Welcome to the St. Michael’s Episcopal Church book study
group blog – The Seekers Blog. Our group has embarked on the discussion of a
book titled Ancient Secrets by Rabbi
Levi Meier, a chaplain, clinical psychologist and biblical scholar. The subtitle of the book is Using the Stories of the Bible to Improve Our
Everyday Lives. It is divided into
five parts, each containing several chapters, with each chapter focused on
Rabbi Meier’s analysis of a familiar story from the Bible.
At our first discussion, the group covered the Introduction
and Chapter 1, As in the Beginning, So
Now. Meier begins with the Genesis
story of God’s creation of the world, and immediately introduces an interesting
take on the distinction between the “light” created on the first day, and the
creation of the sun on the fourth day.
According to Meier, the original Hebrew word for “light” is ohr meaning a “supernatural light” he
describes as a “divine life force” and then declares: “So the first thing God
created was life.” This first life was
originally indefinite, not taking on any particular character, described by
Meier as: “a metaphysical, divine life energy that permeated the whole world.” He then enlists the assistance of French
philosopher Henri Bergson’s concept of elan
vital and provides some examples of people who have enjoyed success in
their spiritual lives by tapping into their inner “life force.”
As a metaphor, the concept of a “life force” may be useful
as a stand-in for a bundle of qualities such as determination, courage,
character, faith, devotion, selflessness and morality, but Meier goes much
further. His description of it as “a
metaphysical, divine life energy” is not metaphorical. He maintains, with Bergson, that the elan vital, or “vital energy” dwells
within us, and can be transformed “into a creative force in our lives” citing specifically
the principle from the laws of physics usually referred to as the “law of
conservation of energy” holding that energy can neither be created nor
destroyed, but can be transformed. These
ideas were prominent during the height of Bergson’s career in the early 20th
Century, and were adopted by many eminent thinkers, including George Bernard
Shaw and the Fabian Society.
As you may know, the Fabian Society was a group of social progressives
who, among other things, were instrumental in the creation of the British
Labour Party. They were influenced by
communism and embraced socialistic policies, and their membership famously
included secularists, the irreligious, non-believers and atheists. Although they espoused the virtues of the
collective, their concept of collectivism did not include society’s undesirable
classes. In fact, one of their principal objectives was to create a superior
human race even if it entailed selective breeding and the elimination of
inferior human genetic stock.
As I draft this blog, I am trying to choose my words
carefully in order not to sensationalize the Fabian Society linkage to Meier. The Fabians, founded in 1884, still exist and
still support socialism. Without
commenting on the socialist system, it is important to understand that eugenics
and elimination of so-called inferior people were “progressive” ideas openly
promoted and supported by the Fabians until the crimes of the Nazis were
discovered. Modern liberal politicians
and commentators often try to align conservatives with inhumane policies, but
progressivism, as promoted by the Fabians, embraced concepts that would have
meant extinguishing the “life force” within undesirables in order that their
inferiority would not continue to burden those deemed worthy of contributing to
the survival of the species.
C. S. Lewis was an outspoken critic of Bergson, Shaw and the
Fabians. In his essay The
Weight of Glory Lewis wrote:
"...even if all the happiness they promised could come to man on earth,
yet still each generation would lose it by death, including the last generation
of all, and the whole story would be nothing, not even a story, for ever and
ever. Hence all the nonsense that Mr. Shaw puts into the final speech of
Lilith,[1] and
Bergson’s remark that the élan vital is capable of surmounting all obstacles,
perhaps even death—as if we could believe that any social or biological
development on this planet will delay the senility of the sun or reverse the
second law of thermodynamics.”
Thus, in its
original application, the concept of the “life force” was more than a mere
metaphor. It was a theory underpinning
progressivism and factoring into intellectual society. In our reading, Meier continues this
tradition by giving the “life force” the status of “a metaphysical, divine life
force.” His use is clearly
well-intentioned and benign, but he should have avoided the reference to
Bergson, and he should have sanitized his idea in the form of a true metaphor
rather than “a metaphysical, divine life force.” Thinking about how he could have eliminated
the criticism, it is obvious to us, as Christians, that the light that imbued
the world with life on the first day of creation was the Holy Spirit! As a Jew, Rabbi Meier is not a believer in
the Trinity, and must reach for an alternate explanation for the work of the
Holy Spirit. But, as Christians, we need
not – indeed, we cannot – believe in a “metaphysical, divine life force” that
is not the Holy Spirit.
I have read
enough of Ancient Secrets to be of
the opinion that Meier is sincerely concerned with sharing his insights into
the meanings of Bible stories. I do not
think he is trying to subvert our beliefs, or attacking Christianity. I look forward to our discussions of the
points he raises, and, perhaps, having been somewhat taken aback by his first
chapter, we can be aware of non-Christian ideas as we encounter them in the
future.
Peace.
[1]
The last scene of Part V of Back to
Methuselah, a play by George Bernard Shaw in which he envisions the
development of mankind from the Garden of Eden into the distant future. Lilith, a god/goddess half man and half woman, is
revealed as the creator of Adam and Eve, and her oration at the end of the play
bemoans humanity’s evolution into pure intellect having overcome entirely the
need for the body.
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