THE CITY
house that reality. After all, there was never really an incarnational relationship between the mental deity and its object. Of course, as Blake so well realized, once this conversion from animate tree to abstract law was made, gnosticism—the belief, in part, that truth can be known, understood, and therefore possessed only by a small, elite band of gnostics (Greek for “knowers”)—was the natural result. The vulgar mass, who responded well to idolatry (worshipping god in and through a tree), couldn't be expected to fathom this new idolatry (worshipping god in and through a code of laws and/or gnostic sayings), and so the tyranny of the many-whodo-not-comprehend by a coterie of the those-in-the-know (Priests) was let loose on the earth. This, in turn, leads to legalism in two forms: one for the masses; one for the elite.
T
he vulgar form of legalism manifests itself in a divided (today we might say compartmentalized) spiritual life. The ignorant laymen, cut off from the inner mysteries of faith, abandon themselves to a bodily form of existence. Yet, even here, they are not allowed, as perhaps the pagans were, to fool themselves into believing that their bestial life is in any way a return to innocence: to Eden or the Golden Age. Legalistic law codes (whether “Christian” or otherwise) tell them that their bodily pleasures are intrinsically evil, that they should mortify, not indulge the flesh. And yet, at the same time, the codes, and the “knowers” who enforce them, let it be known that the vulgar are incapable of even approaching such a state of ascetic devotion. Hence, the divided life: periods of strict fasting, penance, and prayers to saints—performed with little to no understanding of the spiritual nature of these acts—alternate with bouts of physical excess. The flesh is first hated, then pandered to; feelings of guilt, paranoia, and self-disgust prevent any real peace or rest, yielding only anger, despair, and, finally, apathy. In such an environment, inquisitions and witch hunts naturally thrive. The effects of legalism on the elite are no less soul-crushing. The “knower” also lives a divided life. If he is an extreme ascetic like Simeon Stylites (who spent decades living atop a tall, narrow pillar) he will so despise and mortify his flesh that his fleshly “triumphs” and his physical pain are all he will dwell on for most of the day. If he is a Manichean (as Augustine was before his conversion) he will view the flesh as something into which the spirit has fallen and been 60