The Structure of Christian Existence

By John B. Cobb Jr.

Raising questions about Christian existence, this book discusses the way it relates to other structures of human existence. The author shows that by expanding categories of historical enquiry, the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0664207901
• ISBN13: 9780664207908
• Release Date: January 1967
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.

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An Overview of "The Structure of Christian Existence"

Thinking Is the Best Way to Travel: Essays along the Journey In his book The Structure of Christian Existence, John Cobb traces the development of conscious experience in our species, Homo sapiens, as it has evolved over the many millennia of our history in continuity with the prehuman animal experience that preceded us. Cobb identifies three primary elements that constitute experience in the human psyche: experience that is significantly organized, experience lacking such organization (which he terms receptive awareness), and what is by far the preponderant element--the unconscious. While it is useful, for analysis, to speak of components of the psyche, it should be clearly understood that this entity, or process, is a unity--a unity which is partly conscious but, for the most part, unconscious. "It is this exceedingly complex process," Cobb writes, "and the various structures which it embodies that constitute the subject matter of this book." As Cobb notes, he refers to this process in various ways. When viewed objectively, he uses the words "psyche" or "soul." "Existence" is used when the focus is on the process as it is for itself in its subjectivity or immediacy. By "structure of existence," Cobb means how consciousness is structured or organized, and unified. A central thesis is "that the major religions and cultures of mankind embody different structures of existence, and that this is the deepest and most illuminating way to view their differences." This is not to say that one is better or worse than the others; each structure is, "in its own terms, an ideal embodiment of human possibility." Just as the consciousness of an adult differs from that of an infant, the consciousness of primitive humans differed considerably from the consciousness we humans enjoy today. It cannot be the case that the complex consciousness of humans in the modern West, as described by Heidegger in Being and Time, could have somehow suddenly appeared full-blown. This would be to float in out of the blue rather than emerge through incremental steps that build upon one another as we see in all developmental processes in nature. Cobb explores the following stages in our developmental history: primitive existence, civilized existence, and axial existence. In his discussion of primitive existence, Cobb describes two distinctions between the animal and the human psyche. Consciousness in even the higher primates is directed almost exclusively to the service of the physical organism. But in the human psyche of primitive humans, a new structure of existence emerged, characterized by an autonomous development that enabled the life of the psyche itself to begin to seek its own ends. Signals, which indicate the presence of something else, have meaning for both animals and humans. For a gazelle, lion-scent on the breeze indicates the near presence of lions, and the gazelle will take appropriate action. Symbols, as Suzanne Langer points out, "are not proxy for their obj