Transfiguration through the Experiential Understanding of the Word Applied:
The Teaching of Roger Bennett
Introduction: Self-knowledge and self-deception
Even the Ancients understood that true knowledge begins with accurate self-knowledge:
To the degree that the words inscribed over the oracle at Delphi were “Know Thyself”:
“Then did you notice somewhere on the temple the inscription ‘Know thyself'?”
“I did.”
“And did you pay no heed to the inscription, or did you attend to it and try to consider who you were?”
“Indeed I did not; because I felt sure that I knew that already;
for I could hardly know anything else if I did not even know myself” (Socrates to Euthydemus in Xenophon’s, Memorabilia, 4.2.24-25).
And we could continue further to Socrates next question:
“Is it not clear too that through self-knowledge men come to much good, and through self-deception to much harm?” (4.2.26)
With his answer
“Those who do not know and are deceived in their estimate of their own powers, are similarly disposed toward other people and other human affairs.
They know neither what they need, nor what they are doing, nor those with whom they converse;
but wholly mistaken (diamartanō) in all these respects, they fail to come to the good and stumble into the bad” (4.2.27).
And we could point to these same themes in Plato’s dialogues, from Phaedrus, 229e-230a an the Apology, 21d-22a to Protagoras, 343b, etc.
The question for us, however, 2500 years later is whether this is actually true?
Do our own self-deceptions lead us to be “wholly mistaken” (diamartanō) both in regard to ourselves and towards others (with that particular Greek word intensifying the later NT term for “sin” (hamartánō)?
Or more positively, does wisdom actually require an accurate understanding of ourselves?
From Socrates to Augustine a thousand years later…and Calvin in the next millennia
The counter to this focus on self-knowledge is the question:
Shouldn’t we seek to take the focus off of ourselves?
And the answer to both is:
“Yes.
And yes.”
The inescapable reality is that without precise knowledge of ourselves (our temperaments, our strengths, our weaknesses and the accompanying pathologies), our relationship with ourselves, with others and even with God Himself will be continually plagued by our own cognitive distortions and self-projections.
Augustine will go on to write,
“I have become a question to myself and that is my weakness” (Confessions 10.3)
As Augustine came to know, taken up by Calvin in the next millennia, this knowledge (or ignorance) will extend to God Himself:
“Our wisdom, in so far as it is deemed true and sound wisdom, consists in two parts:
The knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves” (Calvin, Institutes, I.1.1).
Blinding: From where?
The problem, however, is our blinding.
A blinding partially due to our own pathologies, those inherited from our families, those passed down through the cultural systems in which we have been raised and educated and churched.
And over all, those due to the fact that our own understanding (nóēma) has itself been blinded:
“whose understanding (nóēma) the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe,
lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them (II Cor 4:4).
Understanding restored: From the “left” to the “right” side
The following series of teachings by Roger Bennett centers on the truth that the Word is an eternal light.
And when it shines on us, it first reveals to us the darkness of our minds and the vanity of so many of our pursuits, which, we come to realize…if are actually honest… are based on works, not grace; on achieving, not receiving; in performance, not faith; fueled by our little human methods and resources, not the extraordinary riches that flow forth from internalizing the Gospel of the Father’s Love.
As such, our “spiritual ministries” do not glorify Christ but ourselves; do not build up His body in love, but “bind heavy burdens, hard to bear” on others that break them down.
And so there is the paradox:
Our “good works” have quite terrible effects on those around us.
Roger’s teaching makes clear that when we become human doing not human beings, our works have the paradoxical effect of separating us from our true self, from others and, finally, from God.
For we are operating on the “left-side of the conscious chart” (see image below).
And the evidence of this is that our relationships become progressively marked by criticism, judgment, impatience and unforgiveness…that arise out of a state of dishonesty…which fuels unrealistic expectations of ourselves and others that drive us into a performative perfectionism.
And though our “ministries” may thrive from this perfectionistic do-ism (of the “left” side), the flourishing will only be temporary. We will progressively burnout and our relationships will suffer; because we have been cut off from the source of live and love and grace and forgiveness (i.e. the “right” side) that flows down to us moment by moment from the Throne of Grace.
Understanding who we actually are in Christ—our true identity, based not on achieving within the fallen third-dimensional metrics of This Age; but on receiving our fourth-dimensional inheritance from the Father—enables us to move from the “left” side of performance to the “right” side of being.
Six decades of experiential teaching
An opening foundational teaching (a sine qua non) to all that follows:
Delighting Yourself in the Father’s Love (Ps 37:4; Jn 15:9)
The Gospel Applied to Relationships & Marriage (8-part series):
Part II (II Tim 3:16-17, cont.)
Part VIII. Grace vs Law in Parenting, Personality & Marriage?
