Maturity

How might we think about maturity?

First, I suggest that maturity is rather like a growing into something whereas immaturity is like a staying behind, a not being what one is supposed to be when one is supposed to be it. This implies that at every stage of life there is a maturity (a way we ought to be) relative to that stage.

For this reason we do not expect a five year old to wine or to ponder metaphysics; we do not expect a thirty year old to play with playdough or a seventy year old to be consumed with emotionalism.

In addition, we might see that God has so designed the stages of life in the fallen society that in each stage if we do not yet know Him as we ought then that stage will end in dissatisfaction and deliver us to a new stage of life which also will end in dissatisfaction until finally our desires relative to the stages of our life lead us to the highest desire for meaning and divine communion. Thus if the thirty year old does not know God or meaning he awakes to a mid-life crisis.

In this way the adolescent leaves off caring about peer groups alone but also begins to care about sacrificial love and communion (sex). This is appropriate because sex is about personhood and God uses this as a means for revealing His own person - see how God is educating our desires?

Second, we might say that maturity is relative to proper function. Every acorn becomes an oak and every baby an adult and every baby human male a man such that maturity is relative to design in general or in particular. A lion and a shark are both beautiful creatures but it would be absurd for a lion to try and be a shark and vice versa. So to0 a man must be a man and a woman a woman and neither be children. The glory of the others are not diminished by the fact that they are different either by nature or development.

Third, immaturity then is either staying behind in stage 1 when we should be in stage 2 and/or it is maturing out or proportion to our proper function (thus becoming an athiest is like a tiger trying to blow his snout!).

Fourth, it seems that God uses this pattern of maturity to prepare us but also to serve as a counter to original sin. Thus we are bent to sinning but God has so designed that another inclination is at work to lead us to Himself. I think we see this in our doctrin of original sin and in progressive revelation and in the presence of evil itself. He both educates our desires and brings us to the end of ourselves.

Dare Say, Be Men!

I dare say, Be Men!
And flee perpetual vanity, perpetual immaturity
For the hosts of heaven are not joyed
to be entertained by unadmirable, fruitless celebrity
But bored instead, I dare say Be Men!

How strange a thing to see a man
Who like a boy still plays
Who long bemoans the growing age
Where wisdom speaks its secrets
But takes a joke instead, I dare say Be Men!

Tuck in your shirt, lace up your shoes
Read a book, pull up your pants
Go to work and pay your dues
Run from sloth and smallish things
But excellent instead the rarity of Man!

Argument & Community (Ourselves)

So we ask: "Yes, yes, argument is valuable but how do I begin to learn this art?" Let me give three suggestions and two principles of argument to start thinking about.



Suggestion 1: Start or join a "Christian Fellows Society" where you can discuss and debate and present and refute ideas with other friends of the faith (or not?). If this sounds daunting then think about it as the task of getting together with a couple of other guys to have coffee and talk theology, philosophy, ministry, manhood, being a husband, etc. Start somewhere. This is a good place to ask tough questions and then go on to learn how to answer them through one another's discussion and/or reading and then returning for discussion later. This can be done online as well although not as useful . . . and as a last resort.



Suggestion 2: Next time you want to present an idea or defend one or bring up a tough question (to your wife, pastor, etc.) then take time to write down the idea or objection into a single sentence or two. This forces clarity on your part and the more you do it the better practiced you become at it so that eventually you can spout it out without having to write it down.



Suggestion 3: Choose a subject of interest and begin to read, read, read, and then read a little more. Make notes in the margin. Also, use this interest as a starting point for presenting an idea (it doesn't have to be original to you) and defending or discussing it to the society or some group.



Principle of Argument One: Learn what it means for a proposition to be "self-referentially incoherent". This means that a proposition cannot live up to its own standard. Consider the following:

Prop. 1 - "Every statement is caused by the material synopses of the brain. Therefore, statements are neither true nor false, just the result of material forces at work."

The problem is that prop.1 cannot, then, be either true or false. So why listen to it?



Prop. 2 - "One must not judge others because there are no moral absolutes."

But then one cannot tell me not to judge. So why pay attention to it?



Prop. 3 - "All truth is relative."

Even prop. 3? Then we need not heed the point.



Each of these propositions refute themselves. Learn to look for this in argument.



Principle of Argument Two: Learn to properly "quantify" your arguments. The following propositions mean very different things.



Prop. 1 - All philosophy is destructive.

Prop. 2 - Some philosophy is destructive.

Prop. 3 - No philosophy is destructive.

Prop. 4 - At least one school of philosophy is destructive.



Or consider,



Prop. 1 - All men have free choices.

Prop. 2 - Some men have free choices.

Prop. 3 - All men have some free choices.

Prop. 4 - All men have at least one free choice.

Prop. 5 - Some men have at least one free choice.



In other words, learn to be clear and do not refute yourself by the very proposition you are entertaining.



Sound irrevelent? Not in the slightest. Today I am sure that you will present an idea or proposition no matter how simple whether to your wife or children: "Evangeline, all children must always tell the truth." "Landis, some little children are brats. Don't be one!"

Say what you mean, and mean what you say.

Knowing God in your work

"Practice husbandry, we say, if you are a husbandman; but while you till your fields, know God."

(Clement of Alexandria, Exhortations to the Heathen, X)

Blessend men, know God in your work! He your contemplation! He your every thought! Forsake Him not at your desk nor leave Him at your devotionals but carry Him moment by moment in your very souls. Let your minds eye be fixed on His loveliness, enamoured by His awesomeness, and trembling at His fiercesomeness. Be the men of Him!