Philosophy Study, June 2021, Vol. 11, No. 6, 417-442 doi: 10.17265/2159-5313/2021.06.001 D D AV I D PUBLISHING Moral & Intellectual Life of the West II Summary Outline of Christianity in the Modern World for Devout Christians and Skeptics Hermann G. W. Burchard Oklahoma State University, Stillwater OK, USA All human beings are born from divine mercy drawing man out of unfathomable reality’s chaotic depth into the divine realm’s peaceable light. The modern sense of justice, of fair government, depends on the teachings of Jesus to which all citizens must subscribe. This is not a mere ecclesiastic doctrine but an empirically proven fact. The imperfections of a finite albeit adaptable, very large computing system, which our brain appears to be, require us to be open to the infinite beyond, its recondite wisdom, for divinity to grant us a moral life & to come to our help. Jesus puts the individual human being center stage for the first time in history. The story of abounding divine mercy: Every day we humans struggle with the difficult moral law but Jesus taught us what matters most is our soul, St. Paul’s inner man, a biological function of our left brain. Relying upon the faith of the apostles, the Council of Chalcedon (AD 451) in its Confession affirmed that Jesus was an actual person in his substance, possessing two natures, human & divine. This widely has been interpreted to apply to all mankind, the soul of each human being, the inner man, is potentially divine. Forming a practical metaphysics for devout christians & skeptics: Metaphysics is needed for the purpose of undergirding faith. Origins of humanity in the deep structures of reality: Science appears to be opposite to our human spiritual existence & requires us to search for ourselves in the realm of the logos, that can serve as our guide, being one of the names of the Christ. Jesus was deeply influenced by the gifts of the Magi, brought to him from an Armenian revival during his age, source of charismatic theology, basic concepts & historical architecture. Survival by faith in the everyday human communal world: We must have a secure grasp of the Faith, its basics, memorized or divine help won’t come. Be a lifelong winner based upon your own inner man: The essential help from divinity, in our need, is granting us a moral life. Become a lifelong winner based upon your own inner man or woman. What it takes is a willing heart, a sudden inspiration. Version 1. Piety: To be aware of our marginal competence, nobody is born as a genetic loser. Version 2. Humility: To be ready for divine help, able to receive it, we need to take a step back. Version 3. Metanoia, the Ninety Degree Turn: Repentance, betterment is the beginning of faith for all of us. Miracles can & do happen, the down-&-out guide to happiness: Constant prayer is the effective remedy for a soul that has gone lost in the temptations of the human tribal world. Keywords: potentially divine human soul, its permanence and human existence, inner man, Kant’s inner & outer senses, orderly inner self & chaotic outer environment, brain laterality, double Ego, noumenal & phenomenal bilateral interior cosmos, metaphysical gap, divine mercy Dedication Across the centuries, over two Millennia, in praise of Jesus. Hermann G. W. Burchard, Prof. Emer., Dept. of Mathematics, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater OK 74078, USA. 418 MORAL & INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF THE WEST II Twenty-Five Theses: The Story of Divine Mercy, Faith & Piety Synopsis: Jesus puts the individual human being center stage for the first time in history. The story of abounding divine mercy: Every day we humans struggle with the difficult moral law but Jesus taught us what matters most is our soul, St. Paul’s inner man, a biological function of our left brain. We are here to tell the wonderful story of abounding divine mercy, faith & piety. Divine help can reach us by filtering into our moral lives each time we have a fresh experience of the world around us, of our neighbors, or the natural environment. Christianity is all about saving the human soul. Under any form of holistic scientific consideration, our soul, St. Paul’s inner man, our personal identity, our Self, appears to be a biological function of our bilateral brain. The brain’s neural circuits have evolved adaptively by Darwin’s rules during 4 billion years of life on planet Earth (Burchard, 2005, 2011, 2020a, 2020c, 2021). As described in the cited works, the soul, which lives in Saint Paul’s earthen vessel that we may identify as being identical with the complex bilateral architecture of the human brain, is constituted of two Egos, one each in the left & right hemispheres. It includes a bilateral interior cosmos, our world model; in the left brain our private Ego is exercising the power of the intellect, ruling over its free-floating thought-world or interior noumenal cosmos; but in the right brain, the public Ego faces the environment & in spontaneous kindness the human community, where the soul subjects itself to the moral law, representing all in an interior phenomenal cosmos. Personally, I am indebted to Saint Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church, especially for her Castel Interior, that I have long identified with my own idea of our interior cosmos, a free creation that combines our total experience into an orderly whole. The Hellenic1 word κοσμος means adorned, orderly, the same root as in the cosmetics that our ladies are relying upon. As the soul matures, it will change constantly, with every new experience. So it might be difficult to persuade folk of its permanence, as had been observed already by Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha (Radakrishnan, 1957), and also in modern times, by the French philosopher Henri Bergson (Burchard, 2011). Yet there can be little doubt that we each exist as a unique invariantly identical person. This is true, both in our own personal understanding and as an axiom of human social order, underlying public law. Life is tough, but late in life we can discover mercy. All of us owe gratitude for the mercy granted us & the forgiveness we have received, for the failures in our lives, the friendly greeting we did not respond to or a missing reply to a letter or email, even the haughty attitude toward our friends, colleagues & neighbors, when they did not measure up to our expectations. Americans understand mercy as fairness, a highly regarded virtue. There is a mercy movement in the Catholic Church. Our brain appears to be a very large computing system, finite but equipped with adaptable synapses. I like to identify the human soul with the noumenal & phenomenal bilateral interior cosmos, controlled by Brodmann Area BA10, situated behind our eyebrows (Burchard, 2020a, 2020c). It is constructed for holistic function & allows us to be open to divinity, to the infinite beyond, & to the recondite wisdom of the galaxies. Perhaps the changing world we live in is not willing to hear about “moral life,” with religion through the left-brain rear door access to the divine creator, whose mercy has provided for us with traces of his wisdom we may discover, scattered around his vast universe. 1 Greek, a word odious to the Hellenes, as it reminds them of their time in Roman slavery. MORAL & INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF THE WEST II 419 Next, in condensed form of twenty five (25) theses, we list the central Christian doctrines, loosely worded, but with reverence & love of our faith. (1) Jesus puts the individual human being center stage for the first time in history. Each sinner saved is worth as much as all the sheep in the herd, & deserves as much of his care.2 Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep, and lost one of them, wouldn’t leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one that was lost, until he found it? When he has found it, he carries it on his shoulders, rejoicing. When he comes home, he calls together his friends, his family and his neighbors, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!” I tell you that even so, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance. (2) As Jesus taught us, our soul, St. Paul’s inner man, matters more than our adherence to the moral code, though this should be perfect at all times, to the extent possible as a practicality. (3) Jesus is concerned with the soul of man, not his communal place in society:3 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ––Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” For whoever might desire to save his soul will lose it; but whoever might lose his soul for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? (4) We sense the message cited next at heart is close to the one stated above, though not identical with it:4 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.