So it’s a kind of spiritual construction, the building of a ‘kingdom’ and a ‘body’. I think I can see how this fits with your evolutionary perspective, but the collective subconscious belongs to all people alive as far as I’m aware. If so, you would expect one person having the eucharist is like the whole of mankind taking the eucharist, which is why I quoted from John earlier which suggests the process only affects those who do it?AshvinP wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 12:09 am
The spiritual evolutionary perspective is what allows us to see the reality of transubstantiation and the reality of Christ's victory over death. Both of those are made largely metaphorical by the static historical view in which our lives become about grinding out the days until we die to join Christ in "heaven" or Christ returns for "final judgment" of the world. What does it mean to partake in consuming Christ's flesh and blood, or to partake in his victory over evil and death?
Yes okay I misunderstood the context, will see if I can edit my reply before Cleric replies
PS - the verse which implies reincarnation seems pretty clear to me... how could a man sin before he was born blind otherwise?
It’s interesting you say that. In BK’s idealism, the body is purely the representation of the mind. So wouldn’t you expect a reincarnation of that mind to look the same? Or is the argument somehow that the forgetting of the old life resets all characteristics?Reincarnation is not dualist anymore than regular incarnation of soul-spirit into body is dualist (obviously the 'body' is not referring to material entity independent of mind).
Also my understanding of the gnostic/ platonic idea of reincarnation is definitely something immaterial ‘trapped’ in a body, that is then ‘trapped’ into another body?
I’ve been thinking about this recently, not in terms of reincarnation but just in general. I don’t think the Aquinas metaphysics can be a complete description because it just doesn’t make sense to me in several ways, including out of body and near death experiences. It seems to me that maybe there is a form that comes from the dust (evolution) and a form that comes from ‘the breath’ (spirit), that are both woven together as a unified whole, and the whole is represented as the body. I’m still thinking about this, but it’s the best way I can explain the reality, and the fact it could be symbolised by a double helix makes it quite compelling