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SINCERE IGNORANCE & CONSCIENTIOUS STUPIDITY We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.

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Friday, October 10, 2008 

Current mood:  rejuvenated
Category: Religion and Philosophy
For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.


Paul clearly felt free to view this part of the creation story as one which served to illustrate a spiritual truth. He uses the description of God's creation of light to interpret an event which is similar in type.  But how can it be the same thing for God to say "Let light shine out of darkness" and for us to have the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ? Such things are markedly different on the surface: One involves space and matter and creation, and the other involves the internal perceptions of the soul - an entirely immaterial entity. Surely they are different in kind? The typological interpretation can make sense, however, if God's agency is the thing to which Paul wished to draw attention. Light shines out of darkness, when God causes it to. God causes our hearts to experience the light of knowledge by which we may gain understanding. This is no small thought. Paul understands the fact of there being light in the universe as a symbol of the way God switches on the lights in human hearts.

This view of the universe is Christ-centred. The fact that we use light to see by is a by-product of its assistance in the metaphor of soul-illumination. If someone were to object that this is too narrow, that perhaps light is itself too majestic, too impressive to be consigned to such an understanding - that it somehow has been relegated from the position it deserves, to a bit-part in this view of reality, then it is possible that they have missed the crucial point: Christ exhibits the glory of God. Light is just something God uses to keep us from being killed by seeing Him.

The other way in which the metaphorical understanding makes sense is in the characteristics of light. Paul does not liken the spiritual experience, for example, to heat: the warm fuzzy feeling of knowing God's glory is not a comparison he makes. What is it about light that makes the typological interpretation work? Surely light's suddenness has something to do with it! And the difference that exists suddenly between light and dark - contrast - this matters too. Vibrancy is also important. How knowledge and light associate is manifestly vital - people who only have experience of the dark do not know it until there is light: dark hides, light reveals. A person cannot compare one sensory experience with another. A blind person might ask about the difference between colours in terms of different tastes or smells, but the language of one sense is not transferable in nuance to the experience of another.

However, in this metaphor - of light and glory - we have an accurate and unaccountable superlative: Christ, who is a man, with a real man's face, is the revealed glory of God. This is the true translation. Just as the light shone in darkness, the light shone in darkness. Just as God was there, and darkly the void did not know it, so was Jesus there, and darkly we did not know it.  The trouble with getting to grips with spiritual reality is that it is often more real than we are.
Currently reading:
The Book of Genesis (New International Commentary on the Old Testament Series) 18-50
By Victor P. Hamilton
04:38
 
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Last Updated: 6/9/2009

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Gender: Male
Status: Married
Age: 32
City: Glasgow
Country: UK