The Need To Control

There is no doubt that all religious societies understand that a large majority of their identity is made up of attempts to neutralize individual's very valid experiences of God. Even at the beginning of formalized cenobitic life Benedict himself beheld all creation embraced in one ray of the sun. At the end of chapter seven of the Rule he names a dynamic spontaneity that emerges from contemplative reflection. Bernard of Clairvaux likewise names the spontaneous Degrees of Truth and the Degrees of Love in his writings on humility and on the nature of the true love of God. But the institution of any church cannot and will not allow this to dominate its identity. It would not do to allow the direct experience of God to get beyond control. At the very least it is necessary to neutralize this through organization; only a subdued charismania will be tolerated. But there are always a penalties for organizing religions this way: neurosis, compulsion, fanaticism, intolerance, narrow-mindedness, and petty forms of sadism, not to mention the discarding and riding roughshod over God as God continues to endeavour to break through into the lives of humans whom God loves.