Reconstructive Analysis

- Problem: Deconstuctivism seeks to demythologize the world by taking the things presented as truth and looking to the filters, lenses and perspectives through which the truth is told. If history becomes myth, and myth becomes legend, can we really trust the concept of history, or any methodology that attempts an objective accounting of events? And so deconstructivism picks apart whatever cultural myths are presented as history. While injecting a needed dose of humility into our pursuit of truth, deconstructivism is still a belief without a core. The unspoken core tenet of deconstructivism is that, like an onion, once you peel back all the layers of a myth, you are left with nothing. This runs into direct conflict with Aquinas's ideas on essence. Aquinas wins, through the idea of self-evident truth... the fact that the discussion exists points to the existence of objective explorable reality. This does not mean that we should totally discard all of deconstructivism. Surely, we can salvage the idea of transformation of fallen myths and projections of reality into their true form. Turning this idea away from nihilism and toward truth, we change the basic assumptions. Rather than assuming everything is really about nothing, and hence to be discarded, we turn to the assumption of Aquinas, assuming that if anything has existence, then on some level it must incorporate some truth, and is hence redeemable. Instead of an onion, we have a softball, with a true core. Turning to Lewis and Tolkien, we are reminded that the reason that any deep story has power is because it draws from the Deep Magic. All myths are on some level a retelling of the One True Myth. Hence, if anything exists, it contains an element of Truth, and all truth is God's Truth. Applying the deconstrctivist concept of transformation, reversing our myths through their iterative process, we can find them all pointing back to God. We then find deconstructivism with a core, a philosophy which recognizes the self- deception of the world yet draws us toward redemption. Let's call this transformation into a true form, the recovery of the kernel of Truth from anything reconstructive analysis, or reconstructivism.

'To an unknown God'. Speaking to the Greeks, Paul used this place, where the ice was the most thin, to carve through the self-deception of the Greeks. He recognized the hunger for God all men have in their hearts, and found the point where their minds and hearts were least far from the truth to introduce Truth. He identified the kernel of Truth, recovered it, and proceeded to build upon it.

GK Chesterton tells us the problem with this world is a bunch of Christian morals run amok. Without a framework, all these things run rampant and self-destructive, like bleed air without ducting. Yet still, in order for something to exist, it still must be rooted in God.

- Theory: There is no such thing as a pure lie. A pure lie would simply cease to exist. In order to exist, a lie must have some truth in it. That truth can be reclaimed, and used to point toward the One Truth. (Note: Pure evil cannot exist, as evil is a corruption of the good. Pure evil would simply cease to exist, as we understand existence... Paul teaches of the progression between sin and death.) Any belief, no matter how incorrect, must have Truth at its heart. To take the most extreme example, consider 'God is evil.' Taking this apart, 'God is [true] the negation of [lie] good [truth.] Alternately, 'NOT God is good.' This most false statement has at its core an affirmation of the Truth of God, even in its attempted negation. One might argue that this logic can be just as easily reversed; proving that all is evil, and hence invalid. Notice that the affirmative formulation is possible without the negative, but the opposite is not true. As Aquinas teaches, it is possible to imagine a world without sin, but a world only of sin would not exist in any meaningful way, and hence cannot be discussed. You can have elves without orcs, but no orcs without elves. Most examples from real life are more complex and shaded than our example. One can salvage the good from a belief, and lead its adherents to Truth. Beliefs can be purified just as people can be redeemed.

- Corollary: Original True Myth spawns all other beliefs, good or bad. Can restore the corrupted myth: the original, lost truth can be recovered, the embers can spark again if found and breathed upon.

- Corollary: same is true for people: there is something that desires God and holiness, even if internally irredeemable and totally corrupt. The Spirit must breathe over these embers to bring us back. In doing so, the embers consume the whole and make it new again.

- Example: Yin-Yang.Progression:Corrupt belief ... (balance/dualism/conflict btw opposites makes reality) <- [from] <-Linkages... (the existence of contradiction points to transcendence)-> [back to] ->Source/Truth... (God creates with the synchronization of opposites)... (God of Wrath: God of Love;Fully Man: Fully God;'and He walks with me’:’ Dark is His path on the wings of the storm')

Recovery:To recover, use Yin-Yang to explain the duality of God, and further explain the resolution of duality. Perfection is found in the total synchronization of wrath and love. Sin and evil is falling short of this perfection, not an aspect of it. Hence, evil is a misunderstanding/misapprehension of purpose, willful as it may be. (Hence, Buddhism gets CFD (correct for data) on this point.)

Example: Stephen, who loved those who hated him, was an example of perfect contradiction, perfect dualism. To make war with love, to fight with love as a weapon, this is the embodiment of contradiction. Not simply a mishmash juxtaposition of opposites, but a synchronicity, a reconciliation, a harmony in chaos. To use the foolish to shame the wise (1 Cor,) for God to serve as a slave, for Him to conquer death by death, this is perfect contradiction. To do less is sin, a willful misapprehension of purpose.

- Corollary: Greek Mythology The Greek gods are undoubtedly very pagan. Yet no story, no matter how false, can be entirely original. Greek mythology must then be a flawed and twisted retelling of the One Story. It is as a revisionist retelling of the One Story from the viewpoint of the powers and principalities. What then, besides themes, can be salvaged? The clash between the Olympians and the Titans is where we will focus our analysis. The Olympians were a lower order of creation than the Titans, yet left their place and instead overthrew the Titans. In overthrowing the Titans, the Olympians then faced humanity, which they generally looked upon with disdain. They ensured the fealty of humanity through fear, not through love. Yet even more so, they cemented their hold on power with humanity through the fear of the Titans. As petty, cruel and hateful as the Olympians were, they sold themselves as infinitely better than the Titans, and hence worthy of the worship of humanity. Yet even more so, the ashes of the Titans were spread throughout humanity, making humanity the bearers of the essence of the Titans, and the Olympians disdained humanity all the more so for that, although it was retold to humanity as a mockery of the Titans at the hands of the Olympians. If I saw things through the eyes of the powers and principalities, I would find this a remarkably more comfortable retelling of the story of origins than the one that actually occurred. Yet, even twisted and corrupted, this story still follows the template of the One Story, for evil cannot create, but can only destroy. First, the rebellion of the Olympians. Surely the fallen princes would look upon the Creator as oppressive to all wills other than His own. Claiming that they had overthrown the Creator, claiming that God was dead, surely that would be a comforting claim to the losers of the first war of heaven. Yet the rebellion was unmistakable. Presenting the oppression of the powers and principalities as light in comparison to God's oppression is another old trick. The idea of the intermarriage of the 'gods' and humanity is also not new, given the Watcher tradition. The idea of the image of the Creator being poured upon humanity is also inescapable. Yet to the powers, the idea of the forced relocation of God's essence to humanity as a mockery is surely a more pleasant retelling of God's creation of man in His Image, than creation of man higher than the angels. Although the retelling is warped and flawed, and told from a resentful and lying tongue, the essence of the One Story is still inescapable. Recapturing it would be a harder matter, though.