My Grandfather’s Column (and bonus discussion)

Good

I ended my article last month by saying that one of the marks of a Christian was supposed to be that he or she lived a “good” life. So what do we mean by “good”? The best definition I know is that whatever fulfills the purpose for which anything exists is good. A good car is one that won’t let you down, will be economical, have a reasonable turn of speed and be comfortable for both driver and passengers. No doubt you could add further marks of the good car. A good meal is one which satisfies the eater, is nourishing and free of any harmful ingredients.

It gets a bit more complicated when we turn to things like a good picture. Opinions are bound to differ as to what is or is not good in the artistic realm; but I think it’s still true that a good picture fulfils the purpose for which it was created, whether it’s a photo, a drawing or a painting. It’s even harder to reach a sure decision when we turn to morality. A good man, in my book, is one who fulfils the purpose for which he was created, or if you don’t believe he was created it would still mean one who fulfils the purpose for which he exists. The new problem here is that some people doubt whether there is any purpose in our existence. In which case the whole idea of our goodness is meaningless.

The traditional Christian teaching, which I strongly support is that man was made to know, love and serve God on earth and enjoy him for ever in heaven.

–Peter Graham

This induced a rebuttal from one of our regular commenters here, Tony Graham. It’s worth repeating:

Everything hinges on the interpretation of purpose. Taking the term “good” into the area of art, you enter an area of great ambiguity. “A good picture fulfills the purpose for which it was created” : this appears to imply a totally subjective criterion for what constitutes a “good” picture. (The creator is – at least initially – the only one who knows their purpose). In many cases, art called wonderful or “good” by many, will by judged by the creator to have fallen far short of their purpose.

Doubting the purpose of life seems a most understandable reaction to many of the circumstances/values that people both grow up in and see in the world. I think the recognition of this pressure to nihilism is vital to anyone seeking to i9nfluence the way society develops.

“Man was made to know, love and serve God on earth and enjoy him for ever in heaven”.

Your statement reads like classical Greek to the great majority of non-theists. The enjoyment of this deity “in heaven” – “for ever” repeats a variety of mantra which is opaque. Are you enjoying him in heaven now, for example, as the bounty of your garden overflows? Or are you using heaven as a descriptor for the afterlife ? My understanding is that many Christians would continue to understand it in this way – a belief which significantly influences and confuses the debate about purpose.

I think man has a purpose. I believe striving to live a good life, looking at the lives one judges good, and questioning one’s life is fundamental. “God” seems to carry so much baggage as to be wedged behind the turnstiles for many people – and so this baggage or these associations become a barrier to communication rather than a way in.

And in turn a grandfather’s follow-up:

Thank you very much for your thoughtful response. I do have a bit of a
problem in that I know many who read my stuff are not Christians or
theists at all BUT until such time as my editors locally cease to want
it I have to write primarily for the benefit of our parishioners, who of
course include many who see things quite differently from how I do and
yet expect me to produce what I described some time back as an
individual liberal Christian point of view.. They all know that in a
sense I am a spokesperson for the Church since I am an ordained priest
of the Church of England..

So to your message: I accept that taking my interpretation of “good”
into the realm of art does have problems, which I’d not thought much
about. However I still think it’s quite a useful way of thinking even
in matters of aesthetics. A work of art generally considered wonderful
but judged by its creator to be far short of what he hoped for can still
be called good in my terms because its creator is pursuing more than one
purpose. I know that when I paint a picture it is primarily for the joy
I get out of the actual creation but I also hope it may be judged a
worth while work and am pleased when people say they think it’s “good”.
My experience tells me that I am a poor judge of what other people will
think about any work of mine. I may think I’ve produced a mess but if
others say it’s great, I’ll accept that it may be good even though it
did not satisfy me.

Doubting the purpose of life is indeed an understandable thing but that
idea is ambiguous too. It can mean doubting what the purpose is while
conceding that there probably is some purpose behind it all; or it can
mean doubting whether there is any purpose whatsoever or indeed feeling
sure that life is purposeless. Your own declared purpose looks good to
me but I’m not sure how well it would work for someone who grew up among
truly nihilistic or plainly bad people.

“Man was made to know, love and serve God on earth and enjoy him for
ever in heaven” is of course a classical statement though not Greek to
those who have any theology, by which I mean people who claim to believe
in God. It will certainly mean different things to different people,
who might nevertheless sign up to it. As far as I personally am
concerned heaven is relationship with God, which is meant to begin in
this life but will not end with our physical death; and of course it’s
meant to be enjoyed rather than just be accepted or striven for. It’s
also vital to note that if we claim to love God we must also love our
fellow human beings (and ourselves) and if we wish to serve God that
will primarily mean serving our fellow men and women too.

I’m sad that “God” carries so much baggage for you and many others. One
of my subsidiary aims in life is to relieve people of the weight of
unnecessary stuff they’ve got tied up with belief in God.