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WEB 4 - ARCHIVE
Commentary 24 - Page 2 |
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Man as an exception to the normal rule However, I want to suggest an exception to this almost-universal rule of biological nature. The exception, in fact, is the human. Although it is true that as long as a creature is ruled by the instincts of its animal nature, it is subject to the penalty of natural specialisation, which is that because instinct acts where no learning occurs, the better an instinct serves one purpose, the less often it will be able to meet other needs. But the human psyche falls outside this rule, having an alternative possibility on which all Christian hopes depend. The significance of the Incarnation as a revelation of the divine within humanity is in revealing the highest possibility of humanity. It suggests that mankind possesses the possibility that a full awakening of the unique specialisation of our human nature can in fact allow us to increase our adaptability to change instead of decreasing it. This type of specialisation is best described by its collective manifestation, which we know by human-specific terms such as civilisation and culture. A characteristic of these is that they are the products of certain tendencies within human life, so that true civilisation, defined in this way, is generally or always the product of a religious awakening, and that when the religious impulse fades, so does the civilising influence; that Christianity in its early days was such an influence, and that there is a direct relationship between the decline of that influence and the world's current problems, particularly alienation, inequity and violence. This is because it can be said that 'man is the learning animal.' The fact that the human child learns to walk while the young of other species walk instinctively is a relatively trivial manifestation of that capability to which I am referring. Not only does man learn 'from 'scratch' things which in other creatures are acquired by instinct, but we do so by using that same special, innovative intelligence in us which, when manifested, solves all kinds of new problems as it meets them. This can be seen in evolutionary terms. It is as if humanity is face to face with an evolutionary step, but as yet has only taken it in part, too often falling back instead on certain of the psychological characteristics of our animal 'ancestors.' This step to what some people call 'a new level of being' has not yet been crossed. It has not and may not be crossed in our era, because this possibility for mankind is not widely recognised in the Western world even by the churches, although in its own terms the early church appears to have been fully aware of the possibility and to have been formed to act on this awareness. Our investigations have shown that at that time the church possessed many documents and many practices which served this purpose. Even today, indeed, it contains a number of people who, having a natural aptitude for it, still continue to pursue this path despite its not being generally recognised. |
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