This is http://www.essayz.com/a8702241.htm         
Previous-Essay      <== This-Essay ==>     Following-Essay
Click HERE on this line to find essays via Your-Key-Words.
{Most frequent wordstarts of each essay will be put here.}
==========================================================
                               %REFLEXIVE SALVATION 870224

     Alienated  people  of low self esteem  often  try  to
engage  in reflexive self salvation.   They  often  become
addicted to  some  means or other as a prop for their lack
of  self esteem:   alcohol,  tobacco,  other drugs,  food,
money,  work, sex, etc.   In their alienation they can not
bring  themselves  to accept honest  help from  others  in
overcoming  their  alienation,  and they try to do the job
all  by themselves;  even though they  can not  understand
just what job needs to be done, and they are rejecting all
honest help in recognizing what job needs to be done.

     Salvation  is the process of reconciliation  and  re-
integration  into an integrated community.   It is  not  a
process which a person can do for self when in  a state of
alienation.   The beginning of the process is the offering
by others of forgiveness and reconciliation.   The process
continues when the offer is accepted because it has become
clear  that  reflexive self  salvation is not a viable way
out of  the unacceptable  condition of alienation and  low
self  esteem.   The process is a reformation of a  healthy
self  conception  of  the self and  of  the  relationships
between self and others.

     Relationships  between  self and others  can  not  be
changed unilaterally.  Salvation is reflexive in the sense
that it is not objective;  but salvation is not a "one man
show".    People can not save themselves because salvation
is the incorporation of persons into a community with both
communal  and  personal integrity.   It is the  invitation
into and the acceptance of wholeness.

     People  who are committed to saving  themselves  from
their  own problems can not achieve their  own  salvation,
not  even  when they have been fully responsible  for  all
their  own  problems through their  own  foolish  choices.
They  need to acknowledge their need to be  interdependent
with others in an integrated community as the way to enjoy
salvation,   rather than as the reward for having achieved
salvation on their own.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
==========================================================