Dualistic thinking tends to view everything in an either/or fashion. Something is either good or bad, right or wrong, creative or destructive, saved or lost, and so on. Reality is imagined as a series of distinct oppositions. It imagines a world filled with friends and enemies.
The strength of dualistic thinking is that it can highlight important differences. For instance, Jesus talks about dividing sheep from goats, about mercy being better than sacrifice, and the blessings or perils of either believing or not believing in him.
The weakness of dualistic thinking is that in order to highlight differences one must reduce reality to bring into contrast the tension. In fact there is more complexity that is not covered in the either/or proposition. Our problem is when we think that dualistic thinking is the proper way to view everything and that it represents a full description of reality. Notice, I am not saying dualistic thinking is either good or bad.
Consider those statements of Jesus. Could one also not say that we are in fact a mix of “sheepish” and “goatly” characteristics? Is anyone thoroughly a sheep, or purely a goat? Wouldn’t that simplistic separation deny the darker parts that lurk within us all, or overlook what good may be within anyone?
Do we also not find that our belief is a fluid, complicated mess? We believe, don’t believe, trust in some matters, and fail to trust in others . . . even at the same time! “I believe, help my unbelief!” I may believe strongly in the morning and by evening find I am desperately fighting to believe at all.
If mercy is desired over sacrifice, does that mean sacrifice is evil and wholly abhorrent to God? Can’t mercy lead us to sacrifice? The reality is not that it’s either mercy or sacrifice, one is good and the other evil; one to be practiced and the other rejected. Even so, something is to be gained by considering the tension of mercy versus sacrifice, so that I learn to discern.
In all three cases, stating the dualistic tension is helpful to clarify choices, what supersedes in importance, and to order priorities. However, the reality of our existence in God, our inner life, and the praxis of faith is more complex than these simple couplets.
A better way to think can be termed “Good-Better-Best.” It is a shorthand way of referring to our understanding that rather than only two choices and two possibilities, reality is a continnum of possibilities with numerous gradations. We can think of a long series with endless variation: Hideous – Awful – Bad – Pathetic – Poor – Weak – Marginal – Good – Better – Superb – Marvelous – Best.
Choose your own words and make it forty terms long, moving gradually from one extreme to another. Dualistic thinking is helpful for emphasizing tension and the need to choose what is Better than Good, but either/or thinking is not helpful as a lens through which to view all existence. Dualistic thinking is not a good way to view my neighbor. Dualistic thinking leads to naming others as enemies.
Unfortunately, dualism is too commonly the paradigm employed by many as an adequate model for reality. Everyone is either saved or lost. Christian or not Christian. A believer or unbeliever. Clear dualistic categories leading to simple judgments. After all, you’ll either go to heaven or hell, right? That is a useful tension to consider, but also remember that the gates of Hell cannot resist the in-breaking of God’s Kingdom. Perhaps Heaven is invading Hell; busting down the locked gates and setting prisoners free. In this mode of thinking, we may find ourselves in Hell with Heaven in our midst all at the same time. Is Heaven and Hell a future state or present reality? Dualism.
Jesus’ way of seeing the world in a both/and rather than either/or way is refreshing. He can both honor the Sabbath and break the Sabbath laws, discerning how to keep the command to do no work and yet do the work of his Father. Jesus knows how to accept sinners and correct sin. He finds the best in the worst, and the worst in the best, constantly undermining a dualistic paradigm for reality.
We don’t abandon dualistic thinking entirely. While we know the complexity of reality demands a Good-Better-Best approach, we recognize the value in either/or statements to challenge us and clearly identify certain choices. We just know there is more to God than either One or Three, and Jesus than either Man or God, and us than either saint or sinner.
Leave a Reply