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97 x we have been building some momentum, especially in the previous two chapters, writing of what is possible for people of faith. Believing, trusting, living with love even for the enemy—these are ambitious words of genuine transformation . We even ended chapter 4 on the note of hilarity. But things don’t always go that smoothly. Have we forgotten that we live on earth and that life on earth contains many challenges to this call to transformation? Are we infected with the virus of a mindless enthusiasm, a destructive “ecstasy,” where we stand insanely outside our true selves? We certainly do know of inhuman violence committed in religious fervor. Does religious faith call us to abandon the appropriate humility of shared life in an actual world? In a way, this question was recognized even in these chapters of affirmation, for we spoke of facing finitude and living against evil. There is a tone of challenge in such phrasing. But before drawing these reflections to a close, it seems wise to pause to note specifically the realities to be faced. Our guides, Kierkegaard and Whitehead, are not exempted from this task, as we shall see. They join us in the facing. They can help us identify the challenges and will provide some perspective as we proceed. At the very least, we need to respect our limitations and recognize the actual evil around us. Let’s start with respect. “Respect” has roots in the Latin respicere, “to look at.” At the very least, we can do that—look at the Chapter 5 to respeCt our limitations and reCognize aCtual evil, while living Creatively 98 love’s availing power challenging limitations seriously. But other meanings my dictionary provides for respect are “to show honor” and “hold in high regard.”1 I believe we can do that about our limitations, for the challenges need not shut us down and can provide a kind of cautionary service. But to do that, they need to be respected. And what about evil? In my dictionary, the ninth and final meaning of recognize is “to acknowledge as having the right to speak, as in a meeting .” In the Robert’s Rules for the meeting that this manuscript proposes, we do need thus to “recognize” actual evil, letting it speak to us—not least of our complicity.2 That surely makes sense, for only if we are truly aware of and acknowledge the obstacles can we effectively seek to combat them. Fair Finitude and actual evil Most of the subsections of this chapter are phrased as questions. But we can begin with an affirmation. Looking at our finitude, Whitehead and Kierkegaard would have us begin “respectfully” with words of honor and regard, for these guides come together to value highly our finite existence. From Kierkegaard, we can receive his underlining of the power of the self. Every individual self has some power; this one can will to be herself, can shape the mix of necessity and possibility coming together in freedom. With Whitehead, we catch the pulse of potentiality; things are happening. Good things can happen, for the universe is aimed at beauty. There are “propositions” (proposals of possibility) that invite our interest. These affirmations do not cancel the limitations we must face. Kierkegaard , of course, devoted an entire book to pondering the permutations of the created condition of anxiety. As one ponders one’s own potential, one sees unsavory possibilities out ahead. More basically still, the self experiences “the anxious possibility of being able.” Characteristically dialectical, regarding the self’s relationship to this anxiety, Kierkegaard says, “He both loves it and flees from it.”3 One is called to move ahead, but one feels pretty unsteady at the moment. We reach out to steady ourselves, but/and we fall. For Whitehead, the experience of the passing of every precious moment of life stands out in any listing of limitations. Up to this point, I have not cited the striking statement of this passing in the final part of Process and Reality: “The ultimate evil in the temporal world is deeper than any specific evil. It lies in the fact that the past fades, that time is a ‘perpetual perishing.’ Objectification involves elimination. The present fact has not the past fact with it in any full immediacy.”4 Even as I experience a moment of sheer joy, I do so knowing that it will pass. It is passing. I may remember it, but the experience of remembering does...

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