The Eternal Moment: Seeking Divine Presence in the Present (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798603821702)

"We know what we really want: something that we can't have-not while we remain in this world. Only we don't really know it... or our only chance of really knowing it, at any rate, is to wander through this world's art gallery-its long linear corridor of displays-until the exit door abandons us to scenes that are no longer enough."This is how Dr. Harris describes our incidental brushes with higher reality (often glimpsed in art, nature, or childhood) as we attempt to move from A to Z in accomplishment of our worldly tasks. Forming goals, of course, is a mark of intelligence, and achieving those goals a mark of determination and character. Yet we are also at constant risk of being absorbed by our linear endeavors: getting a degree, getting a job, getting a promotion, getting another promotion, finding a mate, starting a family, getting a better job... the tunnel often narrows as we age, and our plunge into it accelerates. The one thing we cannot doubt is that death awaits us at this tunnel's end. At that inevitable point of disembarking, what will we have to show for the journey?Harris suggests that we view higher reality as an eternal moment: a time frame wherein we retain much of the child we once were, and where our great-grandparents are our brothers and sisters struggling with life beside us rather than lost in a past we can never retrieve. While our minds are hardwired to conceive of time differently, theoretical physics is beginning to find evidence that a time almost beyond our understanding may indeed have many folds and overlaps; and in any case, our moral sense and our reverence for beauty imply that the most important things in life stand forever outside of the linear flow of events. Furthermore, just as experience alerts us that death awaits the body at the end of its terrestrial trek, so philosophy tells us that rigid cause-and-effect thinking cannot explain the start and finish of all we see.After the book's first ten chapters unveil this argument at a leisurely amble, the remaining ten chapters shift to an explicitly Christian perspective. Half of these examine the practical consequences of being alert to immediate but "off the track" realities, and half explore how distrusting linear time may unlock answers to several paradoxes of Christian doctrine. Dr. Harris is an advocate of the kind of "natural theology" nestled in Paul's letter to the Romans-the position that God leaves clues of His truth in the hearts of all human beings and in perceptible parts of reality. The discussion here leans so heavily upon common sense that it may displease certain sectarians, but its goal is always to produce a more coherent and liberating awareness of the spirit's role in our daily life.The Concluding Remarks acknowledge that these daily lessons sometimes clash with certain political forces surrounding us, as well. In fact, "future-worship" is in many ways the villain of the book from Page One. No compromise is sought with utopians who believe that human beings may be recreated according to the blueprint of some elite social engineer. The book is very clear, rather, about the threat posed by the political Cult of the Future to genuine spirituality.

Author: John R. Harris
ISBN-13: 9798603821702
Publisher: Independently Published
Language: English
Published: 01/25/2020
Pages: 140
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.47lbs
Size: 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.33d