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Study guide to The Inward Morning by Henry Bugbee pg. 157-181
“But as we learn to take things in their darkness, their utter density and darkness, as we can acknowledge them in the intimation of their finality, then we stand upon the threshold of receiving the ultimate gift of things, and obscurity within us gives way to utter light.” (163)
It is said that we live today in the “postmodern” age, in a world “after virtue” flickering about amongst the “twilight of idols” long dead and soon to be forgotten. The supposed cause of this is that after our old mythos — and the categories, symbols, and values supported by it — had become unbelievable, the rationalism that was to take its place became intolerable. A romantic revolt arose positioning the subject, the unique individuality that each of us inhabits, against the brave new world of homogenizing objectivity. Away from reason, we fled into the warm embrace of feelings, emotions, sentiments, premonitions and intuitions: an impenetrable bubble of Self.
Apparently Bugbee did not get the memo.
In this episode, we explore his notion of “things”: their relationship to us and their relationship to eternity. For Bugbee, a thing is not some object over there that we subjects look upon from afar, but rather co-creators in our existence that form the inextricable “tissues of meaning” in which our lives are immersed. Not only do these relationships connect us in space, but also across time — and beyond. Our participation with things is also our participation with the “light of eternity” that shows us what is.
Bugbee seeks a place to stand beyond both modernity and beyond the supposed post-modernity we now inhabit — beyond the opposition of subject-object, rationalism-romanticism, materialism-idealism.
Perhaps, it would be wise to for us join him there?
