‘Misdirected desire’ for Maximus is inherently egalitarian, but not in a permissive direction. I fear we lack the concepts and worldview that allowed Maximus to see this as the key to ordering all of life. Even as modern Christians, our sense of loving others is still a tattered mess of moral sentiments.
In my present state of mind (stressed but discerning) I tend to find weird analogies. When you write, "The "instant" Peter takes his eyes off Jesus he sinks. I'm arguing that something analogous happens at the first instant of consciousness. Our first "waking" pulls our eyes and desires toward the world and we sink," my mind went to Aurthur Dent in The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy. Aurthur learns to fly. He does so by allowing himself to be distracted on the way down. When he notices a flying brief case (if I recall correctly), he is distracted from the approaching ground. And he flies.
Thank you for this extraordinarily provocative post! As is almost a habit with me, I will draw a parallel with William James.
You noted that "The basic idea [about 'the nature of sin at the first instant'] is linking sensation to desire. ... When sensation dawns in consciousness desire follows. That desire pulls our love away from God."
James began his schema for the development of will by noting, "...consciousness must everywhere desire some of the sensations which it gets to others..."
But the development of will in James's framework is a process of continually reordering desire in light of what we learn through experience (in the more technical language proper to a psychological theory, of course).
The parallel lines can be brought together pretty easily: To have an idea of God is to have an idea that obligates us to reorder our desires to God. If to be conscious automatically infects us with "the ontological wonder sickness" (another Jamesian construct), then with the advent of self-consciousness comes the desire for the cure.
‘Misdirected desire’ for Maximus is inherently egalitarian, but not in a permissive direction. I fear we lack the concepts and worldview that allowed Maximus to see this as the key to ordering all of life. Even as modern Christians, our sense of loving others is still a tattered mess of moral sentiments.
In my present state of mind (stressed but discerning) I tend to find weird analogies. When you write, "The "instant" Peter takes his eyes off Jesus he sinks. I'm arguing that something analogous happens at the first instant of consciousness. Our first "waking" pulls our eyes and desires toward the world and we sink," my mind went to Aurthur Dent in The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy. Aurthur learns to fly. He does so by allowing himself to be distracted on the way down. When he notices a flying brief case (if I recall correctly), he is distracted from the approaching ground. And he flies.
Thank you for this extraordinarily provocative post! As is almost a habit with me, I will draw a parallel with William James.
You noted that "The basic idea [about 'the nature of sin at the first instant'] is linking sensation to desire. ... When sensation dawns in consciousness desire follows. That desire pulls our love away from God."
James began his schema for the development of will by noting, "...consciousness must everywhere desire some of the sensations which it gets to others..."
But the development of will in James's framework is a process of continually reordering desire in light of what we learn through experience (in the more technical language proper to a psychological theory, of course).
The parallel lines can be brought together pretty easily: To have an idea of God is to have an idea that obligates us to reorder our desires to God. If to be conscious automatically infects us with "the ontological wonder sickness" (another Jamesian construct), then with the advent of self-consciousness comes the desire for the cure.
Fallenness = sickness to merge the parallels.
Kind of a eureka moment. So thanks!
For some reason when I click on edit a blank screen appears. So the needed edit will be noted here:
The initial quote from James should read. "...consciousness must everywhere PREFER some of the sensations which it gets to others..."