Aenigma 6 by Katja Institute
All men on their own level face a problem. Confronted with the existence and form of the external universe and the “mannishness” of man, how does it fit together, and what sense does it make?
Imagine a book which has been mutilated, leaving just one inch of printed matter on each page. Although it would obviously be impossible to piece together and understand the book’s story, yet few people would imagine that what was left had come together by chance. However, if the torn-off parts of each page were found in the attic and were added in the right places, then the story could be read and would make sense. The whole man would be relieved that the mystery of the book had been solved, and the whole man would be involved in the reading of the completed story; but man’s reason would have been the first to tell him that the portions which were discovered were the proper solution to the problem of the ripped book.
Notice two things about this illustration. Firstly, the portions of each page left in the book could never tell what the story was about. Their importance would be as a test to determine whether the pieces found in the attic were the right ones for that book. Secondly, the man who discovered the matching portions used his reason to show that they fitted the mutilated book. But then, on the level of his whole personality, he enjoyed reading and understanding the complete story of the original pieces and the added portions. This would particularly be the case if the TOTAL book opened the way to a restored communication with someone important to the reader.
So it is with Christianity: the ripped pages remaining in the book correspond to the abnormal universe and the abnormal man we now have. The parts of the pages which are discovered correspond to the Scriptures which are God’s propositional communication to mankind, which not only touch “religious” truth but also the cosmos and history, which are open to verification. Neither the abnormal external world nor the abnormal “mannishness” of man can give the answer to the whole meaning of the created order; yet they are both important in knowing that the Scriptures, God’s communication to man, are what they claim to be. The question is whether the communication given by God completes and explains the portions we had before and especially whether it explains what was obvious before, though without an explanation - that is, that the universe exists and the universe and the “mannishness” of man are not just a chance configuration of the printer’s scrambled type. To put it another way, does the Bible’s answer or does John Cage’s chance music speak of what exists?
