"The Revolutionary Vision of William Blake" by Thomas J. J. Altizer is a very in depth article about the belief's of William Blake. The article depicts how Blake views the institutionalism of Christianity. These prophecies reflect how he views the modern world’s own self annihilation of God. Blake’s prophecies, beliefs and poetry have revolutionarily changed the way poetry is represented. Altizer states, “Even so, he has had virtually no influence upon either our politics or our religion, and this despite the fact that he is hailed as our greatest modern prophet.”, thus, making Blake a very renowned person. Blake’s coincidentia oppositorum, which is Latin for the unity of opposites, is the main focus of the article. In which he unites the body God with the body of Satin. His prophecy of the Christian Doctrine relates to all of his prophecies because Christianity is one of the world’s most popular religions. Altizer sums up the works of other major poets and philosophers in which Blake was influenced by and also influenced, like for example, Dante, Milton, G. W. F. Hegel, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud. By compiling the works of other poets and philosophers, Blake, is able to come up with his own belief about the Christian Doctrine. Blake believes that the self-alienation of God is the calling forth of the dead body of god, which is the body of Satan, making Satan and God the same being in a sense. Altizer clarifies by saying “Self-alienation of God, wherein Absolute Being becomes its own ‘other,’ thereby withdrawing into itself and becoming self-centered or ‘evil.’ That self alienation culminates in death, a death that is the death of the alienation or evil of the divine Being.” In other words, God has lost his own true connection to himself, which is no different then Satin, making God project a fake being to others. Modern day people are also so lost within industrialism, that we have lost our touch with our true selves and project a fake being to others. This causes us to be self centered and make things like Christianity, be projected the wrong way. Satan’s self alienation ties along with that of Christian believers, thus making him contribute to modern day believers, which again makes him no different than God.
My own idea about the article is that Blake is clearly pointing out what we have done to Christianity. People these day’s do not reflect a true being and cannot be intact with their inner selves. This makes the religion of Christianity contradict itself due it its followers and believers. For example, the article proclaims “The death of Christ was the death of God.” I view it as God not thinking of himself and thinking of others because the sacrifice of Christ was for the people. But thinking of others before yourself is nearly impossible when you don’t know your true self. In a sense, Christ was projecting a false being to others and making his followers believe a false divine being. Over the years, people have been making God play a role that was not intended to be. I think this has caused the institutionalism of Christianity because people have been adding there own theories throughout the birth of Christianity. These theories and ideas are also reflections of people’s self alienation. Putting non radical ideas into a very new religion. I think that Blake’s prophecy of the Christine Doctrine is a very well educated and philosophical belief. Relating to the way religion its self can be contradicted would be people who are very close minded in their beliefs. Religion is supposed to be open minded and people shouldn’t care about other people’s business because focusing on oneself is much more important. This article relates to one of Blake’s most famous quotes, “The most sublime act is to set another before you." This would mean that the most inspiring act would be setting another before oneself. It’s so empyreal because Blake believes that we have lost our true selves and setting another person before we even know who we are, is the most sublime act there could be. It relates because God is setting forth the people before he even knows what he is himself is and what he has created. William Blake’s foretold prophecies are very hard to be examined and explained but they will always be some of the most astonishing works in the history of poetry.
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