(6) New Creation

"We see that in Christ the world of space and time is not
annihilated; it does not disappear but it is transfigured, and
that is precisely what St. Paul means by the New Creation.
The New Creation is this present creation transformed into
the spiritual creation...All material laws are simply stages in
evolution. At the inorganic level there are certain laws
operating, and then new laws come into being as the earliest
living creatures emerge. Later, new laws develop pertaining
to the animal level, and later, still, other new laws develop
pertaining to human persons. The next stage is the
transcendence of finite being, as we enter into the divine
consciousness and into the divine mode of being..."
[Bede Griffiths, O.S.B., A NEW VISION OF REALITY: WESTERN
SCIENCE, EASTERN MYSTICISM AND CHRISTIAN FAITH,
Templegate Publishers, 1990, pp. 168-169.]

Comment: The late Bede Griffiths was a famous Benedictine
monk who left England to eventually establish an ashram in
India. (It was a pioneering effort to found a Christian community
that would incorporate the customs of Hindu life and thought.)
Fr. Bede was also supportive of the theoretics of the New Science
emerging during his last years.

As for his above statement, I had to smile when I read it. The
flow of his evolutionary approach to emerging universal laws
corresponding to ever higher forms of Life corresponded well
with one of my intellectual/spiritual heros: Teilhard de Chardin--
the Jesuit and paleontologist who espoused a modern concept
of the Cosmic Christ in relation to his Cosmogenesis theory.
It would seem that Bede Griffiths was on the same wavelength,
so to speak.

Actually discovering a Benedictine monk--well known, too--
moving into these contemporary science theoretics, connecting
them with his faith system, with the Christ, quite comforted me.
Because at the time, I was academically moving fast into the
field of "Science and Spirituality."

Having worked for many years as a Science and Technology
Analyst, I had decided to move more into a new field that
included the study of Evolving Systems. This effort was especially
prompted by my earlier foray into Theological Studies. I had
come around from the usual religious perspectives to the equally
interesting psychological perspectives about God, about Christ,
and being aware of the emerging New Cosmology, I began to
realize that we had new data from which we might glean more
about the Plenum of the universe.

In Western religio-philosophical terms, this Plenum--this Ground
of the universe--was the Godhead, the Logos, which the Christian
Fathers took to the next level, by declaring Christ as the "Incarnation
of the Logos." Christ--as the Pantocrator--was deemed the Ruler
of the universe and had come among us! And when he left this
world, he promised that the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit as Counselor,
would come to guide us.

I can only guess that the Spirit guides each and every one of us
in ways that connect with our talents, our natural inclinations, so
as to help us to begin to conceive of this New Creation (of which
Fr. Bede speaks). Teilhard talked of the "Divine Milieu" in which
the Cosmic Christ is ever drawing us forward.

But building this New Creation will take many different hearts and
minds, employing a myriad of approaches. And I have to wonder
how the elements of the Benedictine Tradition might apply in light
of all the great insights come our way about the universe, not only
astrophysical discoveries but also psychological discoveries.
Might Benedictine wisdom help us apply these discoveries towards
enhancing our condition and consciousness in this world?

It would seem that in order to take our modern knowledge-base
and move it forward might be a necessity towards taking that
special next step into the "Divine Milieu," into the New Creation.
Yet, even with ever evolving knowledge we desperately require
*wisdom* as we move along. So I'm glad that some Benedictines
are moving into our modern knowledge-base, because they will
likely begin to understand how their Tradition--even though ancient--
might apply to our new understandings of Creation.