Part VI.
There is an encounter that plays itself out in my consciousness over
and over again. The encounter between my inspiration,
and futility, by which I mean doubt about the purpose I feel that I am directed
toward.
This is the dialog between my creative self and my inner critic.
For instance, I have been, and I am inspired to share with Christians the
gospel as I understand it, which is a gospel centered on the hope of universal salvation.
My first encounter with this doctrine came out of my own active
imagination, a discourse with my daemon, if
you will. It came by thinking logically about some of the most basic claims
that Christians make about God: that God is love, and loving; that God is
all-powerful (omnipotent), that God has the perfect ability to accomplish God’s
will; that God is all-knowing (omniscient), that God knows us, understands us,
even as we know ourselves; that God is omnipresent (not, not-present in any
space), that God is with us and God wants us with God.
These claims led me to the logical conclusion that, when all things are
said and done, there are no barriers to
God having God’s way in the matter of our salvation.
If God truly wills the salvation of all people, which Christian
doctrine claims that God does, then God will save all people.
My grasp of this argument came in a flash. It came as inspiration. It was both intuitive and
revelatory, and it came when I was fairly young, at the age of fifteen.
In the ten years that followed I did not do much with this idea, except
that I would using it in the occasional argument I might have with a
fundamentalist Christian.
In that period there were moments when I would recapture that feeling
of inspiration, but not every
argument I pursued produced those feelings. When I would argue the doctrine
with people who could grasp the logic, that feeling of inspiration would ignite inside of me, I would want to linger in
the conversation and explore all of its implications, both in terms of human
destiny, and in terms of the future of Christianity.
However, when my interlocutors could not grasp the logic, I often felt
like Sisyphus, endlessly pushing that
great rock up the hill. The same words and concepts that might delight me on
one occasion, would on another occasion come out sounding like a drone in my
ears.
Or, what was even worse for me were the occasions when I found myself
talking and talking all night long, and really enjoying the sound of my voice,
exalting in the feelings I got from my partner in dialog, or whoever else might
be listening, but walking away at the end of it thinking that I had
accomplished nothing more than the self aggrandized-stroking of my ego.
When I was twenty-five years old I was beginning to organize a research
paper for my undergraduate major in theology. I deeply wanted to write about
this doctrine. It was still inspiring me, and now it was motivating me to do
something, to write, to research to demonstrate the validity of my claims in a
formal way. I was moving beyond the arm-chair, outside of the coffee house, and
though I was merely an undergraduate, I felt that I was doing real work in
theology.
There was something else happening inside me as well. I was learning a
lot. I was encountering more people, specifically, more educated people, people
who wanted to argue with me, people who could hold up their end of the argument
much better than the street corner variety of born-again-Christian.
I was also beginning to get a clear sense of the weight of history, of
the philosophy of Christianity, its institutions, in its liturgy, and the power
behind the traditional Christian doctrines that were arrayed against my simple
logic.
It felt like that lil old ant, who thinks he can move that rubber tree plant. I
had high hopes, but those hopes, and the inspired purpose that fueled them were
frequently being assailed by a deepening sense of futility.
The question that my inner critic was asking me was this:
Is it possible for the most crystal-clear expression of the logic in
Christian doctrine that I could change two thousand years of history and
practice regarding the belief in hell and the theology of damnation?
Possible yes (I guess), but likely, no.
The creative spirit within me, my genius,
was good at getting the last word, “keep working” it would say. “keep
producing, keep on arguing.”
