Earlier this week I had the chance to spend some time in good discussion with friends. The topic of discussion, spurred on by the burgeoning spring season, was the seed. And both in our discussion and my personal reflection on the seed it became clear that the essence of the seed is potential. Within the seed is so much potential… but that potential is yet to be realized. And that potential (seed) may or may not be realized, depending on what is done with it. This is one important theme of Jesus’s parable of the soils (or parable of the sower) in Mathew 13 (and other places). In reflecting on potential as the essence of the seed and what it means for the self, I recalled:
…the self is just as much possible as necessary; although it is indeed itself, it has to become itself. To the extent that it is itself, it is necessary; and to the extent that it must become itself, it is a possibility [or potential]…. Surely what the self now lacks is actuality…. [Yet] it is not the case… that necessity is a unity of possibility and actuality; no, actuality is the unity of possibility [potential] and necessity.
Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death, p. 66
So in understanding the self, there are three concepts here to grasp: potential, necessity, and actuality. Who one is in actuality is a synthesis of one’s potential self, or what one could be, with one’s necessary self, or who one is now. Another way to put this is that one’s essence in actuality is the marriage of what one could be (potential) with what one is doing now (necessity), because what one is doing now either brings into being that potential (making it actual), or it does not… in which case the seed (one’s potential) is wasted. So the essence of one’s self is not only who one is today, but it is also that self that one is becoming… which depends upon one’s actions and decisions today. The self that clings to possibility but does not yield to the necessary steps it takes to realize that possibility, loses itself.
Here the self becomes an abstract possibility; it exhausts itself floundering about in possibility, yet it never moves from where it is nor gets anywhere, for necessity is just that ‘where’.
Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death, p. 66
So it is the synthesis of possibility and necessity that is the essence of the self as it unfolds within the dimension of time.
But what if we consider the self from another dimension, one of a higher order… that of consciousness? For a self cannot possess the will to synthesize one’s potential in the future with one’s actions and decisions in the present apart from consciousness. Here within the dimension of consciousness, the self in actuality is the synthesis of the infinite with the finite.
The self is the conscious synthesis of infinitude and finitude, which relates to itself, whose task is to become itself, which can only be done in the relationship with God. To become oneself, however, is to become something concrete. But to become something concrete is neither to become finite nor to become infinite, for that which is to become concrete is indeed a synthesis.
Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death, p. 60
These two dimensions of the self are isomorphic: Just as the self in time is a synthesis of one’s potential with one’s necessary actions and decisions today, the self in consciousness is a synthesis of the infinite (soul… and its potential) with the finite (body… as the necessary element). But necessary for what?… The body (finitude) is necessary for the soul’s (infinitude) expression of its potential. And that expression is the self.
Just as it is true that the ripe tomato on the vine is a synthesis of the seed (potential) and the (necessary) elements [soil, water, sunlight], the self too is a synthesis of the seed from the infinite (soul… and its potential) and the necessary (finite) element [the body]. Our language expressions of Father God and mother earth are no accident, though we seldom consciously reflect on their meaning. There is a clear sexual image here, a marriage of the infinite with the finite in which their union produces oneself. And oneself is created when the seed of “the One” from the infinite (soul) is implanted within the soil of the earth (body).
In the synthesis between the soul (infinite) and the body (finite), that infinite potential works within the necessary finite to formulate the best possible expression of itself that it can. And the first task in necessity is to develop that vehicle by which one’s potential may be expressed. And that’s exactly what happens! That breathe of life (spirit) in us, which is conceived at the synthesis, moves to organize and formulate the body utilizing the material it is given to work with.
That breath of life unpacks the genetic material passed down in the finite and begins to utilize it as the blueprint for constructing the body. And that genetic material is a significant part of the expression of other selves passed down from generation to generation, streamlining and improving on past designs within the finite in order to maximize that potential expression of this self in development now. So each individual has an expression (self) to make, but the collective human race is likewise contributing to ever clearer, culminating, maximized, and diverse expressions of the infinite over time too. Why diverse? Well because the infinite cannot be grasped or contained by the finite… the material is too limiting, and so the unity that is the infinite must find unique and diverse expressions in the material world to maximize the potential in those expressions (selves). And together, the many diverse expressions find harmony and unity in their song of the infinite (God, or “the One”).
And so that breath of life (spirit) unpacks the genetic material and gets to work, developing that body by which it is to find its expression. As the spirit moves to construct the body it finds necessary the addition of material to work with (food, etc.) by which it constructs the body for its expression. And yet even now, in constructing that body, the spirit finds an expression. And that expression is the self now in necessity, but synthesized with the potential of what it could be in the future. And it is this synthesis of necessity and potential, of the now and the not yet, it is this spirit which is conceived in the union, which pushes the self within an infant forward in development (motor development, cognitive development, emotional development, moral development, language development, psychosocial development) up through childhood and in to early adulthood.
Kierkegaard presented us with three stages along life’s way: The aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious. And he was right that the aesthetic is necessarily the first stage in life by which the self finds its expression in the developmental process. In order for the spirit to develop that self by which it will maximize its potential expression in the future, it makes the body its primary focus during childhood. In childhood, it is the development of the body which is necessary for maximizing the future self’s potential expression. And so, the aesthetic is the means by which the body maximizes in development. And as that development occurs the potential of the soul (infinite) regenerates itself in the body (finite), for it creates potential within the body itself as a vehicle by which it may maximize its expression (self) in the world.
Still, that potential now generated within the body must be harnessed by necessity in order to actualize its infinite expression (and not be hijacked for merely finite expressions). And so the self enters a new stage intended to harness the potential within the body, the ethical. And this is exactly what happens! As a child grows and enters adolescence and then young adulthood, gradually more and more emphasis and energy is directed toward moral and ethical responsibilities in order to harness the potential within the body and steer it in the right direction. More energy is given to self-discipline in order to maximize the potential which has been generated in the body.
And the last and final stage is that ultimate expression in which the body with all its potential aligns properly with the soul in all its potential, which aligns properly with the One in all His potential (which is infinity itself), unifying the infinite with the finite in so powerful a way that its euphoric expression (which is worship) generates ever more life. How does this happen? It occurs as one’s self reaches the culmination of its expression, the limits of its capacity and comes to recognize that it is not enough, and can never possibly be enough. For how could the finite possibly capture and contain the infinite? And so the self recognizes its empty state and lays itself before “the One”, yielding to that which is beyond itself. And by laying itself down, it receives life freely.
Again, a clear sexual image emerges here, as the One fills one’s self with His Holy Spirit. And that Holy Spirit produces fruit within the self, what is called the fruit of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control) [Galatians 5: 22-23]. And that union, that worship, is both expressive and submissive without limits in its infinity, but limited only by the capacity of the finite within the self. So in time, the finite within the self gives way, fully yielding to the power of the infinite within, and in death lays itself down in full submission to that greater power which cannot be contained.
When my feeble life is o’er
Time for me will be no more
Guide me gently, safely o’er
To Thy kingdom’s shore, to Thy shore
*Accompanying music for this post is Just a Closer Walk with Thee, performed by the Avett Brothers at Virginia Tech in 2012. I attended this show with two good friends and this song was the highlight. You can have a listen by finding it at the following youtube link (and you get to watch the performance of this song too).
Life Existante 