THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE
Sir,-If. Mr. Short will refer to a dictionary he will find that "abstraction" means "something thought of as existing apart from material things." As Berdyaev says: "Man creates Godin his own image and likeness." Mr. Short assures us that the contemplative "plays
no part in this time-honoured farce of world improvement," and so confirms my contention. "G.H.D." finds it amusing that I should quote the words of Jesus--why? One may value and be influenced by the teaching of Confucius, Socrates, Jesus of any other teacher without accepting all he says as "revelation," Would "External Beauty" contend that thesrecent North Sea floods which drowned some 2000 innocent-probably Matiy pious-people, and wrought enormous damage, were part of "the design, order and laws of the universe-the work of an intelligent Creator?" Withdrawal from the world may be beneficial. If civilised men and women everywhere would, once a day, shut themselves off in silence from the noisy world for half an hour, banishing irritations and anxieties; not following any line of directed thought; not praying to any humanly conceived deity; just relaxing the mind, leaving it open to the impact of spiritual influences pervading life; I think they would be better men and women and the world a better place to live in. It is not an easy, but a rewarding self-discipline. "Getting and spending we lay waste our powers," By postulating God as Creator of the universe and all in it, the contemplative makes God responsible for evil as well as good, There is a body of thought that suggests that God may be "emerging" through the good and evil of evolutionary processes, and that the appearance of a personal God may be that "divine far-off event to which the whole creation moves,’ as Tennyson put it. Neither theory solves the central riddle of life. We do not know what life is, nor whether it functions because of a purpose in some divine mind. But we do know from accumulated history that we are dangerous creatures, modst ferocious in religious matters, but possessed of immense potentialities for creative good. It is open to us to cultivate in ourselves, and help develop in society, the best in human nature, so that, without reference to imaginary heavens and hells, this life may be better than two thousands yeats of Christianity and other religions have made it.
J. MALTON
MURRAY
(Oamaru).
(This correspondence is now closed. Ed.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 713, 13 March 1953, Page 5
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404THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 713, 13 March 1953, Page 5
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