Neville’s Christianity is the forgotten key to regenerating western civilization.
We’ll continue today the theme started in the previous post. Neville offers a way to reconcile the picture of a discredited Christianity with the great stature that it truly possesses. This involves an appreciation of the psychological approach.
Judeo-Christian values disgraced yet irreplaceable
Here is a strange juxtaposition: Christianity is widely discredited because of institutional abuse perpetrated in its name; yet Judeo-Christian principles, as the foundation of civilization, express unparalleled conceptions of human dignity and liberty.
You couldn’t overstate the stark contrast of this discrepancy. On one hand, you have not only abuses by the state and corruption within the church, but the whole litany of Christian wars of persecution and conquest. On the other hand, you have the grandeur and nobility of the precepts of Western Civilization, which give you the rule of law; freedom of conscience; natural inalienable rights; justice with due process; constitutionally limited government under God, and so on.
Neville’s interpretation fulfills Christianity
What is the third element, that will effect a reconciliation of these two massive contrary forces?
Neville Goddard is vastly underrated. I don't think it is an exaggeration to say that his contribution, were it understood and realized, is as momentous as the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther himself – except that it would not unleash endless violence, but instead a quiet renewal from within the hearts of men and women.
How does Neville’s presentation of Christian scripture justify this claim? How does it solve the great contradiction between Christianity’s past failure and continuing promise? It is specifically his 1. psychological interpretation and metaphysics; and 2. declaration of Man’s nature and identity. These are the aspects of Neville’s Gospel – biblically derived, by the way – by which it fulfills the essence of Christianity.
Psychological grounding
If I fully realize my own being in the moment (see podcast S01E01; S02E7), I can see that conscious experience is the sole window into reality. If I refrain from introducing anything assumed or invented (that is, if I preserve parsimony) then I can propose a plausible explanation for reality. Materialism, surprisingly enough, requires the awkward imposition of assumptions that just don’t hold up, either in the physics labs or in daily empirical observation. Neville saw the metaphysical explanation of idealism in the supreme commandment (Mark 12:29): “Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord.” The interpretation by Neville is as follows:
Hear, O man made of the very substance of God:
You and God are one and undivided!
Man, the world and all within it are conditioned states of the unconditioned one, God. You are this one;
you are God conditioned as man. (Freedom For All, Ch.1)
The elegant thing about this proposal is that it requires only a provisional acceptance, on a trial or hypothetical basis. It is so self-assured that it does not need to be a coercive doctrine, but invites you at each stage to test it and discern inwardly the truth of the matter. (“Test yourselves...”; “Prove me now herewith...”).
Identity and nature of Man
If awareness of being, consciousness, is the sole litmus, and God himself is resident in Man, then God and Man are one. The immediate objection is that God in totality could not possibly be my narrow surface ego. Correct. We are “Sons of God”; i.e., fragmented and dissociated from source – something explained by Analytic Idealism (see S02E04). But if we study this concept and start seriously to entertain the idea, the effect is to remove all intermediaries between ourselves and the creative source itself. This gives you confidence in your destination in life.
In the podcast episode S02E11 we follow up with an experiment in change of feeling of oneself, and consider further how Christian precepts operate in the world psychologically. Listen to the audio or read the transcript.
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