Called to the Sight of God

In the New York Times yesterday, Ross Douthat quotes Will Wilkinson, who quotes yet another author, with regard to a supposed distinctively American form of Christianity. In the article, the distinctive American religion do not seem very distinct. In fact, the general ideas--as summarized in the article--are often found in some of the oldest Christian writings, and in the Holy Scripture itself.

Two points are worth mentioning. First, Wilkinson writes that "American religion does Protestantism one better. Not only are we, each of us, qualified to interpret scripture, but also we each have a direct line to God. You can just feel Jesus."

This general idea--that we are all called to the direct experience with God--is not a novel idea. Many passages in Holy Scripture and the writings of the Saints provide examples.

He said not, Come ye, this man and that man, but All whosoever are in trouble, in sorrow, or in sin... .

- St. John Chrysostom

Saint Augustine and Saint Remigius teach that, by following the instruction "Come ye," we follow a direct line to God:

Come...for that is the spiritual approach by which any man approaches God...

- St. Remigius

Whither is the summit of our building to rise? To the sight of God. 

- St, Augustine

The Imitation of Christ says much more on this point.

Later on in the article, Wilkinson quotes Harold Bloom's work, which declares that "The American Religion" is focused on finding a divinity within that represents the "true self:"

In a magisterial study, “The American Religion”, Harold Bloom maintains that the core of the inchoate American faith is the idea of a “Real Me” that is neither soul nor body, but an aspect of the divinity itself, a “spark of God." To find God, then, is to burrow inward and excavate the true self from beneath the layers of convention and indoctrination.

The last idea in this paragraph--To find God, then, is to burrow inward and excavate the true self from beneath the layers of convention and indoctrination--is found not only in Holy Scripture but most clearly in the writings of the Saints:

[T] soul went forth, to set out upon the road of the spirit...which is called the way of illumination or of infused contemplation, wherein God himself... . Such, as we have said, is the night of purgation of sense in the soul. In those who have afterwards to enter the other and more formidable night of the spirit, in order to pass to the Divine union of love of God... ."

- St. John of the Cross