{"id":136,"date":"2006-10-06T00:15:28","date_gmt":"2006-10-06T00:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/summametaphysica.com\/ge\/101000-unified-formulation-general-buttress\/"},"modified":"2018-04-23T20:54:38","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T20:54:38","slug":"101000-unified-formulation-general-buttress","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.summametaphysica.com\/ge\/101000-unified-formulation-general-buttress\/","title":{"rendered":"1010.00 UNIFIED FORMULATION: GENERAL BUTTRESS
(pps.153-155)"},"content":{"rendered":"

hard cover page 153<\/p>\n

We have presented a theodicy which preserves concepts of Divine omnipotence and benevolence in the context of a unified theology\/philosophy. We have presented a unified metaphysics within the constraints of Jewish doctrine, consistent with its historical development and consistent with secular scientific thought.<\/p>\n

The themes we have focused on are subtle, but are implicit in the biblical text. It is appropriate that our generation, which first saw its fellow Jews stare with horror into the dark abyss, and now witnesses the denizens of the entire planet standing on the precipice, should bring these themes to the surface.<\/p>\n

When Jonah protests God’s reversal of Jonah’s prophecy that Nineveh would be destroyed, God replies:<\/p>\n

Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: and should not I have pity on Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle?
\n-Jonah 4:10 f.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What are we to say in the face of far greater evil and destruction? In order to reconcile the evil of the past, our formulation reverses direction and looks to the ultimate purposes of man.576<\/sup><\/p>\n

… theodicy must be eschatological in its ultimate bearings. That is to say, instead of looking to the past for its clue to the mystery of evil, it looks to the future, and indeed to that ultimate future to which only faith can look.
\n-Hick577<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Our formulation views the cosmos as encompassing the interaction of many dualities. These contain potential for evil, which<\/p>\n

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576 <\/sup>See Schulweis, Evil and the Morality of God<\/em>, p. 61. “In Wieman’s evolutionary theodicy, the eye is fixed upon the future, whose promise of growth rescues the apparent evils of the past.”<\/p>\n

577 <\/sup>Hick, “Faith and Knowledge,” p. 521.<\/p>\n

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hard cover page 154<\/p>\n

is the inexorable consequence of the creation of potential for good.578<\/sup> In this environment, man, God, and the cosmos all seek to achieve their potentials.<\/p>\n

Light is steadily pitted against the dark, and light will increasingly overcome the dark. In Rabbi Kook’s words [in Orot Hakodesh<\/em>]: “Nothing remains the same; everything blooms, everything ascends, everything steadily increases in light and truth. The enlightened spirit does not become discouraged even when he discerns that the line of ascendence is circuitous, including both advance and decline, a forward movement but also fierce retreats, for even the retreats abound in the potential of future progress.”<\/p>\n

This vision of development “gives us ground optimism in the world” in the face of all discouragernents579<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But in order to realize his ultimate quests, man must operate from a base of freedom\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe ultimate Divine gift.<\/p>\n

But I prefer to live in a world in which man has the right to make choices, albeit wrong choices, rather than a world in which no choice at all is left to him. In other words, I prefer a world in which, on the one hand, a phenomenon such as Adolph Hitler may occur, and, on the other hand, phenomenon such as the many saints who have lived.
\n-Frankl580<\/sup><\/p>\n

God willed man to be free.
\n-Soloveitchik581<\/sup><\/p>\n

Out of distress I called upon the Lord; He answered me in freedom.
\n-Psalms 118:5<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, the free will defense, in isolation from concepts of quest for potential and the motif of Divine contraction, ultimately fails. For the free will defense requires a radical<\/p>\n

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578 <\/sup>Note that while our formulation has some common themes with the Irenaean, the two diverge on many fronts. Among other differences: According to the Irenaean, the choice is God’s, not man’s. According to the Irenaean, the purpose is growth, not quest. According to the Irenaean, there is a full-time real-time omniscience, not a contraction. According to the Irenaean, the theodicy is independent of creation, not integral to the cosmic process.<\/p>\n

579 <\/sup>As written or cited by Bokser in Abraham Isaac Kook<\/em>, p. 21.<\/p>\n

580 <\/sup>Viktor Frankl, “The Philosophical Foundation of Logotherapy,” in Strauss, Phenomenology:<\/em> Pure and Applied (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1961), p. 55, as quoted in Tradition<\/em> 19,no. 4 (Winter 198 1).<\/p>\n

581 <\/sup>Soloveitchik, “The Community,” p. 13.<\/p>\n

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hard cover page 155<\/p>\n

reinterpretation of the central concepts of Divine omnipotence and omnimercifulness.<\/p>\n

Only by tracking back to creation and discerning a core cosmic dynamic directly impacting theodicy, can a viable theodicy be constructed. This general imperative and line of attack was realized most acutely by the Lurianic kabbalists. However, in their earnest fervor they pressed way beyond areas of mortal competence and objective conjecture, and found themselves in the elusive arena of mysticism.<\/p>\n

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hard cover page 153 We have presented a theodicy which preserves concepts of Divine omnipotence and benevolence in the context of a unified theology\/philosophy. We have presented a unified metaphysics within the constraints of Jewish doctrine, consistent with its historical development and consistent with secular scientific thought. The themes we have focused on are subtle, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"yoast_head":"\n1010.00 UNIFIED FORMULATION: GENERAL BUTTRESS (pps.153-155) - David Birnbaum Summa Metaphysica I<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.summametaphysica.com\/ge\/101000-unified-formulation-general-buttress\/\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"https:\/\/www.summametaphysica.com\/ge\/101000-unified-formulation-general-buttress\/2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"1010.00 UNIFIED FORMULATION: GENERAL BUTTRESS (pps.153-155) - David Birnbaum Summa Metaphysica I\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"hard cover page 153 We have presented a theodicy which preserves concepts of Divine omnipotence and benevolence in the context of a unified theology\/philosophy. 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