Preface

The essays presented in this book are a chronicle of sorts. Originally posted on-line between April 2006 and February 2009, they trace my evolving thoughts as I allowed myself to liberty to entertain ideas and concepts beyond the scope of "Orthodoxy" as practiced in Western Church tradition. There are more essays that were written during this period but they are not immediately concerned with the subject at hand. Yet, I cannot claim that they are exclusive of or isolated from what was experienced in my thinking on this spiritual journey. The focus of them at the time was not a matter of "spiritual" interest, but rather political or economic. Saying this, I do believe there is no area of life or thought which is true or isolated unto itself and one area affects the others. This is true of what we experience in the realms of spirit and thought over against and in relation to what is our experience in life as we are "materially" bound creatures. The question is, "Was experience in the material creation the result or cause of what we comprehend in our spiritual minds, or which came first, the chicken or the egg, or does it even matter?" All of life and reality, however we may experience it, is connected, and there is no part that is isolated unto itself. This I have come to believe over these recent years. That is not to imply that we have figured it all out, that is by no means the case. But as we, the human race, continue in our collective progression, we come closer to understanding the reality that is our mutual experience. We progressively "know" more, more than we did previously, and it is this unfolded knowledge which we realize as "truth". As we live in the "truth" our individual and collective experience of reality broadens. We, the enlightened, walk in newness of life. Yet there are resistances to this "new truth", which really isn't new, but only rediscovered. Religious doctrines and past traditions become chains and fetters binding us to incomplete and often archaic modes of living and thought, virtual roadblocks without detours, leaving humankind stuck, stunted and spiritually and materially retarded. The end being death by spiritual suffocation, physically active, containers of enough half-truth to sustain the appearance of life, yet never coming to a progressively fuller knowledge. Stephan Hoeller, a bishop in the Ecclesia Gnostica and lecturer and writer who has influenced me greatly, has stated that in early Church history, when gnostic concepts were declared heretical, there was no reason that the varying concepts could not have evolved alongside one another, inferring a more mature and complete understanding of truth, reality and Christ. This not being the case, those truths or concepts of truth and reality once rejected are now coming to light and being rediscovered affording us in this current age the knowledge and insights once hidden and/or denied us. I am not so nave as to believe that the introduction of this "new" knowledge and truth cannot or will not be contaminated, mutilated and manipulated into a plethora of various dogma and doctrine, in too many cases, it will be. That is the nature of humanity attempting to work out by entirely material "canal" means that which is a transcendent spiritual truth, borne in, and out of and through our individual and collective unconscious. Yet as more of the human race becomes collectively conscious the manifestation of reality accordingly progresses and we evolve in our

humanity and that which is of us divine. We come to know and experience our relation to all reality. I first began writing around 1985, from notes I had taken in the course of personal Bible study begun around 1974 and following. The study continued through the early years of marriage and raising a family. Eventually I was teaching adult Sunday school, not in a small discussion group, which was the norm, but as a lecturer with questions and answers following. This led to a thesis I wrote and self-published on the first eight chapters of the book of Romans, focusing on chapter 6,7 and 8. Most pastors I submitted this too were reluctant to discuss its contents with me. I later learned that this was due to its "Gnostic" nature, which at the time I was unaware was declared "heretical" by Orthodox accounts and I do not believe the "men of God" approached were knowledgeable enough on the subject, except to understand that gnostic concepts were "forbidden" and they would rather not go there. Over the years I had continued to submit this for pastoral review, none being willing to discuss or take issue with what I had written. These essays, though separated from the original writing by some 25 years are essentially an outgrowth, a natural progression or extension from that original "That Grace Might Reign" put forth in 1985. From February 1974 through December 2005, I had been a faithful active participant in any of a number of Orthodox Evangelical Fundamentalist communities. From Charismatic-Baptist to Orthodox Presbyterian and back again to "Prophetic Charismatic", I led my family with varying amounts of satisfaction and agreement in each. Each had their strengths and weaknesses and I strongly believed and proselytized the fundamentals of the Orthodox faith. Yet, I believed and recognized something more, something most were either unable or unwilling to consider. I cannot with any absolute certainty make a judgment as to which. All I can attest too is that the more dogmatically entrenched anyone or in mass others were, the less freedom of thought was regarded as a virtue, the more oppressive the environment of the fellowship became and the concept of freedom in any of its myriad of possibilities diminished. Yet, in earlier, younger growths of fellowship, as it were miracles seemed to abound and despite the seeming chaos and disorder joy likewise abounded and fellowship was in no ways hindered, but flourished. These seeming virtues and positive qualities I have long since ceased to attribute to the "Orthodox" Christ, but rather believe they are the manifestation of the human spirit, material and divine, experiencing a seldom realized release of the spirit, unburdened by the cares of religion, dogma and doctrine. I believe the human being is both spirit and material (physical, corporal). All that is manifest as matter is first conceived in our minds. The realm of matter is the product of what we conceive in our conscious mind, but that is not all that exists of reality. It is only as our minds progressively grow in consciousness that more and progressively more of reality becomes a manifestation of our individual experience. Yet there exists more than we experience, our sense providing only a small window into that which is. My experience of reality is undoubtedly different than yours; we do not conceive and experience the same. You, or I , may be more perceptive of any of a number of things, both those material and spiritual. But because one of us does not experience what the other does, does not invalidate the reality and experience of the other. It may well be a

deficiency of perception exists and attention to the needs of growth applied in order to circumvent the deficiency in question. I realize that a position as I have stated opens the door to much in the way of charlatanism, which is why I advocate the necessity of all to be educated as to their own part and play in the reality of spiritual matters. Charlatans have abounded and still abound even the more in this day. This is due to the ignorance of the masses of so called believers, witnessing that with which they are not familiar and being sucked in via their gullibility I.E. that which is a wonder must be of God, and attributing it to God, excusing a laziness of mind not to apply oneself to "know" that which is in the self and is the divine. Stephan Hoeller, who I referred to above, made a statement to the effect that he believed there is a move toward the secularization of much that is perceived as spiritually new or recently revealed and he was not sure this is not a good thing. My own experience would tend to support this. I have many contacts and friends across the gamut of religious thought, including atheists, agnostics, those from virtually every world religion, not to mention political ideologies, and among them are those exhibiting more than a little, and most a great deal of spiritual insight, and to the chagrin of Church leaders most surpassing even the most dedicated of Church goers. Having said this I cannot unequivocally renounce the Church. I different areas to varying degree, and certainly some more than others, the Church has made efforts to fulfill the call of Christ as they perceive it in the Canon of Scriptures. Still there is no universal benchmark and limited to the Bible scriptures as defined by Orthodoxy and each denomination and often each individual congregation's pastor, a state of anything goes, any which way we can make it go, the consensus of popular opinion or ruling elders being the only real factor determining possibility. Among the overall mass of Christian adherents there seems to me an inordinate lack of knowledge of the history of what became their "Orthodox" faith, and if there is any, it is spun with whatever makes the most favorable impression to the Orthodox cause. This I find deplorable, for if Church history and the formation of dogma, doctrine and the Bible were as objectively examined as may be possible, the tainted nature of what Christianity became and is would disgust the most faithful of believers, driving them out of the pews and into the streets demanding and searching for anything that is real and true. And I'm not so sure that is not the way it should be. I do not presume to suggest that the concepts and perceptions presented in these essay's is absolute or complete unto themselves. If anything they are an introduction, a beginning point of reference to some who may be searching for, and possibly already experiencing a deeper, fuller manifestation of life than has traditionally been understood and accepted in Orthodox frames of thought. I believe there is much here to be expanded upon, and as others (myself included) proceed on our spiritual journeys, more will be added and revised concerning these. This, as it occurs, will please me as having played my part, having been true to that which I have come to understand and "know" as reality. I will have "run the good race", I have "kept the faith". Bob Couchenour - February 2013