Logos

of Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa as obliged to be the efficient instru-"De Non Aliud" and "De Pace ment of God in the universal laborFidei" with the treatment of the of creative development of theprinciple of"Necessary Being" in universe. This defines man's spetheMetaphysics of ibn Sina. cific obligation to exert dominionThe agreement among Christian- over the earth and its lower existity,Judaism and ibn Sina's Islam ences, to thus serve as the instrufromsuch standpoints of reference ment of a higher purpose, trandefinethose three great religionsscending the ephemeral width andas "Neoplatonic" in adopted sci- span of an individual mortal life.entific method, and account for Christianity is distinct in rethespecial, ecumenical, fellowshipspect to those two religions withamong those three religions, which it shares ecumenical alli-The central formal question ofance, in that it locates in the lifeChristian theology and science and crucifixion of Jesus Christ theover the ages has been: "By what saving of humanity from thatmeans can persons elevated to thedoom which the Roman Empire'shighest of the three possible states Baptism is not enough, culture and law, and the evil cultof human conscience know with of Isis, otherwise determined to becertainty of empirical proof the not "evolution" in the sense of a the cause of man's moral unfitnesstruth of the Christian notion of Spencer, Wallace, Darwin or to survive. It is the union of theGod, as a universal, creative intel- Huxley. It is an ordered process, divine (the fullness of the Holyligence consubstantial with the in the sense that the great nine- Spirit) and the mortal (man bornuniverse?" Although the simple teenth-century physicist, Bern- of woman) in Jesus Christ whichChristian believer's belief and ef- hard Riemann defines the universe defines the person of Christ as theficient conscience for practice are as an elaboration of a self-devel- cornerstone of Christiamty, as $Jisinagreement with what that proof oping nest of efficiently-interact- tinct from Christ's variously imshows,Christian theology deems ing, distinct manifolds. Over the plied or stated position as athe belief of the simple Christian ages, conscious man has associated prophet for the Judaism of Philoto be true. this notion of distinct, interacting and the Islam of the Prophet Moltis by that standard that we manifolds with the distinctions hammed.know, and can prove, that neither and connections among the order- That sums up the "faith" ofJimmy Carter nor Edward Ken- ings of "inorganic physics," the the Christian, as reflected in thenedy are Christians in fact, but "living biosphere" per se, andthe Christian Creed--that whichrather agents of evil cultisms, higher state than other life repre- evokes awe in the Christian onThe proof is identical with the sented by human creative intelli- contemplating the "Credo" potproofof the "hypothesis of the gence. The Platonic interprets the tion of such masses as Mozart'shigher hypothesis" given by account of the "days" of Genesis "Coronation Mass" or the "MissaPlato's dialogues, a proof and no- as the distinct phase of unfolding Solemnis" of Beethoven. In retiondirectly connected to show- of a multiply-connected manifold flecting on such essentially devoingthe necessary, ontological na- toward ever-higher states of Cre- tional musical performances asture of God in such locations as ation ("Composition"). those, the individual of elevatedthe famous Timaeus dialogue. In this order, which we call conscience is ennobled in that mo-Rigorous Christian theology the order of true "natural law," ment to experience a sense of theinterprets the word "Creation" man, through the perfection of unity of himself or herself withnot m the mechanistic sense of mankind's potential of creative in- predecessors over two millennia,Aristotelian method, but in the telligence, has the duty to serve as hearing the voices of those mil-Platonic sense of "creation," as the efficient instrument of God in lions of the Christian Churchtypified by Plato's use of the term the work of continuing the crea- united with the music performed."Composer." The process of con- tive development of the universe. Or, in the kindred poem of Friedtinuingcreation is a process of That creative intelligence, which rich Schiller, as set in Beethoven'scontinuing evolution of the uni- uniquely defines man as "in the Ninth Symphony, "Be embraced,verse to ever-higher states. This is image of God," defines man as you millions!"CAMPAIGNER / August 1980 83