Blamires sixth and final mark of the Christian mind is its sacramental cast: The recognition of the omnipresence of God in all of life, and the desire of God to make all of life joyful and rewarding.
The Christian Faith… teaches us that to create beauty or to experience beauty, to recognize truth or to discover truth, to receive love or to give love, is to come into contact with realities which express the Divine Nature (Blamires, 1963).
Based on our research into christianly thinking thus far, we would add goodness to Blamires beauty, truth, and love; and additionally argue that sacramental thinking attends toward the top of the values pyramid, where we find the sacred; or, in Christian understanding, the Trinitarian Godhead.
As Iain McGilchrist communicates using Scheler’s Pyramid of Values (2009), the systems of this enlightened world (e.g., education, consumer-capitalism, social media) have trained its citizens to focus their attention away from the sacred and toward the base values of want and need – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1John 2:16). Of course, this is in direct conflict with Christian doctrine.
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:1-2
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. Romans 8:5
And so, we are faced with another “in the world, but not of the world” challenge. Regrettably, it appears that much of Christendom has become more of the world (to varying degrees), as we have allowed the world to push us to the fringes of society. Christianly thinking requires corrective action in both areas; we must expel the dark influences of the world from the church, while reengaging it with the light of an uncompromised holy life.
The Challenge
According to Blamires (1963), one of the greatest challenges to the Christian mind is “addressing the issues of hedonism without giving the impression that Christianity rejects the physical world in mankind’s pursuit of vital experience.” Forcefully or tactfully projecting the traditional prohibitions, which have been shamefully tainted with our hypocrisy, has only served to turn away potential converts.
Blamires (1963) goes on to cite our poor response to the sexual revolution as the most obvious example of our failure to think, live, and disciple with a sacramental cast. However, one could make the same argument using either of the seven deadly sins: pride, greed, wrath, lust, envy, gluttony, and sloth.
The sexual revolution has wreaked havoc on the church, simply because the church – generally speaking – lost sight of beauty, goodness, and truth as the values innate in all of God’s creation, including sexuality. Or perhaps we have simply shrunk back from the challenging task of discipling about sex in sacramental terms – as Blamires (1963) puts it:
But, as for the meaning of youth’s keen responsiveness to beauty and love, in this matter the Church has too handed over the young to be instructed by materialistic psychologists and amoral aesthetes.
Blamires observed this tragedy in 1963. In the intervening 60 years, the sexual revolution has been won by the hedonists; and we are now experiencing its destructive power. Blamires again:
The psychologist, by the very nature of psychology, tends to reduce the significance of youth’s romantic experiences to the physical level. Aspiration, love, and delight are presented in terms of appetite and sensation. This limited interpretation does scant justice to the spiritual aspect of youth’s passions, and provides no sound basis for moral guidance.
As for the aesthetes (i.e., lover of the arts):
The poet does greater justice to youth’s romanticism. However, many of our influential poets and writers, those studied in secular schools, generally lack a coherent philosophy of life’s meaning.
Blamires is not suggesting that it is necessarily the duty of a poet or writer to inculcate views of any kind. Our greatest concern should not be so much with the kind of influences playing upon the minds of the young from the world, but the absence of a Christian mind, alive and mature enough to provide the young with a Christian romanticism subordinate to the doctrines and disciplines of the Faith. Instead, we hand over the young to alien influences at an impressionable and profoundly significant point.
There has to be a better way – a godly way.
But before we can move on to such a proposition, we must soberly recognize and seriously face another challenge: the challenge of our hypocrisy. Jesus warned us about this:
Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Matthew 7:5
God so loved the world that He sent His only Son to birth a kingdom filled with citizens who would be an example of profound holiness to that world. We cannot help them – living as instruments of righteousness – with a plank in our eye.
The statistics surrounding the sexual failures and failings of the church are well published, and need not be restated here. Only the most willfully blind would fail to see the same for the previously mentioned seven deadly sins. The church has been exposed and we dare not proceed without addressing our nakedness (Revelation 3:17-18).
The days when both the man in the pulpit and the congregants in the pews could confidently point a pious condescending finger at the world have long passed. As the world has found its way into the church, the plank in our own eye has grown considerably. Much repentance, foundation repair, and sanctifying transformation are needed before we dare speak sacramentally to the world.
As the first and best response, each of us must find and encourage the desire God placed in our hearts for holiness (1Peter 1:13-16). We are called to sainthood (Romans 1:7; 1Corinthians 1:2), and we are lost without it. We must allow God, by the Holy Spirit, to do His sanctifying transformative work. We must effectually reckon ourselves dead to sin, not hope we get there one day.
Our Hope and Opportunity
Praise God, there is hope! God is working in us (Philippians 2:13), Jesus has promised to make His followers like Him (Mark 1:17), and the Holy Spirit has taken it upon Himself to be our transformer (2Corinthians 3:18).
Coming back to Blamires’ example, there is hope for the world as well. The sexual revolution has begun cannibalizing itself, and its diabolical intent has been exposed. As noted and secular cognitive scientist, John Vervaeke (2021) proposed, the crises of our day provide a growing opportunity for religion to reassert itself as the best source of meaning and purpose for humankind. A huge door of opportunity has opened!
The storms and chaos of this decade are toppling houses. Those who have lost their houses are looking around for refuge, encouragement, and wisdom. The Christian forms of goodness, truth, and beauty – along with love and joy – are the very products of godly wisdom (references). Those who will allow God to inspect and restore their foundations (see Matthew 7:24-27; and The Storms Have Only Just Begun) will enjoy a move of God “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us (Ephesians 3:20).”
In part 2, we will do our best to propose an actionable solution – a way we might engage the world (once we get our own houses in order). In the meantime, soberly weigh the cost of surrender to God against His promised return on that investment. For starters, you might want to consider the worth of a life rescued from hell. Or perhaps just a hearty “well done” from our Creator.
God bless you with the wisdom and courage to count the cost.
Have a strong day in the Lord,
Rob
#iamjustthepen
Blamires, H. (1963). The Christian Mind. Regent College Publishing; Vancouver, BC.
McGilchrist, I. (2009). The Master and his Emissary. Yale University Press; New Haven and London.
Vervaeke, J. and others. (2021). The 4 Horsemen of Meaning. The Dr. Jordan B. Peterson Podcast. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCvQsqSCWjA.