DUNEDIN PSYCHOLOGY CLUB

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20867, 6 November 1929, Page 12

DUNEDIN PSYCHOLOGY CLUB

ADDRESS BY ARCHDEACON WHITEHEAD.

A lecture was given upon “ Ideas of Eternal Life” by the -Ven. Archdeacon Whitehea'd at the Psychology Club. Miss Olive Mfercer presided. _ Archdeacon Whitehead said that eternal life was generally conceived as something into which initiation took place after death, in so far as man was fitted to partake of it. To understand and enter into eternal life here and now would be life indeed.- Comment was then made upon pre-Socratic thought development, the dawn of European thought, Middle Ages, and Indian philosophy. The New Testament was in keeping with the thought of Plato, the Gospel of St. John being a token of eternal life in which part might be taken here and now to some degree. Hindoos excelled in depicting a succession of endlessness which produced intense melancholy. The Kingdom of God was synonymous said Archdeacon Whitehead, with eternal me, and God saw everything completely finished. Eternal life in all its fullness could not be grasped by man as finite, being with consciousness limited to things of time and space, but it was an expression, force, or ideal, latent in every human life. We could approximate it, and it was concerned with values. Why did we desire life? Because we valued it. Eternal life was recognised as being so valuable that nothing could destroy it. All philosophers, said Archdeacon Whitehead, did not accept the fact that man's thought of goodness, beauty, and truth was eternal, but thought that it was the thought or dream of man, and nothing more. Perfection could never be known to man if it were not for the inspiration of the perfect. The thought of the Middle Ages was developed until it became a standing conception of every man. Man could not conceive eternal duration in terms of earth, nor could he conceive that all the ideals, strivings, and experiences of this life were without aim, object, or meaning, Could expansion of consciousness include goodness and perfection, the things we called ideals?

Some glimpse of the eternal might be seen in love, experiences of illness, beauty of Nature, beauty akin to pain, and the sick soul realised that it was here a pilgrim and far from home. A sense of values helped man to understand seeming contradictions, said Archdeacon Whitehead, and enabled him to establish himself in those things which time could not affect. In conclusion. Archdeacon Whitehead, as a guide for conduct in life, read inspiring words from Dr Wicksteed’s “Religion of Time and Religion of Eternity.” A hearty vote of thanks was given to the lecturer for his address.

Miss Meda Paine’s singing of the Indian love lyrics was greatly enjoyed, as were recitations by Miss D. Newey.