A materialist creed?

Just so, biblical texts are deep texts. When we read that Jesus waked on water we are surprised and that summons our attention. But the subject of the story is not the breaking of the physical law of specific gravity, it refers to the conquest of the chaotic, water being the symbol of chaos notably in the first creation story and that of the Flood. Just so, the stories of the resurrection of Jesus is not the relation of a nature miracle but indicates that Christ will be present to the believer in the future, he is not in fact dead, even thought he died. Faith is often expressed in terms of paradox. For example: "If you would have your life you must lose it."

There is a whole backstory to this that involves the prescientific nature of the societies that produced biblical texts, and how Platonism was selectively adopted by the Church in what became known as Neo-Platonism. In Platonism the soul could be reborn to another life i.e. reincarnated. The Church was selective in its adoption of Platonic philosophy. For example it rejected the idea of reincarnation but it was influenced by the idea of the immortality of the soul and its return to God after death. It is interesting that this idea has been replaced by a more earthly focus, the coming of the kingdom of heaven on earth.

There is no reason that materialists could not be Christian. It is sad that materialists feel that their belief excludes them from the church because it cuts them off from the centre of the culture of the West and they become estranged from their past. I have noticed that scientific colleagues who would robustly describe themselves as materialists and hence unbelievers, turn up to a concert from the Choir of Kings College Cambridge composed of mostly church music. They quite happily disregard the fact that the music was composes and performed in order to glorify God. How much more enjoyment they would have had if they could affirm the words being sung!

I find myself agreeing with John Updike when he says:

It appeared to me that when we try in good faith to believe in materialism, in the exclusive reality of the physical, we are asking our selves to step aside; we are disavowing the very realm where we exist and where all things precious are kept – the realm of emotion and conscience, of memory and intention and sensation.
John Updike Self-Consciousness: p 250

A thorough going materialism is used to poor scorn on religion in general and Christianity in particular. But what, given the above, is the point? Such materialism uses a literal understanding of biblical texts in the same way that fundamentalist Christians do. Because some texts obviously imply a breaking of the laws of physics they are ridiculed as nonsense and superstition. But this is to ignore the deeper meaning. It is here that confessed materialists make a fatal mistake, a mistake that isolates them from several centuries of experience and meditation on the human condition.

But what, you ask, about transcendence? Surely Christianity boasts that it opens a way to the "other" to that which is not of the earth but of heaven. If we are alone in the universe are we not trapped within the cage of the self? It is relevant that much of the New Testament points to the importance of the neighbour, the person next to us. They provide the "other" that promises transcendence of the self.

Christian faith is communal. It is in the community of faith that we find we are not alone. The "other" is the gateway for our escape from the self and is, as such, along with the whole of culture and nature "not us" and hence transcendent. Scientists know the thrill of seeing what was hidden, artists the thrill of making the human drama apparent and so on. Transcendence is a this-worldly phenomenon.

What happens when we mistakenly reduce our field of view so that all religious insight into humanity is discarded? Firstly, we have to live as though the universe is a meaningless absurdity. We are Vladimir and Estragon lost in a blasted landscape waiting for Godot (God?) We are the madman in Nietzsche's tale of the death of God. The world becomes the theatre of the absurd and we must find something to keep hope alive. So we spend our lives in busyness, trying to make the world a better place only to find that we construct a very safe and healthy prison for the human spirit. We become excellent sheep.

The people of faith know of this, these are the living dying ones, closer to death than to life. They put their hope in technology and progress but each breakthrough leaves them unsated.