n] The Triunity of Man 81 



nature, or metaphysical thought becomes impossible, 

 landing us in a hopeless tangle of contradiction entirely 

 at variance with our experience. We know that in fact 

 the world is ordered and rational, not chaotic. It is 

 characteristic of our absolute being that we know our- 

 selves and think ourselves as reasonably, not chaotically, 

 active. The nature of that activity need not concern us 

 as yet, though it is in fact interpenetration or love 

 (which involves an emotion) in the ultimate resort ; will, 

 knowledge, goodness, power, creation all subserve this 

 end. If, then, I know myself as essentially active ; if I can 

 think myself as active : view my own activity from the 

 standpoint of my own thought : it is clear that I must 

 and do also view myself as able for that activity, free to 

 will it, free to think it, free to carry it out; and that I 

 must find satisfaction in so doing. My thought and my 

 activity are unified in my freedom. Apart from my 

 freedom I should be pure activity and pure thought, 

 without the possibility of acting or thinking, without 

 any sort of link between activity or thought. And this 

 is simply meaningless. Meaning is imported at once by, 

 and only by, my freedom to act and think my freedom 

 in acting and thinking. My freedom-aspect proceeds 

 equally from my activity and my thought. The three 

 aspects together make up the fact that I am, which 

 statement of my nature implies my unity. 



We are now ready to carry out our inquiry into the 

 meaning of these three aspects or modes of our person- 

 ality more systematically and in detail. We are com- 

 pelled, as we have seen 1 , to postulate a God alike from 

 biological considerations and from many others. We 

 are driven to see a purpose in creation, which purpose is 

 the emergency of free beings who shall one day enter 

 into true union with God and be like Him. The Genesis 

 statement that " In the Image of God created He him " 

 1 Evolution and the Atari of Atonement. 



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