Translation vs Transformation

I was recently reading some essays by Ken Wilber, a philosopher and psychologist. He posits that all religions have two major functions: to translate and to transform. When religion translates for us, it helps us make sense of the world, gives us a newer understanding. Wilber gave the example of the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (MT 5:4). It is a promise that the suffering will be turned to comfort. Translation can give meaning to our pain, purpose to events, and promise that things will be better. Wilber cynically notes that this part of religion is what sells.

Transformation though is a change that happens on a deeper level – the destruction of the self to make way for a new self. Here he sites MT 16:25 “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” This is not comfort and consolation, but rather the complete loss of being. Wilber claims that the Greek word being translated for “life” is “psyche”, something which we may now call the “ego” in a more clinical psychiatric way. Thus this passage makes clear, that the destruction of the ego is needed in order to gain a new understanding, or new life. Wilber notes that this message does not sell as well as translation, and claims that very few are interested in it.

I found it a compelling argument. Who does not like to sit and hear that if you ask faithfully the Creator will grant your prayer, that the wrongs in your life were tests sent by the enemy, that faithfulness will be rewarded in this life or the next. None of this requires any deep or drastic change on our part. We just have to look at the world a little differently, and perhaps buy a book or two. Transformation takes commitment and work. It takes honest introspection and reflections to see who you are and who you will become. It’s one thing to hear that you are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps 139) but another to grapple with what that means at your core.

#Paradigm #Intentionality #Change