the interior life
Louis Dupre, in an interview with Ted and Winnie Brock, talks about mysticism, integration, spirituality, and interiority. Not really an easy set of topics to cover in an interview but Dupre seems so connected to what he speaks about that it comes off very smoothly. He talks about our world, namely the West, in fairly negative tones. Ours is a world of considering Christianity little more than an artifact, but also unable to provide any kind of meaningful orientation for people who are largely lost. I think it is easy to say that people are lost when they don’t orient themselves around a religious tradition, but it seems that many people are moving through life just fine orienting themselves around work, school, family, or through multiple other means. But Dupre’s point about the massive amount of technology for communication and choices to make being a daunting task is quite true. It also seems true that our world is disintegrated, and as Dupre believe’s this leaves our culture(s) in a kind of dissonant state. The solution to all of this: a spiritual/mystical integrated interior life.
I have to say that I agree with him. Kind of. I like how Dupre makes the mystical seem more practical and inclusive to everyone. Mysticism is for Dupre all that affects human experience. Everything from being in nature to reading scripture can be a mystical experience, because it is about experienceing the presence of God in those moments. For this to be true, God must be in all things everywhere, especially inside us. He is advocating what he calls an, “integral and all-integrating Christian humanism, but one that derives its inspiration from within…Even the contemplative is responsible for the civilization in which he or she lives.” This is where I find Dupre to be most on track. The interior life is not for the person, but for the world and culture that the person lives in. Where I think Dupre is a little off track is about how this interior life is found. It seems as if Dupre is saying that it comes purely from inside or maybe from God, and then it is our responsibility to then integrate that into the world. It seems that this is a backwards way of approaching the interior life. It is our interactions in the world that draw us to God and then into ourselves. It is not enough for this relationship between my interior life and the world to be a one way street. The human experience of living with others and in nature is the very thing that draws into ourselves sometimes. There needs to be room for both starting places, for God is realized and experienced in both places equally.