In Galatians, Paul speaks of the children coming into their inheritance, no longer being "slaves" to the servants of the house. In Paul's view, this refers to Humanity outgrowing its dependence on the guidance of "elemental spirits" - our domination by the intelligences that supposedly governed the stars and stones and storms. Whether there are such intelligences, I highly doubt, but . . . I do believe that the central duty and purpose of the Christian faith is for Humanity to grow.
What I
don't think Paul envisioned, however, was that Humankind would last long enough to outgrow people like himself. In short, Paul spoke of individual growth of the believer, but neglected the growth of the human race. If we accept that only the individual believer is the "child" spoken of, we are left with a rather dismal continuum of grow, die, start from the beginning - no progress. While that may be the traditional view, I don't think it can be considered orthodox (right-believing) for the simple fact of its miserable, plodding, endless lack of progress. I simply can't accept that, any more than I can accept that, in promising a Second Coming, we were to understand that we were to simply wait, guard our spiritual chastity jealously, and hope for either a good time after death or the end of all things. If you accept the Traditionalist view, this is what you're left with.
I also cannot accept this view because there is so much it must
deny in order to be acceptable. It must deny the fact - largely undisputed by rational people - that human understanding of sciences, justice, medicine, governance all has advanced; as it has tended toward the building of peace of stability as the goals, in opposition to unpredictability and blind competition, the Christian must accept these as primarily positive advances. It must deny the physical realities of the growth in life expectancy, the decline of infant mortality, the increase (overall) of living conditions. It must deny the scientific theories that would indicate, rather convincingly, the growth in such things as brain capacity and physical ability. Evolution is an ongoing process, it continues, and it's understandable that humans - who despite millions of years of evolution still dislike change! - would feel threatened by that; after all, it makes one frightened that one might be in the "old model" line and about to be phased out! I find it (and I consider myself an old model, I might add) exhilarating beyond belief! We are changing. Think of that, my friends - we are not doomed to this and no better, but point to something we cannot yet imagine.
Now, chang
ing indicates a continuum in which we
have changed. The children, to use Paul's metaphorical imagery, have grown. This includes the growth
away from a world so entrenched in the day-to-day struggle of mere survival that we need a special group to think, interpret and dictate theological truth to us. This is not a tossing out of tradition or ecclesial structure - that is merely to becom the liberal reactionary - but to give them a new place; as advisors and guides, equal to our reason, not supreme guides, and certainly not all-authoritative lawgivers.
I suspect that Traditionalists/conservatives will not be able to make anything of this - we're speaking two entirely different languages from two entirely incompatible worldviews - but the the issue is one of the entire matrix of human growth and understanding, not simply the individual growth of the believer, which
occurs within the larger human growth. That matrix has changed - we no longer need constantly to check our understanding against a set of "wiser" human rules.
The children have grown, since Paul's time, and we need to strike out from the so-called Church Fathers which have dominated us, and begin to find new ways of "being Christ in the World." We need to take
greater responsibility for our spiritual growth, welfare, and development, and for our action in this world to bring about the Kingdom - we,
with Jesus, have been made children of God, and we must move forward, not simply relying on Jesus to fix everything, to but to take an active, co-creational role in building on the example and sacrifice He made. Responsibility for bringing His vision of the Kingdom to this world. Just as it was unthinkable in Paul's time that a Jew could seek salvation without dependence on the Law, so we must be willing, as were those early Christians, to believe that we must be willing to seek a universal salvation outside the confines of a paradigm which places reason below the scriptural and traditional sources. Just as the early Church took the issues of God from mere tribal to individual-in-relation-with-outsider, we must take it from that individual level to build to a global level.
The children have grown, both as organism and as one, vast organism.
