Speaking out of school, or trying not to...

As many of you know my sole reader of this blog is one iMonk. He's written a post here on a subject triggered by things he's read on this blog recently but also as this blog touches on such themes generally as a matter of course. His post puts me into a familiar quandary. I feel I should be more open about my own experience and sources of influence regarding the faith and the practice of the faith, but one comes up against the rule against speaking out of school. You end up tossing alot of pearls before alot of swine.

Suffice to say, there are three basic universal types all human beings fall into: physically-oriented types (think athletes, sportsman, firemen, soldiers, but also gluttons, comfort-seakers, epicureans, etc.), emotionally-oriented types (think artists, performing type artists like actors or musicians, or just people who are generally emotionally oriented in their approach to anything), and intellectually-oriented types (writers, mathematicians, language-oriented, book-oriented people, intellectuals of most stripes, etc.). These types exist but it doesn't mean a person won't have a little of all three in them, it just means each person will have a center-of-gravity of one or the other. This effects their approach to the Christian faith and how they practice it.

Ideally a person wants to develop above their 'type' and have an equal balance of all three types in them which will put them in a higher category. This also causes them to transcend the traditional three branches of the faith: Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant. It's somewhat problematic to associate the three traditional branches of the faith with the three basic types, yet there is something there as well. Eastern Orthodox is more physically oriented, with its sensual icons, asceticism, and other similar dinstinctives and so on; Roman Catholicism is more emotionally oriented with it's art and ritual and so on; Protestantism is more intellectually oriented with its precise biblical doctrine, its argumentation and debate, its books (and books and books) and so on. There is something there in seeing the three traditional branches of the faith as corresponding with the three basic types of human beings, physical, emotional, and intellectual. Obviously, though, again, each branch also has its elements of the other two types, yet they still have their center-of-gravity in the one type associated with it.

To transcend your type you have to make directed efforts to develop in the other two areas you're not a 'natural' in. A natural intellectual has to develop physically and emotionally. A natural physical type has to develop intellectually and emotionally (i.e. creatively, etc.). A natural emotional type has to develop physically and intellectually.

To do this you have to make efforts to engage influences and activities that are just beyond your current interests and understanding. People rarely do this. Schools exist for this, ideally, and can have some success in introducing people to areas of influence and activity that aren't their natural stomping grounds, but the problem with schools (grade schools, high schools, institutions of higher learning) is the motivation isn't coming from inside the person, but is driven by worldly motives (to get a grade, graduate, get a job, etc.) which makes all the difference.

A person only truly begins to develop in a balanced way when they, on their own, their own time and motivation, begin to move in directions that "aren't them." People around them, family, friends, even strangers, will let them know they are straying out of their approved-by-the-world path. A family member will say to the physically-oriented person: "You don't read books!" Or the colleague will say to the intellectual: "Softball? You're scaring me." Or dancing, or whatever.

Though it has to be said the intellectual has the advantage over the other types. It's arguably the most difficult area to develop into and it is the most rare, and if you are a natural regarding the type 'intellectual' it is less tramatic to take up a physical activity or a creative type activity, and it is less shocking to onlookers simply because being an intellectual type puts you in the rarest category to begin with. Yet it must be stressed that intellectual types are as stunted in their development as the other two types unless and until they make serious efforts to develop emotionally and physically. They are, also, historically the most dangerous to mankind in their stunted state. They also tend to be vulnerable to toxic levels of vanity and worldly pride that keep them stunted in most cases.

To keep it simple, learn an athletic discipline; learn a musical instrument; and learn to read and write. If the motivation is pure and coming from inside you rather than being compelled externally by a worldly goal then you will be on the right track, potentially.

Then you may find yourself in a category that transcends the three basic types themselves.

What this means in terms of the faith and the practice of the faith is you will be above the three branches of the faith (Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant) and all the divisions within the three branches of the faith, and you'll be able to draw from all three branches what each does well and what each is actually on-the-mark with.

From the Orthodox branch you'll be able to draw practical level knowledge and disciplines; from the Roman Catholic branch you'll be able to draw - with extreme necessary discernment - more emotional elements of the faith (and that is always more nebulous when one attempts to put it into practical language, but it can come down to discernment for and appreciation for art and music and history and similar influences; though having said that the Roman Catholic branch hardly has a patent on those things, yet for the sake of this discussion and seeing the three basic types in the three traditional branches one can see what the writer is getting at); and from the Protestant branch you'll be able to draw discernement for and high valuation for apostolic biblical doctrine, hardcore, unwatered-down, un-negotiated down to the demands of vanity, worldly pride, and rebellious self-will. One will be able to discern, for instance, how Calvinism corresponds to the most rare and practical Christian languages and disciplines of spiritual development that exist in the more Eastern Orthodox realms of the faith (the Puritans were the closest to these things in the Protestant sphere). As strange as that may sound, but it can be seen once a balanced development is attained and understanding of such things is attained.

Another thing that occurs when one develops in all the basic types is one begins to see influences as they reside in a hierarchy (influences in this case being, basically, art, music, philosophy, history, imaginative literature, science, and religion). Prior to such development influences are taken basically all at the same level (no difference is discerned between the base of the mountain and the summit of the mountain). Even by worldly, accomplished intellectuals. Homeric epic and their favorite comic book are taken, basically, at the same level, when it comes down to it. They'll even write books suggesting the same. In fact, if anyone suggests to them that one influence may be 'higher' than another it will trigger resentment and anger in the person. This is how you stay ignorant in a worldly, man-approved way when you have your center-of-gravity in one of the three basic types. The moment you begin to discern that influences reside in a hierarchy (the moment you begin to discern the mountain) you are in new territory, including regarding your relations with man and the world.

Practically speaking, once you enter the realm above the three basic types you will make contact with a new language that will give you new ideas, practices, and goals. You will make contact with school influence. This is where I get into a quandary regarding what I can say. One can't speak out of school. Suffice to say: don't abandon a high valuation for precise, sound doctrine, what five solas, doctrines of grace Calvinism is, because you find you need to develop in areas the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic branches specialize in better. Add what the E.O. and the R.C. have to the best of what you've gained from the Protestant branch. Get a balanced development in all areas. Then don't hesitate to attain to the new level, which the world and man (and the devil) very much don't want you moving into.