Thursday, July 9, 2009

Knowledge from God

As a jumping off point for commenting about knowledge, the following quote is shared from a sermon of George MacDonald's sometime in the late 1800's:

"...so that the selves God made shall appear, coming out with ten-fold consciousness of being, and bringing with them all that made the blessedness of the life the men tried to lead without God. They will know that now first are they fully themselves. The avaricious, weary, selfish, suspicious old man shall have passed away. The young, ever young self, will remain. That which they thought themselves shall have vanished: that which they felt themselves, though they misjudged their own feelings, shall remain--remain glorified in repentant hope. For that which cannot be shaken shall remain. That which is immortal in God shall remain in man. The death that is in them shall be consumed." (the emphasis in the selection is from MacDonald)

2 comments:

craig v. said...

That's a great quote. I wonder about the word 'felt'. I think it's right to point to something beyond what we think and yet something which nevertheless moves us. Unfortunately, 'felt' is closely aligned with feelings and this could lead to misunderstanding. I don't have a better word right now. What I would look for is a word that expresses a sense of reality that thought alone can't capture.

ded said...

craig v., I think he intentionally used the word felt. I think we often feel, maybe "sense" we are more or less than we are with resulting longing and/or confusion.

I think MacDonald is attempting to define that in finding our new creation experience, elements in our soul which were both in our thoughts and more deeply our feelings and we identified as ... wisps of reality, finger prints maybe, of what God intended in our creation but have been masked by our fallen natures, come to the fore of our awareness.