A Brief Alphabet of Christianity and Politics (4)

Dualism – this idea comes from Plato and the philosophical tradition he spawned. Its basic thesis is that reality is bi-level. That is, there is the material, physical, earthy, bodily realm and there is the spiritual, inner, immaterial realm. These reams overlap each other rather than being separate spheres of life. The spiritual is the superior, more valuable, and desirable realm. Human life is the struggle to nurture and experience the spiritual realm against the push and pull of the material realm, to keep us mired in its inertia, blandishments, and entertainments. Death was our final escape from this body and the material realm allowing us (the inner, spiritual, “real” us) to return to the pure spiritual realm which is our true home. This way of thinking has dominated Western thought and practices through the centuries and is still a powerful influence on us. The church absorbed/adopted much of this way of thinking and shaped its thought and practice within its parameters. Politically, this dualism has inclined the church to foster more interest in our inner spiritual life and relation to God (“Jesus in my heart”) and to the other/next world which is a “better” place we all hope to attain. Interest in this world lagged behind and its influences and opportunities were often believed to be inimical to and/or unworthy of Christians, thus to be avoided or carefully controlled. Many Christians grew/grow up thinking the political life of its community is purely concerned with the material realm of life and can be safely neglected by the church/Christian. Thus injustices and oppressions have often been denied, ignored, or even justified by the church on the grounds that those are matters of only earthly concern from which we may be able to learn some spiritual lessons but not worthy of the effort to change or remedy. Even in those churches that formerly ignored or disparaged political involvement and now go at it with a vengeance do so with a basically dualistic mindset. Getting to heaven is the goal and political involvement is now seen as a way to help others believe in Jesus and get to heaven (that “better” place than earth and its mundane and finally inconsequential concerns). Even though no longer politically inactive, the goal of much Christian involvement remains wedded to a dualistic view that privileges “heaven” over earth, seeks inward growth and development, and sees meeting earthly, material needs as instrumental to helping others “escape” this earth and its downward pull on our affections and desires. All this is thinly veiled Platonism infect Christian thought with its dualistic virus. It is anti-creational (and therefore unbiblical) no matter how hard it may fight for a “literal” interpretation of Gen.1-2. This creation and the political efforts to order and care for it are therefore finally and thankfully dispensable in this view.