Schade - Incarnation: the harmony of one love in the totality of reality

Martin J. Schade

University Press of America, Inc.

Lanham Boulder New York Toronto Plymouth, UK

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Dedicated to
The Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, of the New England Province
and
Charles Edward Schade, Jr. and Dorothy Elinor Martin Schade

It is not by accident that Bob Marleys One Love/People Get Ready was named Song of the Millennium by the BBC. It is not by accident that the universal Hindu Aum, the Chinese Tao and Rastafari are all expressions of a dialectical unity found in the universe. It is not by accident that there is a riddim of creation, which was discovered and expressed in Jamaica. It is not by accident that Dialectical Incarnation is actually a dialectical one love and one heart of all reality. This book will explain why none of these events are accidents, but actually historical incarnations of the one harmony of love that is human, divine and the totality of reality.

This philosophy emerged when I came to Jamaica in 1982 to teach philosophy at St. Michaels Roman Catholic seminary in Kingston. While teaching Marxism, and its Dialectical Materialism, as part of a Contemporary Philosophies course, I found that I also needed to teach Hegels Dialectical Idealism. Marx had found it necessary that Hegels dialectic be turned right side up again since it was standing on its head. I also use parts of these in this book.

I now go beyond these preliminary presentations and offer a more complete and specifically philosophical explanation of Dialectical Incarnation. The major parts of this dissertation are the historical and philosophical explanations of how there is a unity of all reality and how much of Western philosophy has separated the polar entities of spirit and matter, divine and human, transcendence and immanence, subject and object. Dialectical incarnation breaks down this dualism and offers philosophical arguments that support the understanding that all of reality is a unified whole, that the dualism of Western philosophy is an illusion, and that God and Nature comprise a single harmony of incarnate love.

I have discovered that no one has written or articulated a philosophy of incarnation and the oneness of all reality in this complete manner. In this way the book has significance not only in philosophy, but natural theology and the understanding of reality in general. There have been attempts at unifying bi-polar entities in different forms of monism, but no philosophy has surfaced as it is expressed in Dialectical Incarnation. Unfortunately, much of Western philosophy has identified incarnation as being a revealed theological phenomenon, and specifically a Christian one which is exclusively associated with the person of Jesus the Christ.

The first limitation within this philosophy is not within the philosophy itself but rather with having to argue against the predisposed, revealed theological perspective mentioned. Incarnation is present in all of reality. The anthropomorphism expressed by the majority of humanity towards the transcendence of all reality is restricting the true understanding of incarnation. As will become evident, the synthesising of spirit and matter, divine and human, transcendence and immanence, is required to explain the complete and dialectical nature of the totality of reality.

A second limitation is the fact that dialectical reasoning is difficult in itself. Hegel admits this when he says that [dialectical reasoning] is perhaps taken for a joke [for it] is one of the hardest things thought expects to do. Because it is difficult does not mean that one should hesitate in trying to expand human reasoning.Within these initial limitations the philosophy still maintains a theoretical framework of demonstrating a new dialectical method in perceiving all of reality. Seeming contradictions of opposites are in fact able to be resolved. The antagonism toward dialectical reasoning has been present since its discovery, yet philosophy must not be hindered by anthropomorphism and a strict Aristotelian logic. The hypothesis that all of reality is one is conceivable when dialectical reasoning is properly understood. The fact that different entities are, in fact, distinct from one another does not constitute a separation. Therefore, the ultimate objective of this philosophy is to finally break down the dualism which has insidiously established itself within the major framework of Western philosophy. In that this planet earth and its consciousness through humanity have entered into a new millennium it is of paramount importance that one remains open to the ongoing evolution of all of reality. With all said and done, I welcome all readers to the discovery and the philosophical explanation of and argumentation for the philosophy I call Dialectical Incarnation: a harmony of one love, one heart in the totality of reality.

The first acknowledgement must go to the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, who gave me the vision to find God in all things and the intellectual and spiritual stimulation to desire such a pursuit; to Dorothy and Charles Schade, whose love is the condition of the possibility of my own individual incarnation. Acknowledgements go to Professor Ron Tacelli, SJ, of Boston College, my first mentor in studying philosophy; to Dr. James Gillon, SJ, who invited me to teach philosophy at St. Michaels Seminary in Jamaica, where the idea was first conceived; to Professor John Randall Sachs, SJ and Professor Roger Haight, SJ of Weston Jesuit School of Theology for guiding me through Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Karl Rahner; to Professor Harvey Cox of Harvard University for guiding me through Paul Tillich and the understanding of incarnation through culture. Acknowledgements continue to go to the University of Technology in Jamaica, who gave me study leave; and to John and Barbara Schade Ferraro, who assisted financially. Finally, acknowledgement must go to the universe, which is the very condition of the possibility of this book.