Theological Materialism: Redeeming both materialism and spiritualism

(A response to “Honesty in the Face of Delusion,” by Mihail Neamtu, Modern Age, Fall 2010)

Materialism has at least as high a standard as spiritualism in the theological materialism of the Theoevolutionary Church. It is not only materialism which caused the “disenchantment with the sacred” (Neamtu). Rejecting the material world---the real base of spiritualism---caused disenchantment with both materialism and spiritualism.

In reality, atheism offered consumerism, nihilism, hyper-individualism, and the oblivion of modern philosophy. But religion offered anti-materialism which can also become a form of nihilism and oblivion.  Atheism sinks into a void, but spiritualism sinks into the nothingness of anti-materialism. 

Religion offered the pursuit of individual happiness tied to a sacred teleological goal, but the goal was all inward, seeking the God Within, the Father-Within. Materialism could not offer a teleological goal, at least not until Supermaterial Godhood was understood as it is in the Theoevolutionary Church TC).

Theological materialism reshapes or revitalizes the Traditional Inward Religions, both West and East. We do not throw out the religious traditions as atheism does, we renew the sense of belonging to a long past, present and future religious history, while including the history of materialism in our religion.

The final answer to the exuberance of the pagans is not the anti-materialism and monasticism of spiritualism, but the fulfillment of the promise of both spiritualism and materialism in evolving to Supermaterial Godhood. 

The Twofold Path in the TC contains both the Inward Path of Traditional Religion and the Outward Path of sacred evolution.  The Inward Path leads to the virtual God Within, which is later attained in the evolution of the Outward Path to Real Supermaterial Godhood.

Both materialism and spiritualism need a new raison d'etre which is more than the empty libertarianism of materialism, and more than the anti-materialism of spiritualism. The  TC offers a genuine, real, “transcendence” in the evolution of life to Godhood, the God first seen in the Inward Path of Traditional Religion.

We can recapture the beauty created in our past history by redeeming both materialism and spiritualism in the Theoevolutionary Church. When the Great Spiritual Blockade of our evolution to Godhood is unblocked we can build churches and cathedrals again . We need a new Mass of Joy from the Outward Path to accompany the Mass of Sacrifice of the Inward Path.