Not only all good things are God's, but they are good insofar as they participate/relate to /reflect Him, who is Good (Mark 10:18). The same goes for truth--all truth is God's truth, because a thing is true insofar as it participates/relates to /reflects Him who is the Truth (John 14:6). Again, it can be said of beauty--a thing is beautiful *insofar* as it participates/relates to /reflects God's beauty (Ps.27:4).
But if God is One (Deut. 6:4), and if He is Goodness, Beauty, and Truth (as per above) then that means that Keats is right: those three "transcendentals" are "convertible." Truth is beauty, beauty is truth, and so on. Or to put it another way, whenever we find goodness, we will also find beauty and truth; whenever we find truth, we will also find goodness and beauty, etc.
Showing posts with label transcendentals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label transcendentals. Show all posts
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Why Materialism Makes You Unhappy
via Brad:
Why Materialism Makes You Unhappy"
We propose four psychological needs. The first is safety/security, which is the need to feel like you’ll survive, like you are not in danger, like you will have enough food and water and shelter to make it another day. The second is competence or efficacy, which is the need to feel like you are skillful and able to do the things that you set out to do: I need to feel like a good psychologist, you might need to feel like a good journalist, etc. The third is connection or relatedness, which concerns having close, intimate relationships with other people. The fourth need is for freedom or autonomy, which is feeling like you do what you do because you choose it and want to do it rather than feeling compelled or forced to do it.
As I lay out in my book, The High Price of Materialism, people who put a strong focus on materialism in their lives tend to have poor satisfaction of each of these four needs. In part this is because of their development, but it also is because materialism creates a lifestyle that does a poor job of satisfying these needs. That is, a materialistic lifestyle tends to perpetuate feelings of insecurity, to lead people to hinge their competence on pretty fleeting, external sources, to damage relationships, and to distract people from the more fun, more meaningful, and freer ways of living life.
Or here's an even shorter Thomistic answer:
because we are not simply material beings, but beings made in the image of God, and so "according to the maker's instructions,"
we have to pay attention to the dimensions of our being which connect with truth, beauty, goodness, and love. In other words, we can't be happy apart from Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Why Materialism Makes You Unhappy"
We propose four psychological needs. The first is safety/security, which is the need to feel like you’ll survive, like you are not in danger, like you will have enough food and water and shelter to make it another day. The second is competence or efficacy, which is the need to feel like you are skillful and able to do the things that you set out to do: I need to feel like a good psychologist, you might need to feel like a good journalist, etc. The third is connection or relatedness, which concerns having close, intimate relationships with other people. The fourth need is for freedom or autonomy, which is feeling like you do what you do because you choose it and want to do it rather than feeling compelled or forced to do it.
As I lay out in my book, The High Price of Materialism, people who put a strong focus on materialism in their lives tend to have poor satisfaction of each of these four needs. In part this is because of their development, but it also is because materialism creates a lifestyle that does a poor job of satisfying these needs. That is, a materialistic lifestyle tends to perpetuate feelings of insecurity, to lead people to hinge their competence on pretty fleeting, external sources, to damage relationships, and to distract people from the more fun, more meaningful, and freer ways of living life.
Or here's an even shorter Thomistic answer:
because we are not simply material beings, but beings made in the image of God, and so "according to the maker's instructions,"
we have to pay attention to the dimensions of our being which connect with truth, beauty, goodness, and love. In other words, we can't be happy apart from Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)