The Poison of Subjectivism was an extremely hard essay to read. I am not ashamed in anyway to say that I had a lot of trouble with it, and was quite often confused and forced to re-read. I was able to get several things out of it though, which in the end made it worth the time it took to try to understand this writing.
First, I found it interesting to learn that the precepts of mercy are more frequent than the precepts of justice. This was fascinating as most people, including myself, tend to have a cynical view on people and society. Therefore, to find that throughout history, laws and precepts have tended towards mercy rather than justice is kind of shocking. I think it is a reflection of the fact that we have a merciful God, slow to anger and abounding in love. It shows that are tendencies should be towards mercy rather than justice, since as sinners, to a certain extent, who are we to pass justice on fellow sinners.
Secondly, Lewis raises an interesting analogy with his comparison of the Trinity to a cube. This is necessary because God is three distinct beings, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who are completely united; three in one. I find this an interesting analogy not because I find the cube reference particularly insightful, but because of what Lewis says next. Lewis then mentions the two-dimensional way to look at a cube, which ruins either its distinctiveness or its unity. To me this shows that we cannot limit God to just one being at a time, or even worse, forget about one of his "sides." We must look at more of a lens than just the 2-D that we see, we must put on our 3-D glasses to get the full effect of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It is a tough task, one that is ardous and difficult, yet it must be done to have a fuller aspect of God. Sometimes, the most important lesson we learn in a reading is not the major point, but just a minor one that is put in by the author. I think his is how it is for me with this work from Lewis, while perhaps the major points escaped me, a minor point stuck out to me the most.
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I like how truthful you are when you say that you struggled with the difficulty of this essay. I also had some truoble with it and found myself confused more times then not. Nevertheless, I like the point you raised about when Lewis talked about when he compared the Trinity to a cube. I too agree that we must look at God through the 3-D lenses to get a better perspective on Him, instead of just looking at Him like we are all used to.
ReplyDeleteI like your point of the three person of the trinity. It does seems at time that we like to focus on one person much to the neglect of the other. It is sad to say, but reformed people are guilty of over looking the holy spirit in a lot of ways. Some have even gone as far as to say some gives of the holy spirit are no longer being giving. That was really a good example, but, the point there was how we don't talk or teach on the holy spirit as much as we should.
ReplyDeleteNathan,
ReplyDeleteI, like you can Lewis, was also surprised to see that more laws were related to mercy rather than justice. In ancient history, I would expect statutes to be heavily focused on fairness and punishment. I also liked the part about the cube. It's like Edwin Abbott Abbott's novella "Flatland", which describes a two dimensional world. It's impossible to understand God completely, since we can only see in limited dimensions.
First off, I also thought that the logic in the essay was very confusing at times. After reading it a few times, I was able to understand most of what he was saying. I also liked Lewis' analogy of the Trinity being like a cube. I think that there are a lot of things about God that we aren't able to completely wrap our minds around, just like looking at a cube in 2-D.
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