The most purely philosophical argument in the corpus, and Neville states it twice in one lecture without naming it as an argument. You have never really been included in the world that you describe. The world that is described from observation is always, as it is described, relative to the describing observer; he can't put himself into the thing he describes, not in eternity. It is always less than himself, the observer - I don't care who you are. When I describe a world it is always relative to myself who describes it, and I can't include myself, the describer, in the world as I am describing it: I am always greater than the world I describe, and that's God. He then uses it to explain the incarnation as a deliberate act of self-limitation: you describe a world, and although it is less than you, to have the experience of it you put it on as a garment - which is exactly what God did with this one. So the wearer is infinitely greater, and always will be greater, than that which he wears and that which he describes. Also at 1002. It is the ground under the claim that man's Imagination is God: not an assertion about dignity but a point about what an observer can and cannot be a part of.
Kind
Formula
Interpretive layers
Psychological interpretation
Teaching pattern
Collections
Lectures
Own wordings
I am always greater than the world I describe, and that’s God
He can’t put himself into the thing he describes, not in eternity
Occurrences
LectureThe Holy One
But he who wears it is infinitely greater, and always will be greater than that which he wears and that which he describes. He can’t include himself into his description of the universe.
Span from: 290
to: 476
Passage revision:
593836
LectureThe Holy One
The world that is described from observation is always, as it is described, relative to the describing observer. He can’t put himself into the thing he describes, not in eternity.
Span from: 314
to: 493
Passage revision:
593835