The Eclipse of Scripture's Metaphysical Horizon, Part 1: A Puzzle
On a "Lag" in the Experience of Conversion
For those of us raised in more evangelical expressions of the Christian faith, the discovery of the greater tradition frequently brings with it the wonder of undreamt of dimensions. The Body’s catholicity unfolds as unexpected depth, breadth, and sheer variety.
These riches are initially mediated in very particular ways, which vary according to one’s charism and spiritual itinerary. An exemplary priest, professor, or parish, whether Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, high Anglican, or catholic Lutheran, succeeds in opening a glimpse into the whole.
But every perspective on the whole begins from a (total) part; all universals are concrete. Thus it may be the beauty of the liturgy, awareness of ecclesial history, doctrinal and hermeneutical enigmas, or philosophical and metaphysical wonder which first burst the old wineskins. Other doors will open in time, until in principle every aspect of the faith opens onto the all. A circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.
A feature of my experience, and that of numerous friends and acquaintances, is that Scripture itself is hardly ever the first window onto catholicity, and indeed often one of the last to be pervaded by it.
By Scripture’s “catholicity” here I do not mean the necessary hermeneutical mediation of tradition, marshaled against sola scriptura, or an allegorical supplement to a wooden literalism. Still less do I mean the exegetical quest to discover Marian dogma or papal primacy in the Bible itself.
These debates, which do often dominate the beginnings of conversion (and seem so important and vital) ultimately belong to an apologetic phase which conceals a fundamentalism of its own. Such questions may play a role as moment within a larger journey, but they tend to fade with greater maturity. And rather than a primary experience of holistic wonder, they tend to be negative critiques of partial perspectives and post-facto justifications for riches initially mediated elsewhere.
No—by Scripture’s catholicity I mean its capacity to mediate a positive and primary encounter of wholeness as wondrous. Scripture, when properly read, has a metaphysical depth dimension and speculative horizon, and it is primarily in this sense that it is catholic.
But it is just this which is puzzling: even many who find themselves drawn to the tradition through metaphysical and speculative channels struggle to find these dimensions in the text. Why? What causes this “lag”? Why do we more easily find ourselves drawn to Dionysius and Maximus than the Scriptural “world” into which they seek to initiate us?
It is this puzzle that I will reflect on in subsequent posts.