To Reach the Invisible God Through Our Own Visible Means

Sistine Chapel

There is a fascinating dialogue going on at The Orthosphere, Becoming a reactionary is only the beginning of thought, where the writer Bonald quotes from Chesterton's What we think about:

“What can [the thinking Catholic] be thinking about, if he is not thinking about the Mistakes of Moses, as discovered by Mr. Miggles of Pudsey, or boldly defying all the terrors of the Inquisition which existed two hundred years ago in Spain?”

He continues to say, quoting from his own post:

Some time ago, I wrote that rejecting the Enlightenment is only the beginning of thought.

One way that the Enlightenment controls the minds of billions, locking them into a degrading and absurd mental slavery, is by making people imagine they know what’s on the other side. “Without the social contract…tyranny! Without separation of Church and state…religious warfare! Without feminism…rape! Without capitalism…communism! Without cosmopolitanism…Nazis! So love your chains, and repeat the slogans like a good boy.” You know how it goes.

[T]hose blinded by the Enlightenment have no idea what is on the other side. How could they, with such a narrow, unimaginative, and parochial worldview? In fact, the world of alternatives is vast, so vast that anyone beginning to step outside Enlightenment strictures should be warned that the greatest intellectual challenge is still ahead…

His point, I believe is to stop thinking in (impossible) negatives and to think in positives. Why not? Why not be cheery and optimistic? Why not believe that the world can be a better place and in fact is a good place!

Of course this requires two things - in my humble (and clearly unenlightened) opinion:

1. This is God's world. To destroy and discard it is sacrilegious. As we stand by God, he will guide us and show us the good way.

2. We need more than just the ephemera of ideas. The world of ideas should become something concrete. We are beings of flesh and blood and therefore so should be the world we create - emitted and ejected from our "thoughts."

From that we should discern that we are social beings. And the most sincere and sturdy manifestation of our "socialness" is through geography, with concrete land. Our countries!

And where else can we build that goodness so that it lasts, so that it is of Godly use for this (our) and future generations?

For example: we need to worship God not (only) through ephemeral thoughts but through clear actions. Our imaginations become something tangible.

We build churches for this reason, where the sights (the stained glass windows) the smells (the incense) and the sounds (the lovely choral and organ music) allow that we may concretely perceive God; that we are sure he is there, next to us, using all our senses to convince us of His presence.

But a French church is different from an English church as of course manifested even by the words used to praise God. As is an Ethiopian church from a Mexican one.

To reach the invisible God, we must search for Him through our own visible means: our own language, our own musical compositions, our own artistic creations.

By glorifying God thus, we also glorify our selves, our lands, our attachments, our solid bases.

Imagination is a necessary start (as all artists will tell you). We NEED to imagine God. But left on its own, imagination becomes like a beautiful flicker on a cinematographic screen. As we reach out to it, we can never attain it, and are left frustrated and bewildered. And bitter at this god who we feel with all our hurt, and heart, has abandoned us.

But we just got the strategy wrong. We listened to the wrong "experts."

Bonald writes:

It is no doubt a great thing to free oneself from the cloud of humbug into which we are all born. However, clearing one’s vision is only the start of seeing; next we must actually look around. One way that the Enlightenment controls the minds of billions, locking them into a degrading and absurd mental slavery, is by making people imagine they know what’s on the other side. “Without the social contract…tyranny! Without separation of Church and state…religious warfare! Without feminism…rape! Without capitalism…communism! Without cosmopolitanism…Nazis! So love your chains, and repeat the slogans like a good boy.” You know how it goes. You heard it, and you remember how it kept you bound for a long time after you realized that you didn’t particularly like what they were pushing…It is not true that conservatism or reaction needs to postulate any kind of ideal time in the past, but the Enlightened must commit themselves to the belief that the past was an utter horror.

And continues:

However, those blinded by the Enlightenment have no idea what is on the other side. How could they, with such a narrow, unimaginative, and parochial worldview? In fact, the world of alternatives is vast, so vast that anyone beginning to step outside Enlightenment strictures should be warned that the greatest intellectual challenge is still ahead…