Carnal, Deism, Desire, Dogma, Diachronic, Synchronic, Doxology

Word Definitions and Meaning

ver.: 22 March 2008

What is :
carnal, deism, desire,
diachronic, synchronic, dogma, doxology ?

What is Carnal ?

carnal [ < Latin carnalis, < carn- (flesh; animal or human meat) ] Meat-ish.

Carnal stuff is rooted in your bodily being -- material, physical, biological, and sexual. (Oh, you were hoping to see all that hot body talk, weren't you? Not here.) It is often used as a polar opposite of 'spiritual', especially among some strongly dualistic religions. Yet for Christians, the flesh was created 'good' by God, it's human beings that draw evil from it by reveling in its impulses as if those feelings were some sort of god. For this impulse-god, we contort our love relationships, glom great mounds of fatty foods, and stuff drugs into our bodies to kick them into even-stronger impulses. When you're seeking after these impulses, you're not seeking God. You're being 'carnal', and you're denying the spiritual nature which underlies everything else about you.

You can also check the dictionary for 'carnal'.

Deism : A rationalist Enlightenment philosophy, best represented by a school of thought popular among English writers of the 17th and 18th centuries. According to this view, God is seen as Creator, but as one who stopped being involved with the world sometime after it was created. God set up rational mechanisms for the world to keep operating while God is gone, and things work best when they follow those logical mechanisms. Many of the US Founding Fathers (though by no means all of them) were deists. This is a very different view of God than that portrayed by the Bible, which shows a hidden but very active God who is in a love relationship with the created world and the people in it.

You can also check the dictionary for 'deism'. (God's not involved in that choice -- or is he?)

desire [ < Old French desirer, < Latin desiderâre < de- (off, away) + sîdus (star) ] A wish or longing; also, that which you long for.

Also: covet, crave. Desires can be very noble and positive; for instance, the desire to follow Christ, the desire to be the best at your craft, your sexual desire for your spouse, the desire to learn Scripture, the desire to achieve a goal. Life without this sort of desire isn't much of a life. However, desires pose several spiritual problems.

One problem is in the nature of desire itself. Desire is overpowering. It takes over, overrides common sense, and causes rash decisions that can cause great harm to yourself and others. When desire does this, it's no longer a good force in your life. It becomes a new god that can't be satisfied. Once you've had the pleasure of fulfilling this sort of desire, it soon returns, demanding more. As long as you keep desiring, you suffer until you fulfill it, then enjoy until it rages again, and then you suffer again. That's why desire is sometimes described as 'passion', a word which originally meant 'suffering'. (The original meaning of 'passion' is still used of the last week of Christ's life; it's also the root of the word 'patience'.) The same kind of cycle is found on the mental side of addiction.

Another problem is in desiring the wrong things : desiring what isn't yours, desiring what ought to be shunned. In the Ten Commandments, God told us not to covet (desire) our neighbor's goods, or (in this age of adultery, especially) our neighbor's spouse. Jesus spoke of the desire for wealth, and the fact that you can't take it with you. The desire for fame, for impulsive sex, or for power over other people, very easily twists one's life. The desire to avoid suffering is a good, protective desire on its best side. But on its worst side it can make us desperate to avoid hard truths that, if we faced them, would cause us to suffer for a while, but not nearly as much as the continued pain from avoiding the truth.

Desire can be idolatry, and can be a trap. Either way, problem-desires get in the way of spiritual living. And, in the end, the only way to end all desires and be truly satisfied is to be with God. You won't and can't get that in this life. But the Kingdom will come, and as much as you are living now as an expression of this Kingdom, you will be satisfied.

You can also look up 'desire' the dictionary.

What Are Diachronic and Synchronic ?

diachronic [Greek : dia- (across) + chronos (time)]. Studying something that happens as it changes itself, its form, or its role across time. This is the long view of something, not a snapshot at a particular time. It is usually called an 'historic' view.

synchronic [Greek : syn- (together) + chronos (time)]. Studying things that happen in the way they exist at one specific moment. This is the immediate-term (the 'now') view of one or more happenings as they happen at one time, a snapshot view, without reference to what happened before or after.

dogma [ Greek dogma (opinion, belief) < dokein (to think, seem). Akin to English 'thought, think'. ]

1. a female hound after giving birth;
2. a teaching that is seen as a key part of a religion's core tradition, spelled out in some specific way that is considered definitive, authoritative, or binding on all, usually by reference to holy writings, and often treated as being absolutely true.

Dogmas are found in most religions, and sometimes in non-religious systems as well (such as classic Communism and Freudian psychiatry). The Roman Catholic Church still believes it can declare Christian dogma; other Christians do not accept that any one body can issue dogma, and some of them doubt even that there is such a thing as 'dogma'. Today, the word 'dogma' has a negative feel to it, because dogmas have often been used by those in authority as an excuse for limiting freedom. To declare dogma is in a sense to speak for (or as) God; 'dogma' spelled backwards is 'am God'. On the one hand, there are teachings without which a belief system loses its meaning, purpose, and identity, and loses touch with reality. On the other hand, if these teachings are not challenged and tested, they become stiff and un-living, and thus less true in the doing. A challenge to dogma is not to be done for advantage, or to take revenge on churchly authorities for a perceived wrong, or as a call to a self-centered 'freedom'. Dogma is worth challenging only in the service of truth, which is at the root of any true and beneficial freedom, and at the root of any real way of following Christ.

You can also check the dictionary for 'dogma'.

Dogmatics is the study of dogmas and the source that they come from, done through the discipline and rigor of an orderly system. It is one of the key fields of study for those training to be ordained.

"The adequacy of dogmas depends on whether they claim to formulate or to allude; in the first case they flaunt and fail, in the second they indicate and illumine... All they can do is indicate a way, not mark an end, of thinking. Unless they serve as humble signposts on the way, dogmas are obstacles."
Abraham Heschel, *Protestant Renewal : A Jewish View*, Christian Century, 04 December 1963, p.1504

What Is a Doxology ?

doxology : [< Greek doxologia < doxa (glory, honor) + -logia (study < words about something)] A statement of praise to God, usually poetic or lyrical. In the worship of many religions, including Christianity, there are short hymns or songs of praise to God at certain points in a worship liturgy, especially at the beginning and end of the service and of the most important sections of a service. These are what is normally meant by 'doxology'. To a Christian, all of life with all of its duties and joys are meant as a doxology.

You can also praise God for the dictionary, for defining 'doxology'. Now, break out the sheet music for the tune of Old Hundredth :

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!
Praise Him, all creatures here below!
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host!
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost! Amen.