I
just watched a fascinating PBS series on Evolution. The final section
covers the conflict between science and religion. Did all creatures
evolve by natural selection, or were they specially created by
intelligent design? From a contemplative / mystical perspective, there
is a third option. I'll mention some of the other contemplative views
in other posts, but here, I'll talk about just one of the possibilities.
In a book entitled "God's Ecstasy: The Creation of a
Self-Creating World," Christian contemplative Beatrice Bruteau has this
to say: "Creation is the Reality (God) turning itself inside-out.
Whatever the Reality is that manifests itself as the universe, it seems
to turn itself inside-out in doing it. The finite aspect of the world
is in fact the ecstatic aspect of the infinite's interior aspect. We
are modeling a universe that makes itself, from the inside out, as an
act of divine ecstasy, not one that is made from the outside by
imposition. I have called this creative act 'God's ecstasy.' Ecstasy
means standing outside oneself. It is kin to the kenosis of Philippians
2:6 - being God is NOT a thing to be clung to, so God empties Godself,
taking the form of limitation in finitude, and is born as a universe.
It is the defining divine act: self-giving, being-bestowing. Ecstasy
has the connotations of extreme love and supreme joy. That is right for
the creation of the universe."
In this vision, creation by
evolution and creation by God are one and the same. Infinitude empties
out into finitude. God creates by self-emptying, becoming the driving
force behind and within the evolutionary process. Here, God is neither
outside the creation nor identical with it, but subsists rather as a
kind of "Beyond within." In other words, when Divine Reality turns
inside-out in an ecstasy of joy, the Creator becomes a loving power
residing within all things, one that enables the creation TO MAKE
ITSELF. How amazing! As usual, mystical wisdom is not an either/or
proposition, but a both/and process :)
Photo: Lewis Monkeyflowers growing along the Garden Wall, Glacier National Park, MT; July 31, 2013
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