The New Age - Part 2

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

We concluded Part 1 with the following:

 

(p.278) " In the second part of this century we have begun to discover what has

been taking place and in what we are involved, and a new movement has begun

which is the opposite of all this. We are beginning now to be able to replace

the mechanistic system and mechanistic model of the universe with an organic

model. This is the beginning of a return to the traditional wisdom, the wisdom

by which human beings have lived over thousands and thousands of years and with

which the great societies of the past have been built up. In this ancient

traditional wisdom the order of the universe is seen always to be three-fold,

consisting not only of a physical dimension but also of a psychological and a

spiritual world. The three worlds were always seen as interrelated and

interdependent. This understanding of the three orders of being and of their

interdependence is what is known as the perennial philosophy. "

 

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

Chapter 13, p.278

 

Here now, is part 2.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

 

The New Age - Part 2

 

(p.278) Materialism is correct in so far as it recognises the material basis of

reality, and science has explored this basis further than has ever been done

before. (p.279) This is a positive achievement. The rational, logical mind has

been used in the analysis of matter, and this has led to the organisation of

matter to such an extent that it is hoped that by this means all human needs can

be satisfied. This is why many people think that this age is in advance of any

previous age. But it is only in this respect that the present age is in advance

of others. In all other respects it is to be judged as being far below. A little

exaggeratedly perhaps. Coomaraswami once made the remark, " From the stone age to

the twentieth century, what a descent! " There is something in this. The

perennial philosophy was present in the stone age and human beings lived by

that. In this view, as has been said, there was the order of nature, the

physical world, then the psychological, social world and, highest of all, the

divine spiritual world, and all three were seen as interdependent and

integrated. If we want to see the decline of the modern world we cannot do

better than to compare stages in the development of art.

 

Looking back on the history of art from the stone age onwards, you see how the

ancient wisdom was embodied in every form of art. In the early stages art in

whatever form was the expression of the religious instinct, the sense of the

sacred. Everything in nature was held to be sacred, because it was pervaded by

the universal Spirit. Art, whether in the form of stone implements, or burial

places, or roughly carved figures, or paintings as in the palaeolithic caves, or

pottery or clothing, was a way of expressing the sense of the sacred, of

enacting the sacred mystery which pervaded human life. When the great

civilisations arose in Egypt and Babylon, the temple became the centre of

civilised life and all the arts were used to adorn the temple and to provide for

human needs. Agriculture and pottery and weaving were no less sacred than the

service of the temple. All alike were ways of expressing and manifesting the

all-pervading mystery.

 

(p.280) When the great awakening took place in the first millennium to the

transcendence of the mystery with the Upanishads, the Buddha, the Hebrew

prophets, art was less conspicuous. The Israelites were forbidden to make any

image of their God and the early Buddhists made no image of the Buddha. The

Hindu temple also had not yet come into being. But as these religions became

established and as Christianity with its doctrine of incarnation emerged from

Judaism, there was a flowering of art in every form over all the ancient world,

in China, India, Persia, Greece and Rome. In Greece Athens was leading the way

already in the fifth century before Christ and Greek influence seems to have

been responsible for the development of Buddhist sculpture. Gradually throughout

all these regions a marvellous synthesis of art and poetry and philosophy was

achieved, which gave rise to Hindu sculpture and architecture, Buddhist painting

and sculpture, the Chinese art of every kind and the cathedrals of Europe with

their sculpture and stained glass and the painting of the icons in eastern

orthodoxy. Everywhere art expressed the mystery of religion, the sacred mystery

revealed in the Scriptures and embodied in every form of art and poetry, music

and dancing, and even the simple articles of daily use. Even Islam, which had

rejected all images, developed a style of architecture of the utmost refinement.

 

It was this period then, between AD 500 and 1500, that saw the great flowering

of art and culture which took place all over the civilised world. After that the

hold of the perennial philosophy with its holistic vision began to loosen.

Individual geniuses arose but the sense of a cosmic vision and a cosmic whole

was gradually lost and art and culture became more and more fragmented. Today we

inherit this fragmented universe and we are as far as possible from the sacred

universe of earlier times. (p.281) The present system of industrialisation which

emerged in the nineteenth century marked the death knell of traditional art.

Yet, as we have seen, a renewal is taking place. As the cosmic vision of the new

science and philosophy takes over we may hope that there will be a renewal of

art, not merely in the sense of the fine arts, but in all the humble daily

expressions of a sense of beauty, which is also a sense of the sacred in human

life. We may therefore look forward to a new birth, another renaissance of art

and culture in the New Age.

 

Many people today anticipate a great advance in humanity and I think that is

perfectly right, as we shall see. In many respects we can look forward to a

great advance but I think we also have to look back. We have to recognise that

the summit was achieved in those centuries before Christ, and that with the

coming of Christ the final fulfilment of this experience of ultimate Reality was

reached. In other respects great developments took place and they can also take

place again in the future. So there we have the perennial philosophy, with the

physical base, the psychological development and the spiritual order

transcending all and integrating all. We need to remember that it is the

spiritual that integrates the whole reality.

 

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

Christian Faith) Chapter 13, p.278-281

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0