"All that is not eternal is eternally useless"
- attributed to C.S. Lewis
Having grown up in a conservative evangelical world, I am quite familiar with the idea that human souls and their eternal fate must be the first priority for any Christian. But we aren't eternal. No one is eternal but God, according to Christian orthodoxy.
But that would mean all of God's creation is entirely useless. Not just humanly created things like food and literature and technology and politics, but everything that is listed in the first few chapters of Genesis - galaxies and forests, birds, fish, mountains. Human societies in all of their complexity and groups that fight back against physical and social injustices are also useless.
The funny thing is I didn't run into this in my pastor's trite regurgitation of standard gnostic heresy last Sunday (though that was annoying). I heard it from a distinguished alumna who was speaking to us about finding "purpose" in our jobs. How can I find purpose in my life if only the "eternal" has meaning? Why was I created with eyes and ears and tongue if everything I encounter through them is "useless"? Why should "use" matter so much?
This narrow pragmatism of evangelicalism stunts any interaction with the world - art is useless, learning is useless, conversation (unless "spiritual") is useless. I know this reductionism is hardly compatible with Lewis' grand vision of eternal redemption in The Weight of Glory or The Great Divorce. But if even Lewis was frequently tempted away from such a beautifully redemptive vision to simplistic gnosticism, is it any wonder the rest of us have a hard time stretching the boundaries of our faith?
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3 comments:
Whoops - I accidentally deleted this, then decided I liked it enough to restore it. I wrote it back in October and later dug up the quote and it wasn't right. I actually liked his ok, but I still hate her version of it.
I've encountered that philosophy elsewhere. That is "if it's not eternal, why bother."
People often fool themselves into thinking that the output of their work is eternal. The Founding Fathers spoke of creating an eternal republic. As soon as they gave Hamilton the power of the purse, the republic quickly degenerated into a monarchy.
Someone said that Microsoft will always exist. That's a scary thought. It's sort of like Rome, the "eternal city."
One the brighter side, there are those of us who take great joy in creating temporary things whose "use" is remembered for a lifetime. The Buddhist mandala is an example.
Maybe if you change the eternal concept with endless or infinite, you could understand a little more the implications of Lewis´ quote. We are in this place as a preparation for eternal life, and some of our actions don´t help our growth, or our possessions will stay here, so they become useless in our eternal purpose.
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