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Abstract
Table of Contents
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
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Part I: The Part Played by Shem, Ham
and Japheth in Subsequent World History
Chapter 4
The Threefold Nature of Man's Basic
Needs
MAN'S LIFE, as an individual, is lived in three worlds, which,
while they can be mapped discretely for the purposes of study,
are not usually consciously distinguished in everyday experience.
There is the world of feeling, the world of thought, and the
world of things. In these worlds, man is aware of three kinds
of need: spiritual, intellectual, and physical. For these, man
has three capacities which are not shared by animals as far as
we know. He has the capacity to worship, the capacity to reason,
and the capacity to create. As a result of these capacities,
man has developed and elaborated three kinds of activities: religion,
philosophy, and technology. Hugh Dryden, writing on "The
Scientist in Contemporary Life," remarked: (43)
"Man's life at its fullest
is a trinity of activity �- physical, mental, and spiritual.
Man must cultivate all these if he is not to be imperfectly developed."
And Viktor E.
Frankl of Vienna has written: (44)
"Man lives in three dimensions:
the somatic [physical, i.e., bodily], the mental, and the spiritual."
Psychology shows
that whenever these three personal needs are equally cultivated
a full personality develops. It is only when one of these capacities
has been denied or neglected that the development of the personality
is unbalanced. The man who is entirely spiritual, who has cultivated
his religious life to the exclusion of his mental life and his
ability to deal with physical
43. Dryden, Hugh, "The Scientist in Contemporary
Life," Science, vol.120, 1954, p.1054.
44. Frankl, Viktor E., "The Concept of Man in Psychiatry,"
Digest of Neurology and Psychiatry, Institute of Living,
Hartford, Connecticut, vol.23, Feb., 1955, p.74.
 pg
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things with reasonable
success, is found to be an "odd" person -- though the
reasons for this are not always perceived. To the Christian,
it is much more apparent that an incomplete personality has resulted
when the individual has concentrated on skill and knowledge but
entirely neglected his spiritual life. Then, of course, there
are those who seem equally abnormal because they have concentrated
on the intellectual life and neglected to develop either technical
competence or worship.
What is true psychologically of
the individual, history shows to have been true of whole cultures.
Nations also have personalities. Whether this is genetically
determined or not, is a matter of considerable debate. There
are those who argue strongly against it because the concept could
be the subject of national pride and corresponding abuse. But
the existence of Modal Personality � the idea that there
is a recognizable English, French, or Chinese stereotype �
can be very forcibly argued. It is our contention that something
of this nature has providentially been allowed to characterize
the three branches of the family of man. Whenever the contributions
of Shem, Ham, and Japheth have been blended into a single organized
way of life, a high civilization has resulted. But when one element
� the spiritual, intellectual or technological � receives
over-emphasis to the detriment of the other two, then that civilization
becomes unbalanced. It will momentarily appear to burst ahead
with new vitality, only to collapse � frequently with frightening
suddenness. It does not require a vast acquaintance with the
details of history to be able to see illustrations of this sequence
of events. At the present time, one has to bear in mind that
the original contribution of Shem has for a time been taken over
by Japheth who has thus assumed responsibility for both the spiritual
and the intellectual life of man. Thus, Western Culture has reached
its present heights because it inherited, as a result of over-running
and to some extent taking possession of the rest of the world,
the accumulated cultural wealth and technology of Shem and Ham.
There is no guarantee that this high civilization will maintain
the proper balance of emphasis on man's spiritual, intellectual,
and physical needs. Indeed, many people feel that the first of
these has already been neglected too long. And, unfortunately,
there has been a tendency among those who have insisted on the
importance of cultivating the human
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spirit to be, themselves,
without a realistic understanding of man's intellectual and physical
needs.
The Church has the responsibility
of maintaining the duties originally appointed to Shem. If she
fails in this, the result must be disastrous. The disaster will
be all the more serious as the achievements of Japheth and Ham
are all the more extended and powerful: the greater the potential
of civilization, the greater the potential for evil � unless
it is continually purified and preserved from corruption. As
Noah predicted, the responsibility which belonged to Shem was
allocated to Japheth when the "times of the Gentiles"
began. But it will be restored to Shem once more when the times
of the Gentiles are fulfilled and the Kingdom is restored to
Israel. This event will usher in a higher civilization than the
world has ever seen because the specific contributions of Japheth
and Ham will be perfectly balanced by the contribution of Shem.
It might be thought, and indeed
is fondly imagined by some less realistic folk, that a highly
spiritual culture which attaches little or no importance to material
things or to the exercise of human reason, and lays almost all
the emphasis on man's spiritual needs, would have the best chance
of producing a lasting era of peace and prosperity. But history
shows that this has not been so. The early Church within a few
centuries of its inception had created the hope of such a spiritual
order. But the European world which was most influenced by it,
collapsed almost completely in the face of the barbarian invasion
� and the Dark Ages resulted.
This has seemed a surprising thing
to many people, but the reasons for this collapse are perhaps
not too hard to see. The Lord pointed out that the children of
this world are wiser in their own generation (i.e., in the contemporary
situation) than the children of light (Luke 16:8). I think this
means that the idealistic dreams of a spiritual society, which
have prompted the establishment of numerous religious communities
in the past, overlook the fact that such communities are only
a part of the scene and, in their contacts with the world at
large, they lack an essential ground of common understanding.
They consequently become an easy prey to any society which does
not accept the same standard of morality. In amateur sports,
both teams accept the same set of rules. This makes it possible
to play a meaningful game. But the moment you have opposing teams,
one of which accepts the honourable rules of the game and the
other rejecting
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them without any qualms,
the first team finds itself at a great disadvantage because it
has no way of knowing how to deal realistically with the tactics
of the enemy. Sir Alfred Zimmerman has pointed out that the breakdown
of international relationships has resulted from the fact that
the original ideals governing these relationships were formulated
by men largely influenced and willing to accept Christian standards
of morality. (45)
But, today, many of the parties involved are in no sense Christian.
The consequence is that they have no qualms about ignoring these
laws when it suits their purpose, whereas the so-called Christian
nations find it an embarrassment to do so. In such a situation,
it is difficult for the latter to deal realistically with the
former.
There is another contributing factor.
It has been observed that virtue can be more dangerous than vice,
because its excesses are no longer modified by the activity of
the conscience. Consequently, the over-spiritual community (like
the over-spiritual individual) makes demands of others which
are not consistent with real life situations and these demands
lead in time to a general reaction, which views them as unreasonable.
All too frequently it is found that spiritual communities become
grossly materialistic within a generation or two. But this is
merely a reaction to the strong emphasis on the spiritual nature
of man, with the neglect or denial of his rational nature and
physical needs. God intended that the latter should be balanced
and governed by the proper exercise of the former.
In the family of Noah, Shem is
given priority, Ham comes second, and Japheth is last. This order
may well be intended to underline an important truth. Man's spiritual
needs are pre-eminent, and his physical needs are next. His intellectual
needs are last. History indicates that this was the order of
development. And historically, as Lord Raglan has pointed out,
the expression of man's religious nature came first and led,
in due course, to technological development. Philosophy, the
contribution of Japheth, came relatively very late in history.
The demands of the body cannot
be neglected. Since the time of the Flood, the major contribution
toward meeting these demands has been rendered by the family
of Ham. Virtually no people have managed to survive without finding
some way of satisfying their spiritual and physical needs. Many
societies have survived without philosophy -- which indicates
that, in a sense,
44. Zimmerman, Sir Alfred, The Prospects
of Civilization, Oxford Pamphlets of World Affairs, No.1,
1940, p.22.
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the contribution of the
family of Japheth is least important of all. Nevertheless, this
contribution is directly responsible for the extension of the
first two into other categories of experience � religious
belief into theology, and technology into science.
It seems, therefore, that over-emphasis
of man's spiritual life will not lead to a high civilization
but tends rather in the opposite direction. The corollary is
also true. Over-emphasis of man's intellectual life or physical
needs has the same detrimental effects. For centuries, the dominant
social classes in India concentrated on the intellectual life
of man to the neglect of the spiritual and physical components,
with the consequent impoverishment of the whole man. In the New
World we are in danger of allowing the material to dominate the
spiritual -- by too great an insistence on the value of technical
education to the exclusion of philosophy and theology.
Such, then,
according to our thesis is the biblical view of the stream of
history insofar as the rise and fall of civilization is concerned.
It is not, as some great historians have suggested, that cultures
have a "life" and pass by nature through a process
of birth, growth, maturity, senescence and death � or, as
others have suggested, always come to an end because of spiritual
decay. It is rather that one of these three aspects of man's
basic needs has been neglected or over-emphasized. It was God's
intention that each of these needs should be taken care of specifically
by an appointed branch of the family of man. To Shem is given
the responsibility of maintaining man's spiritual life; to Ham,
the duty of guaranteeing man's physical survival and dominion
over the earth; and to Japheth, the enlargement of man's thoughts
and the elaboration of the contributions of Shem and of Ham.
The biblical record shows how the
experience of these three families was suited to prepare them
for their tasks. Ham was scattered far and wide at a very early
time in history, reaching the most distant parts of the habitable
world far in advance of Shem or Japheth. This experience forced
them to bend every energy to the stupendous task of pioneering
and achieving mastery over every kind of environment which would
allow man to establish a permanent settlement. Necessity quite
literally became the mother of invention and the Hamites became
the world's foremost technologists. Later in history, when the
way had already been opened up, Japheth spread slowly into many
of these areas where, becoming heirs to the solutions of their
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predecessors the Hamites,
they had leisure enough to spend more time in reflection and
in due course developed their philosophies. Ham excelled in "know-how";
Japheth began to ask "why?"
Meanwhile, the spiritual life of
man was in grave danger and the Truth was almost eclipsed. But
God called out one man from the family of Shem, and renewed in
him the purity of the original revelation. This man became a
family, and this family became a nation. By persecution and bondage
this nation was knit together into a self-conscious unit. Then
by a series of miraculous experiences, strongly confirmatory
of their mission, its people were planted in a small country
which stood at the crossroads of those great world powers which
were carriers of the world's basic civilization. Through prophets
and teachers this small nation was prepared for the task of being
spread throughout the whole world as spiritual leaders, drawing
their inspiration from a divine King whose throne would be set
at the crossroads. From time to time fragments of Shem were scattered
among the nations to bring an appropriate spiritual light wherever
they went, but, by and large, the family remained a compact unit
at the centre of things, that the source of Light might be one,
and not many. As we know, they failed to recognize their King
and Japheth inherited their right � for a time.
The whole person is at his best
when each area of life � bodily needs, mental capacity and
spiritual awareness � are allowed to balance one another
and grow together to maturity. In a remarkable way God has taken
care to see that these three facets are each properly nourished
and preserved so that the effects of the Fall may be always held
in check and man never allowed to completely destroy himself
while God has yet some purpose to work out and while history
pursues its course.
A Note to the Reader
There may very well be differences
between races, some being gifted in one way
and some in another. Whether such national characters are the
result of cultural conditioning or are genetically determined
is not at present clear. But differences there do seem to be
and I, for one, believe that, however this has come about, it
has been by God's providential oversight of history and to serve
His own purposes.
The really important thing is that
we must never make the mistake of identifying differences
with superiorities. To my mind, a great injury is done
to the study of Scripture when the fear of being accused of promoting
superiorities, merely because one is attempting to assess differences,
has the effect of denying one the right even
to explore the possibility that differences might exist as part
of the economy of God. The question is not one of levels of worth
but of uniqueness of contribution, each
race making a contribution of immeasurable benefit both to it:self
and to mankind
as a whole.
If these Papers encourage the belief
that differences exist, it is NOT intended to encourage the belief
that any one race is superior or inferior.
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Copyright © 1988 Evelyn White. All rights
reserved
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