Biola Broadcaster - 1972-06

Life Time is right. Much of our culture now caters to or is the product of undisciplined desire. Passion rules by acclaim from reasons rightful throne. Man no longer even attempts to justify living solely by emotion and desire; it has become the twentieth-century life style! Pornography, pot, free-love, suspicion of both facts and logical reflection all fit the pattern. Can it be any other way? If man is repeatedly told he is an animal, why should he act otherwise? What right does self-control have to demand supremacy over desire or instinct? For centuries man has sought to control himself, to act responsible for the good of himself and others, and in wiser moments, for the glory of God. He has seldom been successful. An ancient illustration effectively makes the point. In the dialogue, Phoedrus, Plato divides the soul of man into three parts and pictures the soul as a team of horses with a charioteer or driver. One horse typifies virtue, the other desire or appetite, and the charioteer — pre­ sumably the one in charge— reason or intellect. Plato shows, however, that “reason” and “virtue” are no match for “passion.” That one way­ ward horse knows no restraint and will dictate the course of man despite the tight rein and heavy whip of “reason” and the willing response of “virtue.” Later Aristotle relegated these three aspects of the soul to three areas in man and referred to them as three separate souls. “Reason”

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