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Abstract
Table of Contents
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
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Part V: A Christian World View: The
Framework of History
Chapter 2
Man's Life: Spiritual, Intellectual,
and Physical
ALTHOUGH DETERMINED
efforts are being made to reduce man to the terms of physics
and chemistry, to eliminate all vital forces which could conceivably
exist in their own right outside the physical order, to derive
consciousness from the inanimate forces of Nature and self-consciousness
in turn from consciousness, it appears to me that God by the
very act of creation must have introduced something which was
not derived from the mere substance which it inhabits, otherwise
why speak of creation at all in reference to man? And yet it
seems that this created "soul" is so constructed that
the physical housing which it inhabits is in some way essential
to it. Thus while by the very statement "Let us create man"
one must suppose that some essential part of man is created in
entire independence of his physical body (though this, too, was
created), God saw fit to design a creature who bridged the gap
between the purely spiritual and purely physical orders of being.
It is this which makes man neither animal nor angel but something
of both and having the capacities in part of each.
The uniqueness of man considered
as a total spirit-body entity has become increasingly more apparent
as the determination to reduce him to the status of a mere animal
has gathered momentum. When evolution first became widely popular
in its appeal, there was a tendency to fit man into its scheme
by emphasizing his purely animal characteristics and largely
overlooking his possession of certain other capacities, particularly
his capacity for language and for self-consciousness. The whole
burden of
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research tended to be
absorbed in the study of bone structure, and the search for fossil
remains assumed tremendous importance since it was believed �
and popularly still is believed � that such bones could prove
man's descent from some purely animal ancestor. Culture was considered
to be merely an extension of his strictly animal behaviour. It
was something only quantitatively different from animal habit,
not qualitatively different.
But in the course of time, certain
aspects of hurman culture began to appear in a new light as being
uniquely human and not easily, if at all, derivable from some
counterpart on a lower scale in the animal world. Two related
cultural phenomena were soon freely admitted in this class: the
first was the power of creative activity � the ability to
make things, to make fire, to make tools, and to make purely
artistic objects; and the second was the possession of self-consciousness
and with it the power of speech.
Every effort has been made to find
the counterparts of these things in the animal world, to find
evidence of self-consciousness as opposed to mere consciousness,
evidence of true language in the propositional sense and not
merely in the use of signs, evidence of the creation of weapons
and tools and not merely the incidental use of things that lie
at hand, and evidence of a conscious striving for beauty in design
and not merely instinctive orderliness of construction such as
is to be observed in the honeycomb, for instance.
Not only has the search for animal
origins for these things so far proved fruitless but in some
cases has turned out to be so pointless that, in the case of
language for example, the search has been almost abandoned. (26) Yet it is these very things
which have constituted those elements of human nature that make
man uniquely able to respond to the overtures of God, to enter
into fellowship with Him, to worship Him fittingly, and in some
measure to think His thoughts after Him.
The study of human physiology has
served increasingly to emphasize the fact that man's body constitutes
a temple of a very special design such that the unique characteristics
and capacities of man, as opposed to the animals, can express
themselves. He is equipped with a combination of faculties and
functions which operate harmoniously and subserve one another,
and which in the event of the failure of any one of them tend
to reduce him
26. Langer, Susanne, Philosophy in a New
Key, Mentor Books, New York, 1952, p.88. Her words are: "The
problem is so baffling that it is no longer considered respectable."
pg.2
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not to an animal level
but to something far worse. His possession of a central nervous
systern with capacities and complexities far greater by many
orders of magnitude than that to be observed in the most intelligent
animals constitutes only one of these. He is equipped with binocular
vision combined with manual dexterity and truly opposable thumbs,
and with tactile sensitivity that allows his hands to serve as
an extension of his mind in a way quite unobserved in any other
creature. He has tvo hands and two feet appropriate to an erect
posture which makes his body capable of manoeuvers that are unique.
All other creatures have either four hands or four feet; and
although this might not appear of very great importance it is
actually profoundly so. Man's central nervous system is of such
a nature that the destruction of some parts of it does not merely
reduce him somewhat so that his behaviour approaches more nearly
that of other creatures, but rather tends to destroy him entirely
-- to disorganize his whole being. Animals will recover from
brain operations in which whole sections are rendered inoperative
and can in time recover a large number of their former animal
capacities, evidently by some process of substitute control in
some other part of the brain. Man's brain is so complex that
the possibilities of this kind of substitution are virtually
absent.
Many purely anatomical features of the
human body differ in critical ways from the corresponding structures
in other animals. These structures are presumed related in such
a way that, superficially, the difference is slight and inconsequential,
but in fact the differences are often critical (e.g., in structure
of the feet) and essential for the proper functioning of the
whole man viewed as a culture bearing creature. (7)
In the development of human organs
there are also important differences. The rate of maturing of
the animal brain is so fast, relatively, that the animal's period
of plasticity is enorrnonsly reduced when compared with the long
span of maturing and adolescence in man. In most animals plasticity
remains for only
7. The differences betvveen man and other animals, physiologically
speaking, are far greater than is popularly supposed. Standard textbooks
of comparative anatomy tend to obscure the fact by emphasizing the homologues,
sincc current theories of animal ancestry render these of more immediate
interest. But actually the differences are so numerous and so important
that a separate Doorway Paper, "Is Man An Animal?'' (Part
V in Evolution or Creation? vol. 4 of The Doorway Papers
Series) examines the matter, with quotations and graphs and charts
and tables from a very large number of authoritative sources -- as a corrective
against current popular assumptions.
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a few months or perhaps
a year. In man it is normally 15 to 20 years, and by proper cultivation
it may last up to 50 years. Thus it is always possible for a
human being to relearn and therefore to change in nature. In
animals this is never true. In human beings the period of fertility,
especially in the female, is limited in such a way that children
are not likely to be born before they can be cared for in the
first few critical years nor after the mother has reached such
an age that she can no longer care for them to maturity. Most
animals are on their own within a few montlls and consequently
the female may continue to be fertile until within a few months
of the terminus of her normal life span. But this extremely long
and slow process of coming to maturity in man is largely responsible
for allowing him to develop with the unique capacities that he
enjoys, and it ultimately relates to his ability to respond to
the overtures of God. As men and women grow older and begin to
approach the stage of mental set which the animals reach in so
much shorter a time, they begin to find it more and more diflicult
to respond to God unless they already have entered into true
fellowship with Him. This in itself is evidence that the slow
maturing process in humankind is a gracious provision by God,
making more possible the end for which rnan was created in the
beginning.
The possession of self-consciousness
which very early enables a growing child to see himself in relation
to those of his own family and to the community at large provides
him with the experimental base upon which to perceive his possible
relationship to God as His child, and to other Christians in
the fellowship of a brotherhood. Although animals clearly recognize
their own kind and distinguish them from those creatures which
are of another species, and although for a season there is a
sense of "family" when the young are being raised,
it is fairly clear that family relationships in this sense are
not merely allowed to lapse when the young can shift for themselves,
but are actually destroyed, the young being thereafter treated
as competitors and intruders. (25) The bonds of blood relationship (that is to say,
all family bonds except those of mating) are loosely held within
a
few months and then rejected entirely. If it should be argued
that this cannot be applied to man because he is helpless for
so long a period, the answer is surely that this helplessness
is part
25. This aspect of animal behaviour has becn
studied and written about in a quite fascinating and most informative
way by Konrad Lorenz in a most readable work entitled On Aggression,
Bantam Books, New York, 1967, 306 pp.
pg.4
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of the economy of God
whereby He has established family bonds for man in an entirely
new way.
Thus one can see that the uniqueness
of human nature, of human capacity, and of human relationships
is in each case not a uniqueness of a purely spiritual kind that
might have originated by some entirely cultural process, but
is dependent upon the kind of anatomy and physiology that human
beings have. Man is a unique body-spirit entity, and the uniqueness
of his body is understandable in terms of the uniqueness of his
spirit, and the uniqueness of his spirit in the terms of the
uniqueness of his relationship among other created beings to
God. And that this physiological uniqueness stems from spiritual
integrity is surely borne out by the fact that when the spirit
has been degraded, the body no longer serves as a beautifully
organized instrument for survival � as is everywhere to be
seen otherwise in nature � but as a faulty, inefficient,
diseased agent of destructiveness. Clearly it was intended to
serve the higher purpose.
It must always be borne in mind
that if man was to be created with a potential for saintliness
when surrendered to the Spirit of God, this same potential must
exist for devilishness when surrendered to Satan. There is none
of the uniformity of animal behaviour about man. He has capacities
for extremes which in healthy animals are quite unknown. This
was an inevitable consequence for a creature capable of loving
God, as we know man can do. He is capable of passionate devotion,
but not always to the good. His powers of dedication are tremendous,
and therefore all the more disastrous if wrongly directed. Thus
the course of history is full of surprises, of deeds of extraordinary
nobility and deeds of appalling savagery. (29) And those who have shown themselves capable of such
things often did not seem distinguishable in prospect, but only
afterwards.
Man's nature tends either up or
down, depending upon the grace of God. And hence, as a precaution,
God has so constituted him that he is able to create from within
himself, even in his fallen estate, certain correctives which
provide a measure of restraint to the ravaging tendencies of
his fallen nature. These correctives may be examined under two
headings: Civilization
29. The potential of man for good and for evil has been
set forth in "The Fall Was Down" (Part
I in Man in Adam and in Christ, vol. 3 of The Doorway Papers
Series), where it is shown that in every man there is the capability
of appalling wickedness that only accidents of birthplace and social environment
prevent from being realized. The importance of culture as a restrainer
of human wickedness is here examined.
pg.5
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and Culture. It is important
to establish meanings for these terms that will allow some precision
in the discussion of them. For the sake of clarity in the present
context, we define "civilization" as the mechanics
of a culture which allow a society to eat, live, multiply,
and have dominion over the immediate environment; and we define
"culture" as the "spirit" of a civilization,
its value system and its "artistic" refinement and
elaboration � using art in the widest sense as embellishment
beyond mere utilitarianism. In a manner of speaking, civilization
is the "body" and culture the "spirit," and
both are required to make life meaningful and worthwhile. They
do not necessarily coincide. A very wealthy and affluent society
can become ''uncultured'' for all its high civilization,
and a primitive people whose civilization is at a bare subsistence
level can nevertheless be highly cultured in their social behavioir
patterns and "genteel" in their own way. Ideally, the
two should go together, each interacting with the other for good.
A man should have a sufficient margin of survival that he can
appreciate the song of a bird or a tree blown in the wind, but
some societies have been reduced to such a low level by the struggle
to keep body and soul together that they have not survived at
all. Yet the reverse can happen, too. There have been societies
which enjoyed almost total immunity from the struggle to survive
because of the lushness and temperateness of their environment.
Yet they were in a state of chronic warfare so disruptive of
settled and peaceful existence that the arts were in danger of
almost total disappearance.
As Christians we have often tended
to equate culture with "worldliness." This is a mistake.
Culture is what curbs the less pleasant aspects of human nature
� including bad manners, for instance. By culture, base impulses
and motives, if not "virtuously" suppressed, are at
least hypocritically concealed. In day-to-day social relations
such suppression, and even such concealment, is desirable. If
we have disrespect for someone, it is not necessarily a good
thing to make our disrespect obvious merely on the grounds that
this is being more honest. Completely frank people are not so
much to be praised for their fearless honesty as they are to
be pitied for their lack of self-control. Ideally, civilization
provides man with the means to cultivate what remains of the
finer and more creative side of his life by relieving him of
the consuming problem of getting food and shelter. But culture
is what directs the energies thus set free into useful, helpful,
and constructive channels. It does not so much produce
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good as it does open the way for good to be done by suppressing
or discouraging the evil propensities in human nature. In the
absence of culture, man may be simply a barbarian, and a barbarian
society does not permit the free development and expression of
man's potential in body, mind, and spirit. It reduces him to
an animal level where mere survival is paramount.
Man does indeed need to survive;
he does have a body that demands preservation and care, but he
also has a spirit that refuses to have its aspirations and its
fears ignored. He has, besides a body and a spirit, a mind. He
lives in three realms at once; in the physical world to which
he must to some extent conform if he is to survive, in a realm
that is spiritual where he also seeks to come to terms with "spirit
forces" and "powers" rather than physical things,
and in a world of thought. His spiritual life, his mental life,
and his corporeal existence may each be treated separately. The
religious man may feel keenly about spiritual things and live
in hope or fear of the hereafter with or without a sense of worthiness,
and yet do very little thinking in the sense that a philosopher
thinks about things dispassionately. The life of the spirit and
of the mind are not to be confused. Philosophers may be profound
in their thinking, yet profoundly unreligious or unconcerned
about spiritual matters, just as spiritual people may be quite
unresponsive to philosophical ideas. (30) Faith and reason are often diametrically opposed.
One may have either � or neither; for there are men whose
whole life is animal in its orientation, caring neither for the
musings of the philosopher nor the aspirations of the saint.
But there is no question that the
whole man is at his best
30. While it is important to distinguish between the
mental life and the spiritual life of man, there is a further division
which has not been made in the present paper in order to avoid complicating
the subject matter more. Whenever we are dealing with the "spiritual"
history of mankind, it is well to recognize that there is a difference
between a man's spiritual life (as the Christian understands it)
and his religious life. From the scriptural point of view every
man has something of a religious life but a spiritual life does not appear
until a man is born again. This distinction is quite fundamental and when
properly recognized provides an insight into some remarkable passages
of Scripture which have to do with the symbolism rigorously adhered to
in both the Old and the New 'I'estaments, in connection with Israel's
history. A Doorway Paper "Three Trees: And Israel's History"
(Part II in Time
and Eternity and Other Biblical Studies, vol.6 of The Doorway
Papers Series), shows how remarkably consistent the Bible has been
throughout in treating of Israel's national, religious and spiritual history
under the symbolism of the vine, the fig tree, and the olive, respectively.
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when each area of his
life � his bodily needs, his mental capacity, and his spiritual
awareness �are allowed to balance one another and grow together
to maturity. And what I wish to show is that in a remarkable
way God has taken care to see that these three facets of man's
needs, as man, are each properly nourished and preserved so that
the effects of the Fall may be always held in check and man never
allowed to completely destroy himself while God has yet some
purpose to work out with respect to him and while history thus
pursues its course.
Man has a spiritual, a physical,
and an intellectual life, each of which interacts with the other,
yet each of which may usefully be considered as a separate entity.
Scripture has provided us with an insight into the manner in
which God has divided the responsibility for each of these three
aspects of human potential, allocating to the three sons of Noah
� Shem, Ham and Japheth � the responsibility for man's
spiritual welfare, physical well-being, and intellectual development,
respectively. And the manner in which each has fulfilled his
task and has contributed to the whole provides the framework
of history, which forms an essential part of this Paper.
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Copyright © 1988 Evelyn White. All rights
reserved
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