Why Nothing in This World Quite Satisfies Us
By Dr Neel Burton — Psychiatrist, philosopher, and wine writer; Fellow of Green Templeton College, University of Oxford; author of over twenty books.
I’ve been reading Professor Alister McGrath’s magisterial textbook of theology, mostly by night on a palm-fringed terrace in Mauritius, where the many mosquitoes did their utmost to keep me from the knowledge of God.
It is fascinating to see philosophy approached from a different angle, and to uncover a system of understanding on the same scale as that of Plato, Aristotle, or Kant. These are the ideas that have defined our civilisation and that continue to shape and colour our lives, whether we appreciate it—in both senses of the term—or not.
Something that stood out in my reading is the theological interpretation of a common human experience: that subtle sense of longing for something undefined.
According to the philosopher and theologian St Augustine (d. 430 CE), man is prone to a feeling of dissatisfaction that arises from a subtle sense of longing for something undefined. This uneasy state arises from his fallen condition: although he has an innate potential to relate to God or the absolute, this potential can never be fully realised by any finite or earthly object, and so he yearns for other things to fill its place. Yet none of these things can satisfy, leaving him always with that insatiable longing for he knows not what.
In Surprised by Joy (1955), the scholar and writer CS Lewis—better known for The Chronicles of Narnia—calls this feeling of longing ‘joy’, which he defines as ‘an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction’, and which I like to think of, in the broadest sense, as our aesthetic and creative reservoir.
The paradox of ‘joy’ arises from the self-defeating nature of human desire, which might be described as nothing more, or less, than a desire for desire, a longing for longing.
In The Weight of Glory (1941), Lewis illustrates this paradox from the age-old quest for beauty:
The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have not visited.
Whether or not we follow Augustine and Lewis all the way to God, their account illuminates something deep in human nature. We pursue beauty, love, knowledge, travel, achievement, and possession, only to discover that the object of our longing was never quite the object before us.
What we desire is not the flower, the tune, or the country, but what seems to shine through it. And that is why, even in fulfilment, we go on longing.
You might like the writings of Gary Moon (Homesick for Eden / Falling for God…), John Ortberg (The Life You’ve Always Wanted…), and Dallas Willard (The Divine Conspiracy / The Renovation of the Heart). You will find CS Lewis quoted among their writings. In fact, Dallas Willard has been referred to as America’s CS Lewis. David Benner’s book The Gift of Being of Yourself is far and away the greatest book I’ve ever read on the true and false self, the old man and the new creation found through Jesus, the Incarnation of God.
Thank you so much for all these excellent references. With regards to Benner’s book, I have just written a book called ‘Hide and Seek: The Psychology of Self-Deception’ which mostly adopts a psychoanalytic rather than theological approach to the problem of self-knowledge and authenticity. I would be very interested to read about the subject from a different angle. Thank you again.
Hi Neel,
I sense I would enjoy your book(s) as well. “There is no healing in hiding” as Ortberg put it so succinctly. On the basis of what you just shared I feel you are in for a beautiful experience with Benner’s work. He did post-doc work at the Chicago Institute of Psychoanalysis, btw. Please see the following link for Benner’s biography. When I get these next two months behind me I look forward to some summer reading and it looks like you will be on my desk as well. 🙂 Presently, for Lent, I am reading Searching for Truth~Lenten Meditations on Science & Faith by John Polkinghorne. John’s been a guide in so many ways for me…..Have a great weekend!!!
Dr. Burton, love the Lewis quote above. Stumbled upon your TEDx talk (depression good for us…) and found it presented such a wonderfully refreshing perspective. Thank you for your thoughts, research; I plan to delve into some of your books. Out of curiosity, if I may be intrusive, what is your spiritual stance?
My spiritual stance is not straightforward, and some day I intend to write (and publish) an essay on my conception of ‘God’. Generally speaking, I feel that debate about the existence of God is neither here nor there: the real question is, what do you define as God? At the very least, ‘He’ is a metaphor for the forces of nature or laws of physics. Thank you for reading my blog: if you move on to my books, I would recommend starting with ‘Hide and Seek’ from which the TED talk is extracted. All best, Neel
It seems to me there can never be a definite attitude about hat longing does to a person. While it’s true that ‘longing makes the heart deep’, it is also true, at least to me, that longing sometimes makes the heart small and weak.
Hi Mariam, I quote you Nietzsche on this subject: Those who degenerate are of the highest importance wherever progress is to take place; every great progress must be preceded by partial weakening. The strongest natures hold fast to the type, the weaker ones help to develop it further. It is somewhat the same with the individual: rarely is degeneration, a crippling, even a vice or any physical or moral damage, unaccompanied by some gain on the other side. The sicker man in a warlike and restless tribe, for example, may have more occasion to be by himself and may thus become calmer and wiser; the one-eyed will have one stronger eye; the blind will see more deeply within, and in any case have a keener sense of hearing. So the famous struggle for existence does not seem to me to be the only point of view from which to explain the progress or the strengthening of a human being or a race. Rather, two things must come together: first, the increase of stable power through close spiritual ties such as faith and communal feeling; then, the possibility of reaching higher goals through the appearance of degenerate types and, as a consequence, a partial weakening and wounding of the stable power: it is precisely the weaker natures who, being more delicate and freer, make progress possible.