Chaitanya Jyothi Museum Opening, 2000

RAMANAM
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.  Amen.

Countrymen,

ORBIS NON SUFFICIT
SOLUS DEUS SUFFICIT

Purpose

My purpose, duty, desire is to support, foster, honor the U.S. Army by bringing, moving, pivoting the theological content, component, spirit of civilization, history, country to support the U. S. Army’s existence and mission.

What is the Army doing right now, or has in its DNA, that can be described approvingly in theological terms of art?

Just as military language is applicable in the generality of the human family and not just in a few nations thereof, so also theological language is applicable generally throughout the human condition, between nations and also within nations.

One could compose a essay-lecture titled A Theology Of U.S. The Steel Industry, or, A Theology Of The U.S. Congress, or, A Theology Of The Hollywood Movie Studio.  Any organization, of any size, engenders a phenomenology that can be described in theological terms of art as well as others.

The following proceeds in light sourced from that fact.

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Excursus

Every person among the living — even the insane — meets up with unexpected reality which attracts their attention and compels their concern.  Theology references this phenomenon — the confluence of person, reality, and meet up — with the word God.  The word God as a term of theological art is a symbol pointing to and participating in a phenomenon, in this case the confluence just mentioned.  The word God is not a name, not a being, not an existence.  It is a symbol pointing to what has name and existence and is being, even beyond being.

What concerns one ultimately is one’s God.  Thus, the word God can be used to reference any manner of things which are less than ultimate in fact.  Statues, rivers, planets, personalities, organizations, ideologies, theories, books, body parts, music, paintings, laws, governments, families, urges, etc. come to mind as less than ultimates commonly treated as ultimates, which is to say, as God.

Even atheists have an ultimate concern, a God, namely, that they have none (which is an oxymoron).  An atheist’s ultimate concern is that they have no ultimate concern.  Their God is that they have none.  Atheists make splendid Communists and Bureaucrats on this account.  They affirm the is-ness of God while denying the importance of God.  They get to eat their cake and have it too, at least awhile.

Existentially, atheists are furious at being caught in the skeins of existence, the ambiguities of living.  There could be A Theology Of Atheism.  The illustrious American Henry Nelson Wieman famously because capably identified and exposited one.

Caught though we are, so long as embodiment persists.  And sense-based cognitive assets we have in consequence of embodiment offer no indications of whether the skeins of existence cease upon loss of embodiment or persist beyond that occasion.  Theology, one could observe, is an art whose cognitive assets and received wisdom transcend in perspicacity and experimental efficacy sense-based cognition by observing in the very warp and weft of reality signs and portents of true, unambiguous clarity, which means, ultimacy.

In theology, the word God is reserved for pointing to that which is truly ultimate, namely, the experienced unexpected.  Paradox it is called in philosophy.  The theological term of art for referencing elevation of a non-ultimate to ultimacy is idolatry.

Religions are power systems God gives — a familiar phrase which does not remove the word God from being a symbol pointing to and participating in the unexpected, the infinite — and saints and sages shape to keep persons’ attention and concern focused on the truly ultimate.  A religion is a system of thought, song, practice, habit, and prayer which strengthens the ties which bind the consciousness to truth, to reality, to laughter, to fun, to an elevation of spirit, to God.

Religion = re + ligare = to re-bind-together (think ligature).

Religion follows from theology.  What one knows determines what one does, and persons know a lot of things, many of which just are not so and some of which are.  Sane persons pray ceaselessly and work assiduously to effect that more persons know things which are so than know things which are not so.  Thus, there are formal religions, several of them, and there are informal religions, about as many as there are minds.

Our interest here is theology, not religion, and specifically A Theology Of The U.S. Army.

What is the Army doing right now, or has in its DNA, that can be described approvingly in theological terms of art?

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Objections And Answers

Objection
Underscore the importance of spiritual fitness, making it clear that there are many means of cultivating it, not all associated with religion or theology (though the majority of soldiers in the Army probably do seek spiritual support and comfort through religion of various sorts).

In today’s Army, a commander needs to be a little careful about pitching theology to his unit.  Like it or or, anything that could be construed as pushing religion is going to be frowned upon.

That said, I am sure that there is merit to your idea, and so long as the chaplain is attentive to how he couches his message, the net effect of an approach like this could have a positive impact on command climate.

Answer
I take your points, spot on as they are.

There has to be a way to do it right so that *a* religion or theology is not pushed — that rightly would be frowned upon Army-wise and moreover Constitutionally — but command climate, Army doctrine and recruitment, and unit lethality are enriched by noticing that which, already in Army practice and that of all mil branches, is amenable to theological description by representatives of any religion, including atheists!

Immediate example: we invoke the sempiternal presence, by any of its many names or just generically, at the start of any major military event.  The reason for that is uplifting and worth articulating.

Even atheists affirm the is-ness of transcendence (God) while denying its importance, which is an oxymoron but can be articulated respectfully as a theology.

Theology transcends religion, which is why I suggested the topic as A Theology Of The Army instead of The Theology Of The Army, or worse, A/The Religion Of The Army, projects which rightly would be illegal and should be unthinkable.

Objection
Lawyers, law professors, rent seekers, and fanatics will say you want to make Christianity the religion of the Army and then the country’s established religion.

Answer
Lawyers, law professors, rent seekers, and fanatics will say what they are going to say.  Leaders should cower before them?  Life emerges from struggle, not from hiding, equivalence, or even quiescence.  Bring it on, come and get it.  Get out there, follow the master, face the devil, fight to the end, finish the game.  That is the way to liberation, happiness, contentment.  And love.

Theology is an universal form of art ontologically embedded in reality per se.  It is already established in nature’s DNA, her structures and functions, and certainly in that of every nation, people, group, and individual.  Even the most systematic and thoroughgoing deconstruction of anything in sight is amenable to description and even evaluation using theological terms of art.

Every problem is susceptible to theological analysis, and every analysis is theological in nature.

Deconstruction is theology played backwards.  It remains theology no matter which way played.  The U.S. Constitution is in fact a deconstructing energy.  It is feminine.  Theology is its masculine counterpart.

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Wrap-Up

The plan is for five posts on the topic A Theology Of The Army:

Introduction
Liberation
Perfection
Absolution
Conclusion

This post is the Introduction.

Were I Chief of Chaplains of the United States Army (and here), I would invite (or order) the Chaplain of every Army formation to prepare a three-part lecture series on the topic: A Theology Of The Army.

That exercise would wealth-up the Army.  A collection of the lectures would make excellent curricular material at Fort Leavenworth and Carlisle Barracks.

Theology is a huge, ubiquitous, and permanent factor often missing among variables addressed in SitReps both inside and outside our Armed Forces.  For the Army, that deficiency can be supplied by the U. S. Army Chaplain Corps (and here) themselves.

Βασιλεία του Θεού
Kingdom of God

Update 1: commenter egg0: The reason Ronald Reagan’s economics was so vastly superior to George H. W. Bush’s economics is that the former had the advantage of an Eureka College education whereas the latter suffered the burden of Yale University training.  I merely mention.

Update 2: POTUS Trump reminds me of this by the Comte de Guiche in admiration of the great Dutch Admiral De Ruyter: …. it may be said that he has something of the frankness and lack of polish of our patriarchs …..

His rallies, such as at El Paso, tangibly are such as Moravian Christians call a Lovefeast.  Life is love or it is not worth living.  I see the parsing-prone, the pharisaical, fault and recoil from that stream of sacred sweetness.  Love overlooks faults and in fact has none.  Its warmth draws everyone to itself.  Even scorpions and serpents in scarves sun themselves in the effulgence of love.

Love, not legality, is on trial in the USA.  As if it even should be.

The Comte de Guiche on the great Dutch Admiral De Ruyter after the Four Days’ Fight:

I never saw him [during those last three days] other than even-tempered; and when victory was assured, saying always it was the good God that gave it so.  Amid the disorders of the fleet and the appearance of loss, he seemed to be moved only by the misfortune of his country, but always submissive to the will of God.  Finally, it may be said that he has something of the frankness and lack of polish of our patriarchs; and, to conclude what I have to say of him, I will relate that the day after the victory I found him sweeping his own room and feeding his chickens.
A. T. Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History 1660-1783, page 157-8.

AUM NAMAH SHIVAYA