Infinite Actuality of Love, part 2

To have any fair and complete metaphysical discussion, you have to back up to some foundational level. A great place to begin is the question, "Why is there something, rather than nothing?" ...let that one sink in for a while.. :)

One historical Christian response is the Infinite Actuality of Love. We exist because of Love. And God's love has always and will always be actualizing itself. Of course, many would argue against this answer, but to have any discussion, you have to begin somewhere, and I'm going to proceed with this as my foundational presupposition. God is love, and therefore must actualize his love in some way.

Freedom is also at the heart of the discussion, and as I mentioned in the previous post, Open Theology answers the evangelical questions about the nature of our freedom and the suffering resulting from the freedom we've been given.

But the problem with evangelicalism, open theology, modernism, and capitalism is that our definition of freedom rests on the ideal that the highest level of freedom is the "freedom of choice." We are most free when we have the choice to decide what we will do with our freedom. Will we decide to do good or to do harm?

But what if there was another definition of freedom that could be more ideal?

Again, let's back up. One complication with our metaphysics is that we don't understand the synthesis between the supreme "will" and supreme "intellect." And because it's difficult to fuse the two, we inevitably position one above the other. When the "will" becomes superior without any guiding intellect or principle to guide it, the will then becomes wholly arbitrary. This arbitrary will then has the freedom to "choose" whatever it pleases. Sound familiar?

Our evangelical presuppositions, without thinking about it, have defined the ideal of freedom as the "freedom of choice," a philosophy based upon thoughts of a supreme being acting wholly on an arbitrary will, with no guiding principle or intellect.

(I haven't thought much about a superior intellect without the will, but this is beside the point right now.) When the intellect and will are synthesized, however, the will can be guided by a principle. This is what could be defined as the infinite actuality of love. God has always and will always be acting wholly according to a superior principle - love.

The logical conclusion to this understanding is that we find the highest ideal of freedom only when we are acting according to God's love. And because love is what resulted in something rather than nothing, it also follows that anything outside of his love is essentially nothing, or non-existent.

So, the issue of choice still remains - harmful human choices which result in atrocious sufferings around the world.

God's will and intellect could also be defined or described as authority, and two types of authority exist. The authority of constraint and the authority of appeal. The authority of constraint simply stated, is rules based, e.g. our governing authorities insist that we stop at a red traffic light. The authority of appeal, on the other hand, is founded by the freedom given to choose what authority will be followed. An appeal is made, and it is either accepted or rejected. Our experience tells us that love is never granted from the authority of constraint. It is, however, sometimes bestowed upon someone or something from the authority of appeal. God, our ultimate authority, appealed to us through his son Jesus Christ, that we may accept or deny his appeal. Love, the authority of appeal, necessitates the freedom of choice be granted to humanity.

But where modern evangelicalism falls short today is in the misunderstanding that our freedom is found here in its highest form.

Love, the guiding principle of the supreme intellect is infinitely actualized by the supreme will, and we are granted the opportunity, because of love, to live within the freedom which is love. In other words, we are most free when we are living according to his love.

Unfortunately, many of us choose to live outside of that love and the inevitable result is human suffering.

In the midst of the suffering, however, God is always and will always be appealing to us to live within the freedom which is his love.

In his will and in his intellect - in his very essence, he is the infinite actuality of love.