Notes
Notes
[1] InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois.
[2] Some might say there is another possibility —some form of dualism, that is, two opposites existing simultaneously as co-equal and co-eternal. For example, mind (or ideals or ideas) and matter; or in morals, good and evil. However, if in morals one holds this position, then there is no ultimate reason to call one good and one evil; the words and choice are purely subjective if there is not something above them. And if there is something above them it is no longer a true dualism. In metaphysics, the dilemma is that no one finally rests with dualism. Back of Yin and Yang there is placed a shadowy Tao; back of Zoroastrianism there is placed an intangible thing or figure. The simple fact is that in any form of dualism we are left with some form of imbalance or tension and there is a motion back to a monism.
Either men try to find a unity over the two; or in the case of the concept of a parallelism (for example, ideals or ideas and material) there is a need to find a relationship, a correlation or contact between the two, or we are left with a concept of the two keeping step with no unity to cause them to do so. Thus in an attempted parrellism there has been a constant tendency for one side to be subordinated to the other, or for one side to become an illusion.
Further, if the elements of the dualism are impersonal, we are left with the same problem in both being and morals as in the case of a more simple form of a final impersonal. Thus, for me, dualism is not the same kind of basic answer as the three I deal with in this book.
Perhaps it would be well to point out that in both existence and morals, Christianity gives a unique and sufficient answer in regard to a present dualism yet original monism. In existence, God is spirit —this is as true of the Father as of the Holy Spirit, and equally true of the Son, prior to the incarnation. Thus, we begin with a monism, but with a creation by the infinite God of the material universe out of nothing, a dualism now exists. It should be noted that while God thus created something which did not exist before, it is not a beginning out of nothing-nothing, because he was there (as the infinite-personal God) to will.
[3] Note that in Christianity there is in this area of morals, as in existence, a sufficient answer concerning an original monism but present dualism. This rests on God being good, and creating everything good, but that the nonprogrammed creature revolted and thus brought into existence the present dualism of good and evil. Yet these are not equal, for the evil is contrary to the character or God, which was the original moral monism. Thus, in morals as in existence, there is an answer both for the present dualism yet needed monism.
[4] Escape from Reason and The God Who Is There, InterVarsity Press.
[5] For a more extended consideration of verbalized, propositional revelation, see Appendix 1: “Is Propositional Revelation Nonsense?”
[6] I have developed this thought in The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century (InterVarsity Press).
[7] See The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century (InterVarsity Press).
[8] Escape from Reason (InterVarsity Press).