The Art Of Reaching Up
Transcendence.
Looking beyond yourself.
Classically, this can mean looking up to God or at least the idea of the divine.
But in much of mainstream progressive narratives, this message is going out:
There is no God.
That’s the philosophical center that atheism and wokism share. In a way, I think, atheism is the declaration, and wokeness is the action or rebuilding that humanity tries to push in the wake of that declaration.
The New Transcendence.
Wokism becomes the transcendence for atheism, which defines truth, goodness, and beauty apart from God or even the idea of God.
Some call it rebellious, bold, and brave, “feel-good” and “self-empowering” words.
But what are the implications of saying “There Is No God”? And living as though there isn’t?
You get a fallout of truth, beauty, and goodness. These are the “transcendentals” according to ancient philosophy.
C.S. Lewis puts it this way:
“Truth, goodness, and beauty are the three things we all need, and need absolutely, and know we need”; truth relates to the mind, goodness to the will, and beauty to the heart, feelings, desires, or imagination. “These are the only three things that we never get bored with, and never will, for all eternity, because they are attributes of God, and therefore of all God’s creation: three transcendental or absolutely universal properties of all reality.”
- C.S. Lewis
Modern culture still wants these things. But the way we’ve looked for them has changed.
Truth Without Transcendence
Instead of Truth being absolute and rooted in God, it’s now rooted in man. When you hear someone say “Your Truth” or “My Truth”. That’s what they’re getting at.
Goodness now boils down to virtue signaling or doing what feels right to society. People need to be divided for this work. Groups receive a status indicating how inherently good or evil they are, based on societal factors. Think victimizer vs. victims, oppressed vs. oppressor, privileged vs. underprivileged.
Classically, especially in Christian circles, truth is objective. Reality is defined by how God made it, not by how man sees it.
Secularism defines truth as a subjective narrative. Wokism takes that narrative and turns it into a lived experience shaped by power.
The problem is that it’s a center that truly rests on nothing. Just a thousand voices fighting each other to be heard.
And because no one can agree on what’s real, only the loudest or most aggrieved voices rise to the top.
The rest are dismissed or labeled oppressors.
That’s the incredible mess that we have now! A culture filled with outrage cycles, fragmentations, and distrust.
Goodness Without Grace
Goodness was once rooted in moral law, virtue, and divine order. Now it’s about moral performance and loyalty to “your people”.
In wokism, traditional moral language—confession, repentance, judgment, sin is borrowed but hollowed out.
There is no forgiveness, only perpetual penance.
No redemption, only social status.
Without transcendence, goodness becomes moral theater.
It exhausts instead of transforms.
Beauty Without Wonder
What about beauty?
In much of modern art, there’s an activist or social-justice inspiration. Art with an agenda to push rather than a glory to reveal.
Art once pointed people upward, awakening awe and gratitude.
Now it points outward, demanding agreement.
Beauty loses its mystery when it forgets its Maker.
When beauty ceases to transcend, it becomes self-expression instead of revelation.
Why We Still Reach Up
The fact that humanity seeks Goodness, Truth, and Beauty, according to Lewis, should tell us two things:
- Humans are created in the image of God
- Humans are created for God.
Which is the truth that the bible confirms. Starting with the creation and fall of man in Genesis. From there, moving to the redemption of man through the God-man Jesus. And finally, the judgment, restoration, and glorification of man in Revelation.
Everyone is searching for meaning and purpose. And many people are looking through these three things to find it.
When you remove God as the standard of truth, goodness, and beauty, something else has to take His place. Atheism tears down the altar; wokism builds a new one, devoted not to God but to power, identity, and emotion.
Power Of The Upward Gaze
For centuries, the fields of music, art, philosophy, literature, architecture, science, and even technology have been inspired by those who look upwards to Heaven.
Modern progressive movements and wokism tell people to look outward to society, systems and the self.
There is no God, according to those who proliferate those beliefs.
But people in younger generations are getting tired of it. There’s a trend among Gen Z and others to shift back towards faith, convervatism and Christianity.
Some are starting to see the counterfeit transcendence for what it is.
The True Transcendence
When we look upward again, beyond self and society, we rediscover what Lewis called the three things we never tire of:
- Truth for the mind.
- Goodness for the will.
- Beauty for the heart.
Consider this verse from Philippians in the bible
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Philippians 4:8 ESV
They are not just ideas.
They are attributes of the One who made us.
And when we find Him, we find transcendence itself.
Live Free!
One Last thing….
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