Blindspots are based on the perversion of that original endowment of grace from and in the image of the Father , a theme taken up by various NT writers including St. Paul in his epistle to the Colossians.
“it’s all about you but you are not what it’s all about”
“... put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image (eikón, icon, archetype) of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all” (Col 3:10-11, see also 7 blindspots mentioned in vv 5-9; eidólolatria, orgé, thumos, kakia, blasphémia, aischrologia, pseudomai).
Modal excellence, by which we mean the repeated patterns seen across the Hebrew bible, first mentioned in the 7 days of creation, then in the tabernacle at Sinai and also observed in the seven archetypes found in Scripture and across salvation history. Each archetype is explained and illustrated through autobiographical narratives of patriarchs like Abraham (PAR) and Jacob (IST), in deliverers like Moses (DID) and Joseph (PRO) whose geniuses blazed a trail in our understanding of God’s law and judgements and in those who executed God’s will like Ruth (DEA) and Boaz (MET) and those with an eleemosynary genius after the order of King David (ELE).
But the privileges that belong to the gifted carry also with it a burden for their proper administration and function in heart and mind to advance the Kingdom. In short, it’s all about you, but you are not what it’s all about.
As Augustine has noted in City of God:
These two cities are depicted in Augustine’s day by the warfare and hostility between Rome and Jerusalem, between the old man of flesh and the new man of spirit.
Likewise, every good impulse to do right, to do good and to do well “in the sight of God” is challenged to do what is right “in our own eyes” as the prophet Samuel instructed in the book of Judges. If everyone did “what was right in his own eyes” there would be irreparable damage to the fabric on earth.
What is our basic orientation when it comes to the exercise of the will and the agency of choice? To what ultimate end does the donkey serve its rider? Modality was made for man, not man for his modality. The donkey of archetype is the transport for human behaviour under God and is wired to carry the burden of privilege of leading others in the way: “In those days ten men from different nations and languages of teh world will clutch at the sleeve of one Jew: ‘Please let us walk with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’” (Zec 8:23)
Hence, the privilege of archetype compels even as love compels, even as favour obligates. The compulsion and the obligation exists for the sake of others to whom we are accountable. To whom much is given, much is required is the principle of privilege and burden. The greater the privilege, the greater the responsibility to “give back”. Not to eat all your seed is to plough back a portion in gratitude, to reinvest the “capital” with a grateful heart. Not to do so, is to keep back a portion and to lie to the Holy Spirit.
Here then is the drawback of the giftedness bestowed upon us in the original endowment of archetype - “the good that I would, (ie the exercise of modality to bless and share with others) is often derailed by the impatience of the flesh that gets in the way of what the Spirit of God desires.
This is the elusive understanding of the blindspot of those thus privileged with the knowledge of modal excellence. The psychology of man seeks autonomy from God, an independence from responsibility to use wisely the gift of divine genius and archetype. To will to do right, to do good, to do well requires us to lift up our heads and look beyond to set the captive free, to loose the chains of those bound in ignorance and darkness of mind. Here then is the blindspot of privilege - an unwillingness to use one’s giftedness to the advantage of others, to be less generous than we ought to be, to be less hospitable than we ought. If we know the good to do, and God permit it, we shall certainly not miss the opportunity to do good, when it is in our power to do so. This is modality missing the mark, falling short of the fullness of the stature as sons of the most High.
Blindspot in the leadership component of the IST - the lust for glory, to the contempt of God, by the authority not of ouranos (of heaven) but of anthropos (of man). Jesus was questioned by what authority he spoke and acted, and in reply peeled back the curtain on the City of God, the two Jerusalems, old and new, between sheep thinking and goat. There is a way that seems right unto a man but the end of it is death. Man operates in two possible modes making decisions and orientating himself accordingly, either toward heaven and contempt of self, or toward his own self-interest and to the contempt of God.
This is where sin lives, in a heart that has not respect for the heavenly vision in calling man outside of himself and toward others and for the sake of angels. Sin cannot live in the heart of one who knows the responsibility and burden of privilege and, like Ephraim who was armed and dangerous but turned “in the day of battle”. The higher the privilege the greater the duty to set aside the mechanisms of self-justification and self-preservation. So even as Augustine says, the Romans sought glory but for all the wrong reasons:
“Glory they (the Romans) most ardently loved: for it they wished to live, for it they did not hesitate to die. Every other desire was repressed by the strength of their passion for that one thing. For there is no true virtue except that which is directed towards that end which is the highest and ultimate good of man. Nevertheless, they who restrain baser lusts, not by the power of the Holy Spirit obtained by the faith of piety, or by the love of intelligible beauty, but by desire of human praise, or, at all events, restrain them better by the love of such praise, are not indeed yet holy, but only less base. V,12 (159), V,12 (161), V,13 (163)
Wherefore, through that empire... examples are set before us ... in order that we (Christians) may be stung with shame if we shall see that we have not held fast those virtues for the sake of the most glorious city of God, which are, in whatever way, resembled by those virtues which they held fast for the sake of the glory of a terrestrial city, and that, too, if we shall feel conscious that we have held them fast, we may not be lifted up with pride.