A Succinct Summary of the Theology of Gary Marvin Davison
The
Universe banged into existence 13.8 billion years ago, an expression of Divine
Longing to emerge from the Known Unknown into Life of Eventual Human
Perception.
Divine
Exuberance formed Earth 4.5 billion years ago.
Simple cells took life comparatively quickly, just under a billion years
after the earth formed, but not until 500 million years ago did fish swim in
the sea. Amphibians crawled onto the
earth about 360 million years ago, and reptiles roamed some 60 million years
after that; then about 200 million years
ago mammals moved across the surface of this planet. Birds flew across the skies at about 150
millions years ago, and flowers bloomed some 20 million years thereafter. But not until 60 million years ago did the
earth know primates, and the Great Apes did not make their terrestrial entrance
until another 40 million years had transpired.
Not
until 2.5 million years ago--- tens of
millions of years after the appearance of those Great Apes--- did creatures of the genus homo appear, and life ensued another
million years before representatives of that genus walked upright. More immediate progenitors, of the genus homo and the species sapiens, trod the expanses of East
Africa for the first time only about 200 thousand years counting backward from
this year of 2024.
Thus
is humanity very young, an infant in the time, a creature evolving spiritually
in Time.
Searching
for meaning and impelled to communicate with that Force, those Forces that
seemed to determine Fate, humans first expressing religio-spirituality honored
and supplicated Nature in all forms taken by Nature. Religio-spiritual animism, pantheism, and
polytheism dominated the Quest for Divinity for the first 200 millennia of
Humankind’s Earthly Sojourn until at a juncture very close to our own, in
approximately the 18th century Before the Common Era (BCE), the
Hebrews of West Asia asserted the supremacy of their God of both Love and Stern
Justice over others in the area, and then just three millennia later the Aryans
arrived on the Indian subcontinent and along with spiritual seers whom they
found in Pakistan and India developed some of the most powerful concepts of
spiritual insight: illusion, detachment, emptiness, concentrated
awareness (mindfulness), high-focus meditation.
Then
at the midpoint in the sixth century Before the Common Era (BCE) the sage Confucius
and the elusive Laozi imparted Great Wisdom in China and Siddhartha Gautama
revealed the results of his Quest.
Five
centuries later came Jesus of Nazareth with a message asserting the spiritual
supremacy of Divine Love and offering salvation to Hebrews in fulfillment of
the spiritual essence of the Law; Jesus
became Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah who would resolve the dilemma of
human imperfection.
Then
in another half-millennia came Muhammad in Arabia, disturbed by immorality and
dispersed divinity, impelled by dramatic epiphany, articulated a rigorous
monotheism that directed the attention of flawed humanity toward a one,
unerring, supreme God of nonpareil Truth.
Thus
did the major great figures of spirituality and moral philosophy impart to
humanity the wisdom that would guide many other innovators such as Guru Nanak
and Joseph Smith and the theologians who would develop the ideas of the
spiritual founders as humanity moved toward the second millennium and into the
third millennium of the Common Era (CE).
In
the meantime, the rationalists of the 17th and 18th
centuries CE Enlightenment asserted human capacity to utilize what can be
proven scientifically and discoveries made through the powers of human reason
in the service of humanity, toward the development of humane and justly
governed society. In this way, humanity
came to envision justice variously via liberalism, socialism, and communism; to understand the functioning of Newtonian
terrestrial and Einsteinian cosmic physics;
and to grasp principles of human behavior most insightfully asserted and
empirically demonstrated by Freud and Skinner.
Thus
from the many centuries of spiritual revelation and two centuries of
rationalist thought do we have powerful concepts upon which to work our own
innovation.
My
own theo-spiritual innovation is expressed as follows >>>>>
Of
the spiritual seers of history, Siddhartha, the shadowy Laozi, and Jesus have
given me the most powerful ideas, variously, of Ethics, Divinity, and Meaning.
Siddhartha,
the first embodiment of Buddha, gave us the most insightful formulation of the
reality of Existence, in which the reality of human suffering is embraced and
acknowledged with intense acceptance, disciplined detachment, universal
compassion, highly focused meditation, and ultimate spiritual release.
Jesus
took on the suffering of which Siddhartha spoke as His own responsibility,
called all seekers to Him, and provided the supreme example of Life as an
expression of Unremitting Love for All Human Beings and, by extension, for all
Creation.
Laozi
asserted that none of the insights of seers such as Siddhartha and Jesus, or
the prescriptions of ethicists such as Confucius, are to be claimed as Ultimate
Truth, for the Way of existence and nonexistence is ineffable and human beings
are humble seekers, not knowers of the Way;
Existence, by inference and metaphorical allusion, unfolds in a mystical
process of identity and interaction of forces that only seem to be opposites.
Upon
this Daoist insight into human humility in witness to the great forces of
Creation do we stand in awe of the Cosmos.
We focus on what we can know scientifically and rationally while
allowing ourselves to feel the power of spiritual expression from the many
traditions. We live with the calm,
focused, disciplined Awareness of Siddhartha;
we move forward with the Love of Jesus active in the world. We allow the only-seeming opposites of
Divinity and Rationality to Coexist, guiding us through this one earthly
sojourn.
We
each use our Divine gifts to make this one Earthly Sojourn as materially
beneficial and spiritually satisfying as we can for our fellow human
beings. We Love abundantly, with and
without differentiation, specific to those most precious to us and general for
all humankind. We live each moment in
gratitude for each blessing and all Blessings;
we feel deep appreciation for each Joy; and we embrace the reality of suffering,
sickness, and physical death. We live
with compassion for all, including ourselves, as we experience the perceived
opposites of Joy and Suffering.
Then,
near the end of our Earthly Sojourn, we appreciate all that we have experienced
as Truth and Divinity, all that we have
learned from objective investigation and reflection, all opportunities to use
our talents to the benefit of as many people whose lives we can make better by
the power of Love in action.
We
lie on beds giving rest to our physically dying selves, a smile of love and
gratitude on our faces, knowing that we lived every moment in the spirit of
Love, Happy that we did the best within our capability.
Then
we calmly appreciate our individual opportunity in Eternity.
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