Phenomenology as Clue to Phenomena

It seems a good time to point out something that may not be obvious.

For those of you familiar with philosophy as an academic pursuit, you recognize that I use the terms and some ideas from Phenomenology. You may also recognize that I take them in a different direction entirely. My underlying assumption is that all of Creation is alive, sentient and willful. If the question is first-person experience of reality, then we have to treat reality as the second person. Meanwhile, every other human is by birth alienated from Creation and from their divine heritage.

Jesus set the pattern in no uncertain terms: We speak to Creation as a person. With His authority, Creation responds as a person under authority. The Roman Centurion had it right (Matthew 8:1-17). This kind of authority is what we surrendered in Eden, and to some degree it is restored by following Christ.

Phenomenology is not a matter of following Christ, but among the other choices we might have in pursuing philosophical questions, it’s the better path. We are missing a vast lore of intellectual assumptions that belonged to the ancient Hebrew people. As we promote the heart-led way of life as a covenant community, some of you will never feel drawn to such questions. That means you are called to trust your brothers and sisters who do have the calling to pursue such things. Not that you swallow everything they say, but that you come with an open mind and pass these things before your heart to verify or deny.

There is no objective truth upon which we all are supposed to agree. There is only a common acquaintance with the person of reality, which would naturally tend to overlap with some common experience. We all get to know this person in our own unique encounter, because it’s part of getting to know God the same way. He won’t react to each of us exactly the same because He made us all to be unique. Thus, what we share is not binding truth, but suggestive truth. The proper use of words to share these things is not as containers of truth, but as indicators to where one should search out truth. Heart-led communication is not descriptive, but indicative.

Thus, all of my teaching is suggestive, not binding on you. I rely on the Holy Spirit to witness to the truth of my words in terms of applicability. The question is not whether I am right, but whether you can use it.

In the past I’ve discussed something called the “Game Theory of Socio-sexual Response” as proposed by someone else. In particular, this theory proposes a hierarchy of male types. You should understand that this is an inherently Western model, not biblical. This hierarchy exists only in Western society; it is not fundamental to human nature. It can be applied to non-Western societies to some degree, but largely because Western values have leaked over into the whole world. Those archetypes of masculine identity don’t fit well into the ancient Hebrew society. There are some useful observations in the map of hierarchy, but it’s not the whole truth. The biblical shepherd male is not in that hierarchy.

Thus, I do not suggest you aspire to any of those listed roles. All of them presume a pagan background, a non-biblical approach to truth and reality. They do reflect what you will find in Western society, but not what you find in the Bible. We can use that theoretical model for what it gets right, but not as God’s truth. The gospel requires that you escape that matrix.

So, for example, that model explains the likes of Trump as a classical Alpha Male, particularly in the weaknesses of that role. He’s a blowhard, a highly competitive man of inflated ego and demonstrated arrogance. It works because he’s dealing with a Western nation.

It also explains why the alleged “Deep State” lacks the total control they would like us to believe they have. There aren’t any real Alphas in the Deep State apparatus. A basic rule of Western Alpha Males is that everyone caters to them in broad general terms, so they have no use for bureaucracy and rules. The Deep State bureaucracy rests entirely on non-Alpha resentment.

Don’t get drawn into that trap. Trump is not a good guy; in biblical terms he’s repulsive. He’s just moderately successful in the context. Meanwhile, there is a huge army of even more repulsive creatures opposing him and trying any and every way possible to remove him from office. This whole drama is part of God’s plan for destroying the US government, and bringing His wrath on America. Trump is an important manifestation of that wrath; his behavior and character help us to understand the shape of God’s wrath.

This takes us back to quantum moral reasoning: Reduce things to their simplest terms and apply those moral truths at multiple levels. Within the context of doomed America, the whole Trump show is almost amusing. In heart-led terms, he’s a total boor whipping up a frenzy from resentful Deltas and Gammas, who are in turn deploying their army of twisted Omegas to attack him. Meanwhile, the Betas are drawn to Trump as the only way forward with the plunder.