Sleep in Heavenly Peace: Spiritual, Theistic & Theotic Epektasies – relating formative spirituality to eschatology

The lights of experience & reason, faith and glory – or of lumen naturale, fidei & gloriae – seem to roughly map to Helminiak’s spheres of concern or perspectives – spiritual (integrated with positivist & philosophic), theistic & theotic.

In each of these horizons persons would be in infinite potency to a corresponding set of certain relative perfections of accidental being, variously reducible as natural and/or obediential potencies, which is to say in agential terms, by creaturely (acquired) and/or divine (infused) acts.

Such acts are always synergistic, freely assented to & non-necessitated, even when effecting such realities as justification, predestination, impeccability, inancaritability, providence, infused contemplation, physical & spiritual healings, charismatic & sanctifying gifts, purgative graces, transitory visions and all manner of other efficacious gracings per inscrutable divine predilections & providence.

Each of these horizons, then, has its own epektatic dynamics, precisely because human persons are created in infinite potency to the relative perfections of our accidental being. Those potencies are reducible by those soul-crafting acts whereby we can co-self-determine both how as well as how much we’ll grow from image to likeness, as measured in terms of intimacy.

Each set of epektatic dynamics per each horizon of concern can attain its own sort of rest, what Nyssen called “stability in the good,” which I map to what we would call “sustained authenticity” in Lonerganian terms. This is to suggest that each horizon offers its own unique opportunities to co-self-construct various habits of self-transcendence, habits that become stable in their perpetual self-progression (not static in terms of mere self-possession). In other words, these different self-transcendent dynamics can each, in its own way, become Still (spiritual) Still (theistic) & Still (theotic).

Each set of epektatic dynamics per each horizon of concern, then, has its own sublation dynamics, which follow a Peircean-like norm of aesthetic primacy (over the ethical, which is then followed by the logical). In Lonerganian terms, religious conversion sublates moral, and moral conversion sublates intellectual.

If we generically conceive “religious” (re-ligate) conversion in those terms of self-transcendence to which we referred above, then, beyond the above-described horizon-tal sublation dynamics, we might also account for vertical sublations:

The light of faith can thus sublate the spiritual light of our lumen naturale to thereby introduce a new and distinct theistic perspective, which then provides a novel basis for our knowledge of God. This new perspective then allows our spiritual life to be carried forward to a fuller realization within the richer contexts of faith. Different faiths will vary in degrees of relative perfection and so variously (more & less perfectly) reflect rays of truth & holiness.

Analogously, grounded in our human – divine noetic identity (Aquinas) &/or divine energeia (Nyssen), the light of glory would introduce a new & distinct theotic perspective, which would provide a novel, yet unimaginable, basis for our knowledge of God that can carry both our spiritual & faith perspectives forward to a fuller realization within the richest context of all – glory.

Even in this life & historical dimension, a theotic perspective facilitates foretastes of this future glory, as gifted immediately though inchoatively through our intrinsic unrestricted desires & other tacit knowings or even via various infused gifts & transient visios beatifica (Tabor, Athos, Immaculate Conception, Paul, Moses). These foretastes of glory are also explicitly mediated & celebrated, especially via the Eucharist, Sacraments, Liturgy of the Hours, devotions, ascetical practices, etc

Finally, I want to suggest that there are aspects of our trust & hope, of our lights of experience & faith and even of our deliberative choosing, that may perdure eternally. Even while otherwise sublated by all manner of divine Showings, especially the Light of Glory, those other ways of knowing God will be neither interfered with nor destroyed. Rather, they’ll each be preserved with all of their proper features and properties and each will be carried forward in its distinct & perpetual epektasis to an ever fuller realization. Those diverse spiritual, theistic & theotic perspectives will forever provide the distinct contexts within which we’ll variously experience both primary & secondary beatitudes, as each, in its own way, will allow us to sleep in heavenly peace.

Note: This is a first draft that outlines my account abstractly. It could be bolstered by a few concrete examples, maybe hagiographic anecdotes.

The account below moves more toward the concrete but remains abstract. It is an outline to organize anecdotes, examples & storytelling, systematically.

The Self-Transcendences

Through self-transcendence via secular conversions (e.g. Taylor’s immanent frame & Lonergan’s Functional Specialties), we can attain spiritual dispositions that will

1) open our perceptions via an awareness that there’s more to any given reality than our own thoughts can suggest; descriptive specialty of experiential awareness & research;

2) open our minds to recognize the intelligence on display in other interpretations of any given reality outside of our own social and political circles; interpretive specialty of intelligent understanding & interpretation;

3) open our souls by expanding what’s reasonable to expect regarding any given reality beyond what our own feelings might suggest; evaluative specialty of reasonable judging – deciding & history;

4) open our hands by enlarging our sense of responsibility toward any given reality beyond the prudential concerns of our personal morality and practical considerations; normative specialty of responsible acting & dialectics; and

5) open our hearts to being in love with and beloved by others, the cosmos and even by our own self.

Through self-transcendence via theistic conversions (e.g. Lonergan’s critical Christian humanism, Method & Functional Specialties), we can attain spiritual dispositions that will

1) open our hearts to being in love with and beloved by God others, the cosmos and even by our own self.

2) open our hands by enlarging our sense of responsibility toward any given reality beyond the prudential concerns of our personal morality and practical considerations; normative specialty of foundations (exegetical, liturgical, historical & philosophical);

3) open our souls by expanding what’s reasonable to expect regarding any given reality beyond what our own feelings might suggest; evaluative specialty of doctrines (creedal);

4) open our minds to recognize the intelligence on display in other interpretations of any given reality outside of our own social and political circles; interpretive specialty of systematics (theopoetic & metaphysical idioms); and

5) open our perceptions via an awareness that there’s more to any given reality than our own thoughts can suggest; descriptive specialty of communications (pastoral, homiletical & missiological).

Through self-transcendence via theotic conversions we can attain spiritual dispositions that will

1) open our hearts to being in love with and beloved by God others, the cosmos and even by our own self; beyond seeing Him more clearly, loving Him more dearly & following Him more nearly per Ignatian degrees of humility, Bernardian loves, Teresian Interior Castle, Sanjuanist Ascent, Little Flower’s little ways, Lawrence’s practice of Presence – all which are fostered when we

2) open our hands by enlarging our sense of responsibility toward any given reality beyond the prudential concerns of our personal morality and practical considerations; normative specialty of foundations (exegetical, liturgical, historical & philosophical); we can experience Christ’s sacrificial presence in the people gathered, Word broken open, bread & wine consecrated, meal shared, memorial celebrated, covenant recalled, thanks given, liturgical hours observed, devotions prayed, contemplations to attain love in spiritual exercises & going forth to love & serve in corporal & spiritual works of mercy;

3) open our souls by expanding what’s reasonable to expect regarding any given reality beyond what our own feelings might suggest; evaluative specialty of doctrines (creedal); we can practice the Presence & trustful surrender to Providence, being not afraid, casting down wrongful imaginations & catastrophizings, cultivating ascetical disciplines like fasting & exercise as suited to our own unique spiritual & physical needs & addictions and almsgiving as others’ needs are uniquely placed on our hearts;

4) open our minds to recognize the intelligence on display in other interpretations of any given reality outside of our own social and political circles; interpretive specialty of systematics (theopoetic & metaphysical idioms); we can experience the Spirit’s universal presence in everything (and even do ontotheology) as prayer; and

5) open our perceptions via an awareness that there’s more to any given reality than our own thoughts can suggest; descriptive specialty of communications (pastoral, homiletical & missiological) and in the manner in which we live & move & have our being, we will preach the Gospel at all times, when necessary, even using words.

Excellent resource: Authenticity as Self-Transcendence: The Enduring Insights of Bernard Lonergan