2025-01-27
Martin Geddes provokes our little grey cells once more.
His journey from matters material/commercial through matters legal and on to matters spiritual has been a fascinating tale, and has exposed how he considers that the matters legal may conflict with both the spiritual and the inappropriate implementation of the legal.
Javier Milei encapsulated the folly of trying to legislate for every possibility when he noted "the infinite expansion of the aberrant state" in his recent address to Davos 2025, although he probably had more in mind than just rules and regulations (the State being very prone these days to extend its reach into control of matters parental and much else besides).
Jesus himself set the scene where the Bible records that he neatly summarises the difference between the infinite expansion of the law to cover all imaginable circumstances, and the simple expression of the equivalent spiritual principles:
"Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38This is the first and great commandment. 39And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets"
But beyond both of these considerations, he introduces the notion of "faith". That's a rather negotiable term these days, perhaps implying a specific belief that will not be shared by everybody, depending upon religious adherence.
Therefore I choose to interpret "faith" as "confidence that the 'greatest commandments' as enunciated above will be respected".
So can these matters material/commercial coexist with matters spiritual/faithful?
