Summary
Dooyeweerd distinguishes four religious ground motives (RGMs):
• form/ matter
• creation, fall and redemption
• nature/ grace
• nature/ freedom
In this section he expounds the origins of the first of these the form/ matter motive.
the matter motive
The Greek form/ matter RGM is considered first as it operates both in the nature/ grace and the nature/ freedom RGMs.
The form/ matter Greek ground motive controlled Greek thought from the beginning. It arose in the conflict between the older nature religions and the newer Olympian culture religions.
The matter pole arose form the nature religions. There were many local variations but most involved the deification of a formless cyclical stream of life from which emerge plants, beasts and humans. Each matured, perished and came to life again. Time was cyclical and the forces were ruled by fate (Ananake).
The nature gods were fluid and invisible – there were a multiplicity of divine powers: eg, Gaia, Uranos, Demeter, Dionysis.
the form motive
The newer culture religions emphasized form, measure and harmony, it was the religion of the city states. They left the cycles of nature behind, their gods were immortal and Mount Olympus was their home.
The cultural religions were to the fore in the works of Homer and Hesiod.
Apollo was the supreme culture god.
dialectical tension
Dooyeweed lists three reasons why the attempts to reconcile these two poles failed. This failure to reconcile them led to a public private divide. In private they engaged in nature religion, but in public they worshipped the official Olympian gods.
The form/matter ground motive had a life even after the myths had been undermined. Blind fate governing the eternal flux and cycles stood over against the supernatural, rational and immortal form.
This diagram of Richard Russell’s illustrates Dooyeweerd’s discussion of the orphic view of human nature:
The rational, immortal soul originates in the heavens. The soul fell and became incarcerated in a material body. The soul was thus subject to the cycles of birth, death and rebirth, until it had been cleansed from the contamination of matter, then it could return to its true home.
The dialectical tension in Greek thought pushed it into two conflicting directions. They viewed nature sometimes as an invisible form and sometimes as a stream of life and sometimes as a combination of both.
This tension can also be seen in their view of the state. In the classical age the state was limited to a small area of the city-state (polis). The city-state was the bearer of the culture religion. Greeks were only seen as truly human as a free person in the city-state. All non-Greeks were barbarians. These notion were challenged by the idea of the natural equality of all peoples. The sophists declared ‘war’ on the idea of the city-state.
In Ionian culture, the idea of democracy that emerged was very different to modern ideas. Democracy was for the ‘free citizens’ only. The Greeks view of the state was totalitarian, it demanded the allegiance of the whole person.
review questions
1. How do the gods of the natural religions differ from the gods of the cultural religions?
2. Why couldn’t the form and matter forces be reconciled?
study questions
1. How do the natural religion and the cultural religions differ?
2. Is there still a difference between what people worship in private and what they do in public?
3. The orphic inscription has: "I am child of the earth and of the starry heaven / But heaven is my home". Is heaven the Christian’s home?
4. Is this form/ matter ground motive still operating today? In what ways?
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