Developing the ‘Christian Metaphysic:’ (Weber) The Rational Metaphysic to the Religious Ethic
Max Weber wrote “In every congregation there must develop a rational metaphysic and a religious ethic” so Mysticism, Metaphysic and Art is all there to bring Glory to God; not being separate from Him.
Developing the ‘Christian Metaphysic:’ (Weber) The Rational Metaphysic to the Religious Ethic
Max Weber wrote “In every congregation there must develop a rational metaphysic and a religious ethic.”
I believe it is the Preacher’s job to instill at least the ‘religious ethic’ and at best both parts in His flock. Though often only the ethic will come through on any given sermon. That is why it is up to the congregation and We as ‘Theological-Metaphysicians’ to mentalize and represent imagistically the very ‘rational metaphysic’ of which Weber speaks. By virtue of the fact that You read My Substack and also the CTMU and Chris Langan’s Metaphysic and metaphysical language; I believe that You are the Ones in and out of Your congregations (or the Body of Believers overall) Who may develop the metaphysic incumbent on a Good Church or Body of Believers.
The best preachers can deliver the metaphysic, and yet sermons naturally gravitate towards moralizing—nothing wrong as such except a metaphysic can instill the ethic far more reliably and powerfully in repetition of repeating key phrases and mental images in the mind. Tripping in this way over the extent of Christ as Lord and Saviour.
Good artwork [look how much the bible was taken up by imagery and scenes of glory] can Go a long way towards instantiating a metaphysic in the Mind as can key phrases. The One Word that keeps tripping in My Mind the Full weight of Christianity is simply to say “Christ Metaphysic” over and over again in My head.
Where ‘Christ Metaphysic’ in earnest collects all of the Christ’s Teaching, the Sermon on the Mount, Christ’s Ministry, the Transfiguration, the Prophecy Fulfilled, and the Passion and Resurrection and Defeat of Death, and the Coming Down of the Holy Spirit and the Logos Creating the World—All of this is collected and concentrated in My Head when I repeat the words “Christ Metaphysic” in My head, tripping over the metaphysical concepts as such. And it is not simply words tripping in My head, each part of the ‘Christ Metaphysic’ is embedded in an image, scene, movement or emotion at heart.
Now it is usually held that as lay Christian Metaphysicians or ‘Intellectuals’ or Paladins/Readers of the CTMU We are heavy on a helping of brain but not of heart. That is, Your fellow church goers will say You over-intellectualize Christianity and Do not register the Full Weight of the Ethical Message or worse Yet Do not show enough reverence for God. Some go so far as to question You as a mild blasphemer…
I must Verily Disagree. It is the fact that the church never went full enough on the ‘Christ Metaphysic’ for which it lost the Western Mind. The scholastics understood the importance of wedding philosophy to religious devotion in systematic style such that there was made a sturdy bulwark for the Faith, in like manner St. Paul himself in the Letter to the Romans, made sure that there was a Systematic Theology at hand for the Church to follow for aeons to come (He Himself being schooled in Greek Langauge and Philosophy with an appreciation of the Power and Effect of Word and Wisdom).
Then Systematic Theologies to Follow all understood the necessity, not the superfluous, nature of Wisdom and the Word of God—That God’s revealed truth is meant to be grasped fully in whole cloth of the parts of Metaphysic and Imagistic Representation. So while I’m a Baptist by membership I wear a Crucifix (rather than just a Cross), and keep icons because I do not believe that an Image of the Lord is an Idol and I can make this separation clear in My Mind, not just stick on the dead letter or out of context word or the law.
So I say Go out and meditate on the ‘Christ Metaphysic,’ appreciate the Great Glory of Christian Art, find metaphysical truths such as the CTMU, or Kant, Or Plato, or Aristotle and bring them back to Christ. The Wisdom and Knowledge attendant on the Faith is Vast and Unfathomable—so Mysticism, Metaphysic and Art is all there to bring Glory to God; not being separate from Himself in the Dead letter of the word or the law. Truly, - Greg W.