• Who We Are
    • Who We Are
    • Mission
    • History
    • General Synod
    • Leadership and Ministry
    • Staff
    • United Church of Christ Board
  • What We Believe
    • What We Believe
    • Worship Ways
    • Daily Devotional
  • What We Do
    • What We Do
    • Office of the General Minister & President
    • Justice & Local Church Ministries
    • Wider Church Ministries
  • News
  • Church Finder
  • Donate Now
  • Search
UCC Logo United Church of Christ
  • Church Finder
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Store
  • Frontline Faith Portal
  • Donate Now
  • Search
  • Who We Are
    • Column
      • About
        • Mission
        • Constitution and Bylaws
        • History
          • UCC Archives
        • UCC Brand Guidelines
        • General Synod
          • Synod 33 Worship Videos
          • Past General Synods
        • Abuse Prevention
    • Column
      • Structure
        • Conferences
        • Affiliated Ministries
          • The Pension Boards
          • Cornerstone Fund
          • Insurance Board
          • The Council for Health and Human Services Ministries
          • Church Building & Loan Fund
          • Convergence
    • Column
      • Team
        • Elected Officers
        • Staff
        • United Church of Christ Board
          • Board Minutes
        • Office of General Counsel
        • UCCOSSN
    • Column
      • Career Opportunities
      • Annual Reports
  • What We Believe
    • Column
      • Worship
        • Statement of Faith of the United Church of Christ – La Declaración de Fe de la Iglesia Unida de Cristo
        • Worship Ways
        • Daily Devotional
        • Sermon Seeds
  • How We Serve
    • Column
      • Office of the General Minister & President
        • Welcome to Human Resources
          • Employee Relations Resources
        • Center for Analytics, Research & Development and Data (CARDD)
          • General CARDD FAQs
          • About The Center for Analytics, Research & Development, and Data (CARDD)
          • Authorized Minister Opt Out
          • Access UCC
          • Archived Reports
          • Assessment Resources
          • Information Policies and Requests
          • Faith Communities Today (FACT) Survey
          • MissionInsite
          • Statistics and Reports
          • Vital Signs and Statistics Blog
          • Data Hub FAQs
          • Data Hub
          • Yearbook and Directory
    • Column
      • Justice & Local Church Ministries
        • Justice
          • Faithful Action Ministries
            • Environmental Justice Ministries
            • Economic Justice
            • Racial Justice
          • Office of Public Policy & Advocacy in Washington D.C.
            • Justice and Peace Action Network
            • Our Faith Our Vote
            • Justice Training Resources
            • Action Center
          • Health and Wholeness Advocacy
            • Disabilities and Mental Health Justice
            • Encuentros Latinx
            • UCC HIV & AIDS Network-UCAN
            • LGBTQ Ministries
            • Our Whole Lives
            • Overdose and Drug Use Ministries
            • Scouting
            • Wellness Ministries
          • The Pilgrim Press & Stillspeaking Publications
    • Column
      • Justice & Local Church Ministries
        • Local Church
          • The Faith Education, Innovation and Formation (Faith INFO)Team
            • Weekly Seeds
            • Youth & Young Adults
          • Worship Resources
            • Worship Ways
            • Sermon Seeds
            • Synod 33 Worship Videos
            • Music and Liturgical Arts
          • Stewardship & Generosity Resources
          • Ministerial Excellence, Support & Authorization (MESA)
            • History, Polity, and Theology
            • Search and Call
            • Ministerial Profiles
            • Ministry Opportunities
            • Manual on Ministry
    • Column
      • Wider Church Ministries
        • Global Ministries
        • Global H.O.P.E.
          • Volunteer Ministries
          • Refugee and Migration Ministries
          • Disaster Ministries
          • Recovering Hope
        • Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations
  • Resources
  • News
    • Column
      • News
        • United Church of Christ News
    • Column
      • Columns
        • Witness for Justice
        • Into the Mystic
        • Getting to the Root of It
        • The Pollinator: UCC Environmental Justice Blog
        • UCC Roots
        • Encounters at the Well
        • Reflexiones
    • Column
      • Upcoming Events
        • Webinars
      • Subscriptions at the United Church of Christ
      • Changes & Deaths
  • Giving
    • Column
      • Donate Now
      • Ways to Give
        • Giving Tuesday
        • General Synod 2021 Thursday in Black Offering
        • General Synod 2021 Racial Justice Offering
        • Disaster Ministries: How to Give
        • Our Church’s Wider Mission
          • Our Church’s Wider Mission Basic Support
          • Strengthen the Church
          • One Great Hour of Sharing
          • Neighbors in Need
          • Christmas Fund
          • 5 for 5
    • Column
      • Ways We Give
        • Scholarships & Grants

  • Home
  • News
  • Column
  • Into the Mystic
  • Dualism

Dualism

by John Dorhauer | published on Apr 22, 2022

Listen to the podcast

Read the transcript

I grew up with heavy doses of Thomistic influence, which is to say a world framed in the dualistic tension between the material world and the spiritual world. In that world, we attach not just definition and characteristics to matter and spirit, but value and judgment.

The material is fleeting, earthly, and though not void of beauty – and rather quite because of that beauty – deceptively appealing because of its immediacy, knowability, touchability, and acquirability.

The spiritual is permanent, heavenly, and though of eternal worth often neglected in a world where instant gratification displaces for the impatient and the thirsty those things that come only through the disciplines of sacrifice, discernment, and delayed gratification.

Matter decays. It eventually dies.

Spirit lingers. It lives forever.

Matter attracts.

Spirit alludes.

Matter is detected.

Spirit intuited.

Those who settle for material gain are viewed by the more spiritually inclined as sinful, depraved, lustful, carnal, and prone to give in to the snares of the tempter.

Those who seek spiritual enlightenment are seen as noble, pious, holy, and focused on the eternal. They are willing to sacrifice the immediacy of gratification with the discipline of contemplation; the allure of acquisition with the patience of intuition; the certainty of possession with the art of cogitation.

It has taken me a while, but I don’t know that I inhabit that world anymore. I am sure that I don’t want to. In that world, the things that bring pleasure are viewed at best as acceptable if they ameliorate sorrow or pain – at worst as distractions from if not outright inhibitors of the more enlightened state of spiritual growth. Those with lower ambitions or with insufficient maturity could opt for the material if it made them happy – but they would always be seen as settling for something lower than what God offered through spiritual wholeness. One could empathize with them – but not lower oneself to become one of them.

Because of that, anything that brought me joy or gratification made me feel guilty, made me think I had bargained part of my salvation for the mere baubles of earthly gain or pleasure. I would feel good, then feel bad for feeling good.

Here’s the thing, though. My spirit can be healed by things that satisfy my body. My bodily pleasure can deepen my experience of spiritual enlightenment. A good song can settle my soul. A good meal can ease the pains that erode my spiritual health. The kiss of my beloved can erase the burdens of a long, hard, soul-sucking day at work.

I am much more of monist today that a dualist. I am learning to enjoy life without worrying about whether or not the extravagance I just afforded myself, the material things that brought me moments of pleasure, are going to distract me from spiritual growth. I experience material joy as a pathway to rather than a distraction from the sacred on this, our journey Into the Mystic.

Categories: Column Into the Mystic

Sign Up For Our Newsletter








Privacy Policy






Related News

Into the Mystic

Kindland

Listen to the...

Read More
Witness for Justice
Witness for Justice

Climate Hope

Earlier this week, a couple of related items in my social media feed serendipitously arrived...

Read More
Justice & Peace Action Network Monthly Newsletter

JPANet February 2023 Newsletter

Each month we ask UCC advocates to help us unpack the complex justice issues that we’re...

Read More
  • Column
    • Local Church and Conference Resource Directory
    • Mission
    • Justice & Local Church Ministries
    • General Synod Resolutions
  • Column
    • Contact
    • News
    • Store

Content on ucc.org is copyrighted by the National Setting of the United Church of Christ and may be only shared according to the guidelines outlined here.

1300 E. 9th Street, Suite 1100
Cleveland, Ohio 44114

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Subscribe on YouTube

Donate Now


UCC Crest
© United Church of Christ 2023. Privacy Policy.
Crafted by Cornershop Creative