According to C.S. Lewis’ brilliant little story, there are two main ways of knowing, looking at the beam and looking along the beam. The main difference between the two is that looking along the beam requires the observer to let his eye become one with the beam of light, so that in the unity of eye and beam, what is at the end of the beam becomes revealed. But to see what lies at the end of the beam, to see what lies outside the dark shed, one must be willing to give up looking at the beam, no matter how dazzling it is to the eye, with all the specks of dust floating in it. But in giving it up he discovers something else entirely, the leaves outside, and millions of miles away, the sun.
But the essence of looking at the beam is that the observer does not become one with the beam. The observe must look at it, he must keep it in front of him, there must be space between him and the beam. If he let his eye become joined with the beam, it would disappear. He doesn’t want too see what lies outside of the dark shed, he just want to look upon the beam of light. But he does so at the cost of transcending the shed, and the beam never reveals its secret.
This is such an accurate metaphor of the two ways of sex—lust vs. love, or porn vs. participation—because they have so many similarities with these two ways of knowing.
The biblical understanding of ‘knowing’ corresponds to looking along the beam. The book of Genesis does not hesitate to refer to the ‘one flesh’ union of Adam and Eve as knowledge (“and Adam knew his wife”).
Biblical knowing clearly adopts the ‘unity theory’ of knowledge. Knowledge comes from participation.
Our modern scientific understanding of knowing, however, corresponds to looking at the beam. Scientific knowledge is not about participation, it is about observation, looking-at-stuff. Lust and science share the obsession for looking at things, for power or sexual excitement, they are both voyeuristic in spirit.
In our knowledge of creation, we would do well to cultivate a more participatory form of knowledge, just as in the bedroom, we should avoid anything that is an obstacle to the true unity of the spouses, and their becoming one flesh.
