The Nature of Life

The idea of being made to “live” in God presents us with a field for deeper reflection – namely, on the nature of life.

It’s at points like this that I find Willard so helpful. As a philosopher he is used to probing the depths of topics. He’s not content to use a term like “live” or “life” without trying to get to the bottom of what it means. Once there, he is in a better position to work out its implications for practical existence. He is not a mere theorist, interested only in ideas. On the contrary, he is intensely practical, but concerned that practice should be well anchored on a stable foundation.

Take this matter of “life.” One of Willard’s concerns is that so much of modern Christianity is more concerned about preparing us to die than it is for helping us live. The Gospel, he contends, is a gospel of “life.” That’s what makes an understanding of what life really is so important.

Willard devotes an entire chapter to the nature of life in his book The Spirit of the Disciplines. His basic contention is that life “is always and everywhere an inner power to relate to other things in certain specific ways” (p. 57). “The living thing,” he continues, “has an inherent power that contacts what is beyond it, drawing from this ‘beyond’ to enhance and extend its own being and influence.” Once more, “... we see life – whatever its ultimate metaphysical nature and explanation – to be the ability to contact and selectively take in from the surroundings whatever supports its own survival, extension, and advancement” (ibid).

There are several things worth noting in these definitions. The first is that Willard is not trying to give an absolute explanation of the “ultimate metaphysical nature and explanation” of life. He is rather describing what it looks like – or how it manifests itself.

In that regard he speaks of it as an “inner power” within a living being. We readily note that’s true. A living person has a source of power within themselves that activates them. We are not like an appliance which only comes to life when electricity is turned on – when electrical current from an exterior power source activates it. The source of power in a living being is within itself. That’s true of a plant, an animal, and most certainly true of us. When a person dies, there is a force within that person, a power of some kind that ceases to exist and function. The hands that once moved become immobile. The cells that once throbbed with activity are now stilled. The inner power that causes that person to act no longer exists.

That leads to a third observation regarding Willard’s understanding of life. The inner power that animates a living creature enables it to “relate to other things in certain specific ways”. In particular, he notes, they relate to other things in order to derive what they need for “survival, extension and advancement.” Living things are not self-existent. They depend on things outside of themselves, and draw from these to continue and advance their own existence. A plant extends its roots into the soil to draw up the water and mineral nutrients that it needs for survival. Animals eat grass and herbs to gain what they need to survive. We humans do likewise. More than that, we interact with our environment through powers of understanding, reason and choice in order to further our interests and existence. Our capacities as humans to interact with our world around us are enormous, and reflect God’s purpose that we should rule the earth.

Together these ideas lead us to be able to say that “living” beings are those possessing an inner power that enables them to act and interact. That’s the basic nature of life. As living beings we are active and interactive beings. We humans have been made in such a way that our “action” includes not only the processes of metabolism, respiration and reproduction, but also powers of thought, understanding, self-consciousness, motion and creativity. Plants don’t possess all these powers, but we do.

Where is all this leading? The idea that we are made for action and interaction with the environment in which we are placed lays the foundation for considering the specifically spiritual dimension of life. More about that next time.