What is the Purpose of our Living?

A Study in Modernist Space

Some would say that first discerning the purpose for which we live then determines the design and behavior of our living. This interpretation can be seen as truly “modernist” in its emphasis. An approach via a linear or minimalist path is constructed from problem (our purpose?) to its resolution, resulting in our design and behavior. This linear approach has often proved to be both powerful and elegant to us in the modern world.

Regarding behavior, the classical Greeks designed four philosophical constructs or “schools” of thought in which human behavior could be expressed. In tongue in cheek fashion, I have added (in parentheses) what I consider their present-day equivalents.

The Stoic – (Minister)

The Skeptic – (Scientist)

The Epicurean – (Playboy)

The Cynic – (Journalist)

While these schools of thought had existed for some time, they supposedly came to their most influence when the earliest attempts at building a perfect democracy had come to stalemate in Greece. Perhaps it was because democracy was never able to adequately fuse these four concepts. As a result, some in the society returned to the factional nature of these four ideologies or mindsets for the modeling of behavior. Sounds a bit close to home.

Near the end of the Fall of Rome, St. Augustine penned his influential De Civitate Dei, “The City of God.” Here again as with democracy in Greece, the political construct of the time, Rome, had crumbled. Attempting to bring fresh purpose or vision to a people possessed of cynical times, Augustine directed their eyes upward to a time to come in a future city. To some degree, the questions of purpose, design and behavior were directed more toward the future.But, some would say with little emphasis on the problems of the present.

Discussion:

What is the purpose of our living?

How is the purpose, the design and the behavior of our lives linked?

Is it a minimalist linear approach?

How do we avoid returning to factionalist behaviors?

What part as partners with God do we play in fulfilling these passages from  Isaiah?

Isaiah 65:17-25
65:17 For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.

65:18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.

65:19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress.

65:20 No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.

65:21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

65:22 They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

65:23 They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the LORD-- and their descendants as well.

65:24 Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear.

65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent--its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD

Walter Morton for Journey Across the Line.