The dangers of dualism

Week 1: Wednesday
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Reading

Ephesians 4.1-6

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

Reflection

Ancient Greek and Roman thinking was strongly influenced by the notion that nature and life needed to be separated between the world that we can sense and the perfect world that we can only imagine: between the real world, and the ideal world.

The Letter to the Ephesians rejects this kind of “dualism”, insisting on the reality of one God, one faith and one Christ. Yet dualistic thinking has caused problems for the Church from the outset. Accepting non-Jewish believers was the first hurdle of the Early Church. Later, European Christian missionaries to Africa and the Americas from the fifteenth century onwards treated indigenous cultures as idolatrous. Yet, these cultures were fertile grounds for the development of Christianity. Such “dualism” is dangerous because it creates division and conflict unnecessarily, hindering the good news of Jesus Christ.

Watch

Notice any moments when you begin to see life in black-and-white terms.

…and pray

for the humility to accept grey and multi-coloured realities in life.

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