Reaching God As an Object - Merton Quote
Quote from Thomas Merton, "Seeds" pg. 122-123
Cartesian thought began with an attempt to reach God as an object by starting from the thinking self*. But when God becomes object, he sooner or later "dies," because God as object is ultimately unthinkable. God as object is not only a mere abstract concept, but one which contains so many internal contradictions that it becomes entirely nonnegotiable except when it is hardened into an idol that is maintained in existence by a sheer act of will. For a long time man continued to be capable of willfulness: but now the effort has become exhausting and many Christians have realized it to be futile. Relaxing the effort, they havelet go the "God-object" which their fathers and grandfathers still hoped to manipulate for their own ends. Their weariness has accounted for the element of resentment which made this a conscious "murder" of the deity. Liberated from the strain of willfully maintaining an object-God in existence, the Cartesian consciousness remains none the less imprisoned in itself. Hence the need to break out of itself and to meet "the other" in "encounter," "openness," "fellowship," "communion."
*Named after the French philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-1650), Cartesian thought refers to the line of inquiry that extends the mathematical method into all realms of knowledge in the search for certainty. Beginning with universal doubt, Descartes believed that the only thing that could not be doubted was his own thinking, hence the famous Cartesian maxim "I think, therefore, I am."
Cartesian thought began with an attempt to reach God as an object by starting from the thinking self*. But when God becomes object, he sooner or later "dies," because God as object is ultimately unthinkable. God as object is not only a mere abstract concept, but one which contains so many internal contradictions that it becomes entirely nonnegotiable except when it is hardened into an idol that is maintained in existence by a sheer act of will. For a long time man continued to be capable of willfulness: but now the effort has become exhausting and many Christians have realized it to be futile. Relaxing the effort, they havelet go the "God-object" which their fathers and grandfathers still hoped to manipulate for their own ends. Their weariness has accounted for the element of resentment which made this a conscious "murder" of the deity. Liberated from the strain of willfully maintaining an object-God in existence, the Cartesian consciousness remains none the less imprisoned in itself. Hence the need to break out of itself and to meet "the other" in "encounter," "openness," "fellowship," "communion."
*Named after the French philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-1650), Cartesian thought refers to the line of inquiry that extends the mathematical method into all realms of knowledge in the search for certainty. Beginning with universal doubt, Descartes believed that the only thing that could not be doubted was his own thinking, hence the famous Cartesian maxim "I think, therefore, I am."
posted by Ryan at 3:38 PM
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