I cried out, “My God, ‘I choose all.’ I don’t want to be a saint by halves… I choose all that You will.” (St. Therese of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church)
Dear None,
When St. Therese proclaimed her choice to fulfill the will of God, she was expressing a choice we all make in our life’s belief system. The system that she and all the saints chose was Catholic Orthodoxy, which differs from and surpasses all other religions, including today’s prevailing Modernist belief system.
Today’s Modernist system, Moralistic Therapeutic Deist Universalism, entices so many because it encourages us to half-select from different parts of belief systems, especially those systems that sell short the Holy Trinity of Catholic Orthodoxy and that fit nicely into our changing personal preferences. It makes every belief system choice equivalent, which trivializes the choice itself. It even inspires us to choose “none.” In short, it obstructs us from making a saint’s profound religious choice, like the one Therese made, and therefore from growing into a saint.
To counter all that wavering, half-choosing, and opting out, this letter (broken into two parts) seeks your answers to six imperative and inescapable questions. One distinctive combination of answers points to Catholic Orthodoxy as the True and salvific belief system.
These imperative and inescapable questions sidestep notable topics that might distract you from the imperative-ness. For example, these questions avoid: (a) complex theological concepts and “mysteries,” (b) worship style preferences, (c) specific acceptable behaviors, and (d) authority structures to settle disputes about (a) through (c).
The initial two imperative and inescapable questions derive from an analysis by Dr. Walter Watson. Watson evaluates hundreds of belief systems according to four categorical questions, each of which provides four separate groups of answers. This results in 256 combinations. However, in order to apply his analysis better to core life choices and religions, we can whittle that number down to nine.
First, we eliminate one of Watson’s four answer-types, which only re-frames the other three types; next, we eliminate two of his four questions: each system’s Method, which is not relevant here, and its Perspective.
Your answer to the Perspective question does govern whether we can even continue this questioning. Perspective asks which point of view you choose to furnish your most authentic knowledge about Truth. Major religions depend on the answer that Truth arrives by revelation, a “through-showing” from an absolute and supernatural source. Modernism, however, by definition, only accepts truth from a personal/emotional and/or objective/scientific source. Thus, regarding Perspective, Modernism completely overturns Catholic Orthodoxy and other major religions. For that reason, many deem Modernism as the greatest-ever threat to Catholic Orthodoxy.
So, having cast aside unneeded categories, but still guided by Watson’s analysis, in order to properly select life’s belief system, here are the two opening questions: about Reality and about Purpose.
Reality
The first imperative and inescapable question is about Reality: “What one most true, significant, and authentic entity(ies) do humans encounter in existing?” Answering that question also helps answer what everyone asks: “Where did we come from?” and “Where do we fit in?” Belief systems fall into three categories of answers.
First answer: Personal. Here, the most authentic Reality is that which most impacts our senses and emotions. An example belief system is Buddhism, which centers on the sensed reality (dharma) in the moment of consciousness. Another example is Modernism, from which Moralistic Therapeutic Deist Universalism readily pulls, given its reliance on emotions and perceptions.
Second answer: Below-the-Surface. Here, the most authentic Reality is the layers or substrates or entities underneath the appearances, such as atoms or an unseen impersonal force. Example belief systems include Marxism and Post-Marxism (their substrates are underlying economics and the circumstances of any sort of victimization), Freudianism (its substrate is primitive psychological constructs), Taoism (its substrate is the impersonal One), and scientifically-oriented Modernism.
Modernism usually consents to Deism and its soulless, mechanical world substrate. In turn, Moralistic Therapeutic Deist Universalism fancies this Reality belief system and its standoffish, watchmaker god.
Third answer: Transcendent. The most authentic Reality is the separate, perfect, eternal ideal: that which permits the very existence of the senses, emotions, appearances, and whatever constitutes the depersonalized substrates below. Transcendent belief systems include Catholic Orthodoxy, but also Lutheranism, Calvinism, Judaism, Islam, Gnosticism, and Hinduism.
In Catholic Orthodoxy, the most significant and authentic Reality is the Holy Trinity, Who is the perfect, eternal, infinite, and implausible—but Who dwells within our eternal souls and loves us, from our conception through our journey to the Beatific Vision. Thus, Catholic Orthodoxy elevates the Christian prayers of Meditation and Contemplation, in which we seek to unify with the Holy Trinity.
Purpose
The second imperative and inescapable question is about Purpose: “What one function impels the universe, God, and/or humans within Reality to the most good and beautiful?” Answering that question also helps answer what everyone asks: “What should we do?” and “Where are we going?” Again, belief systems fall into three categories of answers.
First answer: Merging-into-the-Whole. Here, the universe functions to maintain its apparent parts as a comprehensive whole. Example belief systems include Pantheism and Confucianism, and some aspects of Gnosticism. For Pantheists and Confucians, individuals behave only as parts within the whole of the universe. Humanity must harmonize with the cosmic order, often the one advocated by one’s ancestors. Some Gnostic systems put forth a mysterious all-encompassing spirit-force that emanates the universe, including the material world that sin excretes.
Second answer: Cycling and Returning. Here, the universe functions in order to change; people and the universe cycle around, with no other reason or cause (“change for change’s sake”). Example belief systems include Materialism, Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Gnosticism. In Materialism, the basic components of the universe, such as energy, atoms, protons, and neutrons, appear to change, but in actuality, the universe conserves them. Taoism also reflects this answer, in its Tao-te ching: “All things come into being, and I see thereby their return.” In Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as Gnosticism variants, the universe drives all things to cycle, devolve, reincarnate, or return to where they originate: “Like the rivers from and to the sea.”
Third answer: Creating and Willing. The universe, God, and humans function in order to create, out of nothing. Creating and Willing belief systems include Catholic Orthodoxy, but also Modernism, Marxism, Deism, Judaism, Islam, Lutheranism, and Calvinism. Within these systems, humans typically create our own destiny and operate with free will. Modernism focuses on our mandate to create our own impression of the world. In Marxism, man defines himself as a worker and participant in the economy. Deism refers to an impersonal creator god, who rarely, if ever, associates with us.
(Modernism, Marxism, and Deism already proved themselves different from Catholic Orthodoxy, due to their dissimilar Reality systems.)
In Catholic Orthodoxy, God pre-designed us with a Purpose: to enable Him to shape our souls, from nothing to perfection. In practice, to help achieve God’s Purpose, we must agape-love both God and others. The Beatitudes, Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, and other New Testament writings best express the notion of agape-love and its accompanying virtue, humility.
In summary, given that the Reality answer is the Transcendent and that the Purpose answer is Creating and Willing, Catholic Orthodoxy, along with only Islam, Judaism, Calvinism, and Lutheranism, clearly differentiate themselves from Modernism and the other major religions.
Tomorrow, Part 2 will ask you four more imperative and inescapable questions. Each of the answers distinguishes Catholic Orthodoxy from the Islam, Judaism, Calvinism, and Lutheranism heresies.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
