind, is

seen as the head of creation. The whole creation was prepared and finally God

created Adam, Adam here including both man and woman. The account of creation,

in chapter one of Genesis, says, " in the image of God created he him, male and

female created he them " (Genesis 1:27), so the original Hebrew vision was that

man and woman together are the unit of creation. Then in the second chapter,

which is actually an earlier creation narrative, there is the rather crude

symbolism of the woman being made from the rib taken out of man, and this is

intended to show that the man and the woman are complementary to one another,

that they are " one flesh " . That is the basic biblical vision concerning the

complementarity of man and woman.

 

The earliest creation account signifies that man comes out of the material

creation. " The Lord God " , it is said, " formed man from the dust of the earth and

breathed into his nostrils the breath of life " . (Genesis 2:7) In the preceding

chapters we have seen that the material creation is an evolving process,

progressing from matter to life, and then to consciousness in man. (P.97) The

human being is the point where the dust of the earth, the matter of the

universe, comes into consciousness and in the mythological language of Genesis

that is described as God " breathing into his nostrils the breath of life " . God

created this first man out of the evolving universe and gave him the breath of

the divine. The Hebrew word for breath (ruach) is the same as the word for

spirit. From this we get the understanding of human nature, which is fundamental

in the Bible and very clear in St. Paul, that the human being is body, soul and

spirit, 'soma, psyche and pneuma'. As body (soma) it is part of the whole

physical universe. It evolves out of the physical universe, from the matter and

the life. As soul (psyche), humanity is the head of the universe. It is, in a

sense, matter coming into consciousness and forming an individual soul but then,

like matter itself, that soul is open to the 'pneuma', the Spirit, which is the

point where the spirit of man opens on the Spirit of God. So the human person

is, from the beginning, body and soul, while beyond body and soul it is open to,

and receives its life from, the divine Spirit.

 

In the beginning man and woman lived in an undifferentiated unity. In the Garden

of Eden humanity was in perfect unity with nature around. There was unity

between the man and the woman, unity within the human person, and unity with the

Spirit of God. This was the original structure of humankind and human reality.

Consciousness at this point was undifferentiated. Human beings did not know

themselves as different from nature or as different from God. They were still in

the womb, as it were, undifferentiated unity being precisely what life in the

womb is like, where there is oneness with the mother, with the earth, with

creation and with the Spirit who is present in the midst of creation. So this is

the original condition of humanity.

 

Following creation came the drama of the Fall. (P.98) Ken Wilber and many others

today think of the Fall as an ascent rather than a descent, holding that the

original undifferentiated unity had to be fragmented, man had to become

conscious, and to develop and acquire a separate individuality. This point they

identify as the Fall, but that is certainly not the biblical vision and in my

view it is not the true vision. It is rather that in that original state, body,

soul and spirit were in harmony and as human beings developed consciousness,

they learned to distinguish themselves from other selves, from nature and from

God. As consciousness developed they became conscious of themselves as separate

from the body and separate from the mother. In that state they could open

themselves to the Spirit and allow the Spirit to guide them, but they could

equally separate themselves from the Spirit. They could fall away from the

Spirit and centre on themselves. This falling away from the Spirit into the ego,

the soul, the separated self, and thereby separating from God, is the essence of

original sin. That is told in Genesis in the story of the eating of the fruit of

the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The essence of it was disobedience.

The man did not listen to the Spirit. He did not follow the guidance of the

Spirit, and so he fell away from it into a separated self. Then the whole

tragedy of human existence takes place. Once you have fallen from the Spirit

into yourself, your separated self, you are divided. Humanity is now divided;

man and woman divided from nature, man and woman divided from one another, and

man and woman divided from God. Total disintegration takes place. That is the

Fall of man. It is a very gradual process, not clear at first but escalating in

its implications. The tragedy is that the more human faculties develop, the

greater the split becomes. It is a very little crack to begin with but as human

beings develop consciousness and all their powers, this capacity to separate

increases progressively. (P.99) Today we have probably reached the limit of this

disintegration with the present-day separation of persons from nature and from

God. But also, as this power to disintegrate develops and inner harmony is lost,

so the same power which causes one to separate can also enable one to unite.

Reason and intelligence can open one to the unity of the Spirit. Perhaps today

we are witnessing a new movement of the Spirit, a reintegration of humanity,

which is beginning to take place. It is significant that St. Paul contrasts the

'anthropos psuchikos', the soul-man, with the 'anthropos pneumatikos', the

spiritual man (1 Corinthians 2:14-15). This is the contrast between the man who

is centred on his soul, his ego, and the man who is centred on the Spirit.

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and

Christian Faith)

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0

Pgs. 96-99