The Threefold Nature of Man's Basic Needs

Noah (Vol.1) - Pt.I, CH.4



MAN'S LIFE, as an individual, is lived in three worlds, which, while they can be mapped discretely for the purposes of study, are not usually consciously distinguished in everyday experience. There is the world of feeling, the world of thought, and the world of things. In these worlds, man is aware of three kinds of need: spiritual, intellectual, and physical. For these, man has three capacities which are not shared by animals as far as we know. He has the capacity to worship, the capacity to reason, and the capacity to create. As a result of these capacities, man has developed and elaborated three kinds of activities: religion, philosophy, and technology. Hugh Dryden, writing on "The Scientist in Contemporary Life," remarked:

"Man's life at its fullest is a trinity of activity �- physical, mental, and spiritual. Man must cultivate all these if he is not to be imperfectly developed."

And Viktor E. Frankl of Vienna has written: (44)

"Man lives in three dimensions: the somatic [physical, i.e., bodily], the mental, and the spiritual."

Psychology shows that whenever these three personal needs are equally cultivated a full personality develops. It is only when one of these capacities has been denied or neglected that the development of the personality is unbalanced. The man who is entirely spiritual, who has cultivated his religious life to the exclusion of his mental life and his ability to deal with physicalthings with reasonable success, is found to be an "odd" person -- though the reasons for this are not always perceived. To the Christian, it is much more apparent that an incomplete personality has resulted when the individual has concentrated on skill and knowledge but entirely neglected his spiritual life. Then, of course, there are those who seem equally abnormal because they have concentrated on the intellectual life and neglected to develop either technical competence or worship.
What is true psychologically of the individual, history shows to have been true of whole cultures. Nations also have personalities. Whether this is genetically determined or not, is a matter of considerable debate. There are those who argue strongly against it because the concept could be the subject of national pride and corresponding abuse. But the existence of Modal Personality � the idea that there is a recognizable English, French, or Chinese stereotype � can be very forcibly argued. It is our contention that something of this nature has providentially been allowed to characterize the three branches of the family of man. Whenever the contributions of Shem, Ham, and Japheth have been blended into a single organized way of life, a high civilization has resulted. But when one element � the spiritual, intellectual or technological � receives over-emphasis to the detriment of the other two, then that civilization becomes unbalanced. It will momentarily appear to burst ahead with new vitality, only to collapse � frequently with frightening suddenness. It does not require a vast acquaintance with the details of history to be able to see illustrations of this sequence of events. At the present time, one has to bear in mind that the original contribution of Shem has for a time been taken over by Japheth who has thus assumed responsibility for both the spiritual and the intellectual life of man. Thus, Western Culture has reached its present heights because it inherited, as a result of over-running and to some extent taking possession of the rest of the world, the accumulated cultural wealth and technology of Shem and Ham. There is no guarantee that this high civilization will maintain the proper balance of emphasis on man's spiritual, intellectual, and physical needs. Indeed, many people feel that the first of these has already been neglected too long. And, unfortunately, there has been a tendency among those who have insisted on the importance of cultivating the human spirit to be, themselves, without a realistic understanding of man's intellectual and physical needs.