Wednesday, April 22, 2009

(4) The Meme

Of course if I were more able, if I were an expert in Comparative
Religion, I would have spent more and more years writing a
*series* on the Majestic Meme--not just the book that I was
putting together on the Christ of Faith. I would have looked into
the great Oriental religions and philosophies, and I would have
no doubt that I could follow the Majestic Meme weaving through
Asia's imagery and expressions of God, resulting in magnificent
temples and mystically spiritual forms.

Essentially what I was sensing was how this Majestic Meme was
working in the minds of different people, in the different cultures of
Western Civilization, moving us forward. Yet I took into account our
human response to this special meme--in that there are horrid
negatives as well as wonderful positives.

It would seem that God, the Logos-Pneuma, the Spirit works upon
us, tries to draw us forward towards a greater comprehension of a
Greater Reality, of which we are all a part. Alas, however, we are
a struggling people, endowed with the freedom to make wrong
decisions, walk down wrong roads, indulge in wrong behavior.
Hence our relationship with God can take on evil hues. There's
that Shadow of which Carl Jung speaks, both personally and
socially. Unfortunately we oft commit some our greatest acts of
terror in the name of God.

Anyway, my year at All Souls came to an end. My research was
complete, and at least the infrastructure of yet another book was
in the making.

However, priorities are priorities! My priority at this point was to
find yet another roof to put over my head. Should I stay in Oxford?
There was no doubt I loved the place; but there was a place that I
loved far more: Canterbury and its beautiful cathedral.

I decided to go home.

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