Pathways to Mystery PowerPoint Presentation, PPT - DocSlides

Pathways to Mystery

Paths that people travel to become aware of their relatedness to MysteryHappen as we have experiences with the environmentsNo two are exactly the sameCan be on more than one at the same timeNot always chosen

PATHWAYS TO MYSTERY

CONTINGENCY

DIALOGUE and COMMUNION

COLLAPSE

DISENCHANTMENT

AMBIGUITY of MORAL ACTIVITY

CONTINGENCY

Things that really matter to us are dependent on something other than our own power and controlCan be experienced as positive or negativeAwareness that life is “given but not guranteed”

DIALOGUE and COMMUNION

“The person comes to be through dialogue with others”.Words at times are experienced as having a power to “transcend the people involved”.Power of love and acceptance experienced in communion may point beyond themselves

COLLAPSE

Loss of what seems to matter mostWhat is known and predictable seems to disappearThings don’t make sense in the way they used to“When out most prized assumptions about life are suddenly ripped from us…”

DISENCHANTMENT

Less severe than collapse; disillusionment leads to questioningWhat was thought be be true no longer can be assumed to be trueUsually part of growing up

AMBIGUITY of MORAL ACTIVITY

Arises out of trying to know what is right and wrong, and to do rightLeads to questions about ethics and moralityOur attempts to do good often have unintended results

QUALITITES of MYSTERY

Within (immanent)/without (transcendent)Awareness is fleeting and unbiddenAmbiguous-- for or againstReal

CONCLUSION

“Suddenly we are. We find ourselves in interaction with ourselves, our family and friends, society and institutions, and the universe. In our interaction with these environments, we become aware of a dimension of mystery which transcends yet suffuses every experience...

CONCLUSION cont.

“This awareness is sacramental, almost any finite experience can precipitate it. When we reach our limits, when we deeply dialogue, when our ordered worlds collapse, when we cannot enact our moral ideals, when we are disenchanted, we often enter into the awareness of Mystery...

CONCLUSION, cont.

“We are inescapably related to this Mystery which is immanent and transcendent, which issues invitations we must respond to, which is ambiguous about its intentions, and which is real and important beyond all else.”

NOW WHAT?