20080211

physical is spiritual

today, i'm thinking the physical is only the subset of the spiritual that presents itself directly to our meager five senses. i think the gnostic heresy goes further than wrongly calling the physical evil. i don't think it is sufficiently rebuked by biblical and theological defense of the good of physical creation. i think that still oft leaves the assumption that the physical is by nature not spiritual. i didn't even really realize i was groundlessly making that assumption until recently (which likely shows how embedded in western culture the assumption is!), and now, after some thought, i think the opposite is true.

the physical is inherently, intrinsically, thoroughly spiritual.

of course, there is also spiritual that lacks the nature of being physical; the spiritual is not in the least limited to the physical. but the thought that the physical is also thoroughly spiritual seems increasingly sensible and biblical to me. and it's a real paradigm shift for me,
overriding questions about how the natural and spiritual interact and undoing reflexive devaluation of mundane physicalities. it was a first step to realize that everything can have spiritual implications and eternal repercussions (however little i still live like i believe that). now, i do not see how anything could NOT have such importance.

we'll see how the idea holds up, though it's new to me, i'm sure not the first to have it.

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