Leaving Flatland

I recently saw that psychologist/philosopher Ken Wilber was on Brian McLaren's reading list, and I thought I'd take a look at him. To boil Wilber down to blog simplicity is to do him disservice. His wide popularity is for a reason. He makes a lot of sense. But how in the world does he relate to Christianity?



Wilber's ideas are what I would call "holistic evolution." He has charted or graphed what he believes are the four directions of evolution, that boil down to 3 directions: I, it, and we. You can't grasp this in a blog, and could barely squeeze it in to the space provided.



So what would be McLaren's interest in this guy (McLaren knows how to stay in hot water with the Christian community)? Emergent Christians are processing what I would call the Big Story, something I am also interested in doing with the 7K metaphor. McLaren calls it "the story we find ourselves in." His approach is different than mine; and he would probably find some of my theology a bit antique. But maybe not, because he appreciates how things fit together, as well as all forms of theological exploration. My approach is to pull up something ancient and see how it predicts where we are at now. Wilber does something similar, but in a different vein.



Age_____Characteristic____Psychology______Worldview
5-9 mo._Adualism_________Psychosis_______Archaic
<2yrs._emotional_________borderline______magic>
4____Conceptual_________Neurotic_______Mythic
6____Moral/Conventional__Script pathology__Prejudice
11___Worldcentric______Identity Crisis_____Modern 15+__Integrated________________________Post-modern


Just to explain Wilber's concept outlined above: We move up through the stages of life. This may relate to stages of growth in faith as well. But Wilber touches on the psychological states in each step of life from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. And there are characteristics that tend to mark each stage. For instance, the first stage of life, babyhood, is marked by "adualism." In other words, babies don't differentiate anything in their surroundings: it is too new.


If a trauma occurs at this stage of life, it can produce psychosis later on. The psychotic is then sort of riveted to this undifferentiated approach to the world around him. This stage of life has not been resolved. The natural maturation process has been broken.


This also relates to the "we", to societies. The earliest societies were archaic. The religion we get from these primitives is called "animism." It is the belief that all things have souls, basically. It is a worldview that is adual: it doesn't differentiate. It is totally unsophisticated. Today we find it in the most basic tribal systems in Africa, Australia, South America, and Washington DC (just kidding).


So Wilber traces this development up through the stages of this growth or progress or evolution as we actually see it in persons and history. He looks at all these processes as a whole, how they relate, and what they tell us.


We end up with societies reaching the place we are at now: high integration and post-modernism. What he calls the "flatland" of modernism is passing away. But Wilber is not content with present post-modernism because it is even more negative, still dwelling in "flatland", which is devoid of what he calls "Spirit."


When a person reaches adulthood, they have hopefully become integrated. Life has educated them to the point they can function. But modernism, even in the church, has in many ways sucked "spirit" out of society. We are utterly fragmented and shattered. Post-modernism reflects this utter fragmentation. All absolutes become suspect. The laws of the universe unravel when we get to the core. All we have left is what we believe from our own perspectives. And in the big picture even that is suspect.


In the church and religion in general (particularly monotheist) this paradigm shift creates a panic reaction from those who have embraced their modernistic reductionism. They erect a big stop sign to tell their followers "go no further." This tactic is a mistake. But it will create a crisis. 9-11 is a symbol of this. The world is polarized between the modern and post-modern at this moment. Fundamentalism is quaking and not wanting to give up its security blanket.


What this means for Christians is that they must change. The church needs to seek integration, wholeness. The church needs to humble itself in the face of these forces. The church still has the answer. But the modern equations and formulas will no longer suffice. They will lose their pontency. They will not be enough.


Basically, Wilber is trying to leave Flatland without losing what was good about it. He is hoping for a kind of psychological leap to occur in mankind, an integrating of the spiritual dimension into the social fabric. He has a vision of wholeness.


He wouldn't be thinking that the church has to get there first. But it does. Because the church has the answer: not in its seemingly endless versions of how to do Christianity, but in the One it is pointing to. Wilber wouldn't see it this way, of course; but he is trying to unlock truth, and he is looking at these things in ways most of us don't, certainly. He brings to the table an understanding of how the cuisine of history is finally shaping up in the oven, and what is lacking to make it a gourmet's delight.