The Concentric Perspective

The Concentric Perspective is another Butterworth masterpiece that has as its central theme a focus on living from the divine within rather than from an outward focus on materialism. He begins his theological message with his observation of the human condition for more than half a century in stating that "no doubt the most difficult step in 'getting' the message of Truth is unlearning a lifetime's conditioning to the idea of God 'up there' to whom we must go on bended knee, begging for His mercy." How true this statement is for so many who have been raised in traditional Christian denominations. However, "the Truth is that God is an ever-available all-sufficiency which we experience as we consciously 'give way' to the divine flow."

Yet, this Truth is not lived on a day to day basis by most people. There is an unconsciousness about how most of us live our lives that is startling when we are awakened to the Truth. But time and again we go back to our comfortable state of unconsciousness as if this state of being is the preferred way of living with all of its discomforts, including ill-health, neuroses and financial adversities. In The Concentric Perspective, Butterworth provides his readers with a perspective that can work to bring them to a state of consciousness, if they work to incorporate the author's recommendations into their daily lives.

Butterworth's theological view is clear throughout this book from the beginning to the end. He states that "the concentric perspective helps us to realize that giving involves inner receiving and that the giving is actually a giving way to the inner flow." He speaks to the do-it-yourself age that we live in and aptly corrects the focus of many of the techniques that have been put forth by one self-help guru after another. He says that rather than relying on "putting on a winning personality as a mask to 'win friends and influence people'" we should see ourselves developing in the way that means "to unfold the inner splendor that is God."

Butterworth's own self-help approach is "concerned with helping you to understand the science of giving" rather than the popular contemporary approach to self-help that "is devoted to the goal of 'getting.'" I totally agree with Butterworth that the "what's in it for me" approach must be released in order to truly live a life of abundance. By living from the concentric perspective of "what's in it from me," Butterworth suggests that everyone is equipped to live a life more abundant than they could ever have imagined.

He says that people can be divided into two groups - the givers and the takers. The takers are those who never know peace, security or fulfillment and their total focus is on planning and scheming on what they can get from the world - money, love, and happiness. On the other hand, the givers focus on "giving themselves away in love, service and all the many ways in which they can invest themselves," and they are secure because "they instinctively know that their good comes, not from the world 'where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal' (Matt. 6:19), but from within."

Butterworth often invokes Jesus and quotes scriptural text attributed to Jesus liberally. In emphasizing the importance of giving as the way to get, he quotes Luke 6:38, "Give and it will be given to you." He goes on to explain that in the Luke verse, it is not about bargaining with God. "It is the articulation of spiritual law...your act of giving does not change anything in God...as you give you give way to the process. The divine flow within you requires but one thing of you; your consent to be a receiving channel."

One of the most powerful examples that Butterworth gives in his book as a demonstration of the concentric perspective, other than Jesus Christ, is of the story of the great tenor Roland Hayes. As the story is told, Roland Hayes had a "custom of coming to the stage and, as the applause faded, facing the audience, with his eyes closed and in complete silence stood for what seemed like minutes but probably only a few seconds. He was once asked by a reporter in an interview what this silent period was about, what was he thinking or doing?..he said, 'I simply get quiet and pray, Oh Lord, blot out Roland Hayes, that the people may hear only Thee.' The humble prayer of Roland Hayes was the meekness that compelled God," at the center of Roland Hayes!

As Roland Hayes gave way to God, to the spirit within him, he expressed the divinity through his melodious tenor voice for tens of thousands to hear. Butterworth invites all of us to give way to the God at the center of our being and in doing so, we as Jesus said in The Sermon on the Mount "shall inherit the earth."

Metamorality: A metaphysical approach to the Ten Commandments

Butterworth's metaphysical treatment of The Ten Commandments provided the reader with fresh theological insight into one of the most, if not the most, revered collections of scripture in The Holy Bible. I appreciated the manner in which he began his approach to the iconic collection of scripture in the book's introduction. Although, one could detect a bit of arrogance and sarcasm, especially in his reference to the commandments as a cliche. While I would agree with Butterworth on the point that many people use The Ten Commandments "as an excuse for noninvolvement in the religious establishment," referring to them often in the introduction as a cliche showed an arrogance that suggested intolerance of where some people are in their evolving consciousness.

His reflection on what the prevailing view of the history of the Ten Commandments ("It is important to recall that Moses came to Mt. Sinai after many years of spiritual development in the wilderness...") gave the reader a sense that he had actually read and studied the scripture.
However, I sensed Butterworth's own embedded theology often in his commentary apart from his metaphysical interpretation. For example, "every person is an eachness within the allness that is God." This sentence suggests that the reader has an understanding of panentheism; and this sentence is on the third page of the interpretation of the first commandment. As a theologian who is writing to a broader audience than his Unity congregation and movement followers, he has a larger responsibility to his readership than his writing shows.

For the better part of my life I have approached the Ten Commandments with some trepidation; feeling as though I had to ask forgiveness for some infraction of one of the "laws of God," even when I had nothing to plead forgiveness about. So, for me Butterworth's "metamorality" was a welcome change even with his own shades of intolerance.

Positrends or Negatrends?

Butterworth’s construction of this book seems to rely on a contemporary media contrivance, a play on words, to appeal to his readership. And to me, this angle is distracting rather than appealing. The information that EB is sharing is worth reading without coining anymore new words that take away from the message rather than adding to it. Positrend? Why coin a word when two good words – positive trend – works and the reader understands what that means? Negatrends? Why coin another word as an opposite to the former coinage when there are two familiar words – negative trends – that are understood? Again, this approach in my view takes away from the very powerful message that EB has for his readers. The message being that the negative trends in play during the second millennium must be replaced with a set of positive trends in the third millennium; and here is how it can be done.

Butterworth also tends to use the popular teaching tool of repeating one’s message in various ways in order to ensure that the pupil hears and retains what is being taught. He does this throughout this book in ways that were even more noticeable than in previous books that I’ve had the privilege of reading. For example, in the first chapter, The Ground of Being, in discussing one’s relationship with God and prayer he repeats his argument almost word for word. On page 10, he says: “Of course this challenges you to get a new insight into prayer. Prayer is knowing the Truth, realizing oneness. It is dealing with the God-is-now-here metaphor. The old idea was that prayer was a means of trying to reach God somewhere ‘out there’ in the nowhereness of space to try to get Him to solve our problems. But the Truth idea is that we want to understand the principle of Oneness – and our oneness in the One – so that the Presence is present as us. Then we draw upon the infinite potential within us by which we solve (or dissolve) our own problems.”

Then, after stating a personal, brief story of once receiving a letter from a minister accusing him of destroying God, reducing prayer to bold, brazen affirmations, Butterworth explains that he challenges people to destroy their own limited construct of God and repeats on page 11 almost word for word what he has said in the previous paragraph. He says: “…may challenge you to a new insight in prayer. Prayer is knowing the Truth, meaning oneness. The old idea was that prayer is a means of trying to reach God and get Him to solve our problems. The Truth idea is that we want to understand the principle so that we can solve our own problems, or dissolve them.”

Butterworth’s theology resonates with me. Yet, I find distracting some of the methods he uses to “teach” the reader. At times his repetition gets in the way of his powerful message, and this reader then tends to skip large portions of the book to avoid the repetition. However, in doing so I have found that there have been times when I have missed new points that he has made. Because his books tend to be prescriptive in nature, when new points are missed the reader may assume there is a flaw in the system rather than in their reading. On the other hand, repetition of ideas that are new to readers can assist with establishing an understanding of concepts that need to be grasped before the reader can move on to the next level of understanding. This is especially important in metaphysical teachings when a person has had little or no exposure to the principles of metaphysics.

One of the most salient points that Butterworth makes in Positrends or Negatrends was to take a personal inventory of your life. Break patterns of sameness and reach for the new, the exciting, and the different. “Life is an experience of growth,” he says; “it is a process of development and unfoldment. Thus at forty a person should be twice as well equipped to receive and use the blessings of life as at twenty. At sixty he should be three times as equipped; at eighty, four times. Knowing this – really knowing this – will not only add years to your life; it will add life to your years.” Butterworth certainly lived his message. Even in the final years of his life when he lived with a debilitating illness, he added life to his years.

The Creative Life and the Call of the Universe

The Creative Life was Eric Butterworth's last book published in 2001. It is a little book packed with much of what he has already said many times over in other books such as The Universe is Calling published in 1993. What Butterworth does in this last book is use the well-known biblical myth, The Creation Story, and re-packaged it as a metaphysical interpretation that describes how the creative genius can be released in all of us. The exercises at the end of each chapter are tools to use and practice as a discipline that will eventually cultivate that latent genius. I liked the book. Yet, I often was reminded of the affirmations, prayer practice and examples given in The Universe is Calling. If you are new to Butterworth, and just checked out of the library The Creative Life, then in my view, you will enjoy the reading if you are at all interested in metaphysics and living a satisfying life from your own indwelling genius. However, if you have read many Butterworth books The Creative Life will be more of a refresher of vintage Butterworth which is not a bad thing.

The differences in the two books are that one is a book on prayer and the other is a book on releasing one's inner genius; one book uses many different biblical references from the Hebrew and New Testament Scriptures and the other uses Genesis 1:1-2:3 as his main reference; one book uses many examples to illustrate his points and the other uses one story to deliver his point.

Both books appear to be written for New Thought audiences, but not necessarily only New Thought. The theology is accessible to others who are open to reading and learning about ways to open spiritual pathways to a more satisfying life.

Spiritual Economics

Hello My Fellow EB Bloggers!

I have been away for awhile having blogfreezeitis. That's my attempt to follow the lead of EB in coining new words that fit the topic of discussion or situation at hand. My situation at hand has been the self inflicted syndrome of blog-panic/paranoia/freezeitis. In other words, I've been unable to write on my blog since the very beginning or approximately four weeks ago. But now, I'm getting unfrozen due in significant measure to meeting with the lead blogger - Dr.Tom. Today after class he pretty much said "get over it Hawkins!" (smile) Okay, so he didn't really say that. He did, however, provide me with advice from Hemingway. Thank you, Dr.Tom.

Now, on with the real topic of this entry - Spiritual Economics. Spiritual Economics, the seventh book in the prolific Butterworth legacy of books, has been one of my all time favorites. Perhaps this is so because I read this book during one of the defining points in my spiritual awareness journey. However, I believe everyone on this journey of spiritual awakening to who she/he is in Truth comes to a certain place where she can be open to hearing other points of view that will have a profound impact on how she approaches life from that point forward. I was at that place more than a dozen years ago when I read this book for the first time.

Spiritual Economics provided me with a more holistic approach to prosperity. Chapter by chapter Butterworth builds his case for how to approach one's life consciously. However, his theme is not a new one. It is not new from the perspective of his writings on spiritual consciousness and it is not new from the perspective of the whole "prosperity self-help book industry." Re-reading this book from the standpoint of a theologian, however, has a different and in many ways a richer (pun intended) meaning for me.

Reading the book now as a theologian, I am more interested in his theology; how his theology informs his arguments about money, success, work and the factors involved in addressing economic conditions from a personal and global perspective; and whether he is consistent in applying his theology to the principles stated in his book.

From a theological perspective, the book assumes that the reader is religious, liberal/progressive, New Thought with Christian leanings. From the beginning of the book EB conspicuously provides a quote from 1Corinthians 2:9 NRSV "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him." And in his quote by H. Emilie Cady, "God is the allness of ever-present substance in which we live, move, and have our being," says to me that EB is a panentheist.
If others following this blog disagree with this view, please chime in.