Primitive Christianity Revived, Again
The outward weapons of this protectorate are religious and political ideology, theology, tradition, similitudes, practices, etc.
Keith and I tend to end up with different meanings for inward versus outward weapons. I consider the latter to be aimed at creating literal physical mayhem. Bombs dropped from airplanes. Grenades. Sarin. Guns. Swords. Those be outward weapons.
Then come the inward weapons, including persuasion, leading perhaps to convincement [add to dictionary]. In today's parlance, we might call those "psychological weapons" and rate them as to their lethality. You've got the "guilt trip" and so on. Motivational psychology teaches us how to prey on one another's vulnerabilities and insecurities.
But that's not where the line gets drawn in the above essay. Even those psychological tools of persuasion, such as advertising, religion, are 100% outward by this other reckoning.
I don't claim to be expert in all Quaker dialects, so if I sound ignorant and uncomprehending at times ("clueless"), so be it.
When Jesus wrestled with Satan [per translation] regarding whether he should test his theories about his relationship with his Father, that was "inward wrestling" as I see it (unlike in Star Wars, wherein light sabers get used).
But then to be free of Satanic temptations is perhaps to make outward what had previously been inward? To cast out is to make outward. What does it mean to "cast out the devil" anyway? Do we propose to deprive evil of all root in the heart of man? Don't we just end up with projection then?
As Maurice Nicoll points out, the Scottish Jungian: a first mistake we all make is thinking we need to identify with every inward thought crossing one's mind, simply because of one's awareness of those thoughts. With greater practice comes the capacity to distinguish oneself from all that thoughty chatter that bedevils us. Be discriminating. Don't take all that message traffic to heart, just because it goes by on your radar.
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