77｜The Exodus of Reason
30.1 | The Exodus of Reason: From Religious Suppression to the Opening of Freedom in the Renaissance
To comprehend why Reason must depart from the "House," we must first understand what that House became over the long arc of history. If we look back at religious tradition through our symbolic structure, we find that Religion—originally intended as a bridge to Truth—gradually transformed into a Possession of Truth upon its institutionalization. Once this possession occurs, Religion ceases to be a bridge and becomes a barricade; it is no longer a path leading to the Source, but a form of power eclipsing it.
The Elder Brother in the parable symbolizes this specific religious configuration: he uses the adherence to rules, the fulfillment of obligations, and his own self-justification as grounds to monopolize the relationship with the Father. By doing so, he excludes any possibility of approaching Truth outside of his prescribed methods. In historical reality, this corresponds to the medieval Church's total control over knowledge, thought, and discourse. The Church positioned itself as the sole arbiter of the "Right of Interpretation," equating Truth with itself and deeming any dissent as a betrayal of the Absolute. Yet, this structure did not protect Truth; it severed the path of Reason to the 1st-Dimensional Source.
The exodus of Reason was not born of mere rebellion, but of the necessity for survival. It was not a rejection of Truth, but a rejection of the monopoly over Truth held by religious forms—a refusal of the "mastery" of the Elder Brother. The symbolic weight of the Prodigal’s departure lies here: when the Elder Brother supplants the Father, when the institution supplants the Source, and when the "Right of Interpretation" supplants the Manifestation itself, Reason must leave if it is to maintain its homologous potentiality.
The Renaissance was the historical manifestation of this Exodus.
It was not a movement against God, but a movement against the Church’s manner of claiming God as its private property. It was not a denial of Truth, but a refusal to restrict the portal of Truth to religious ritual and authoritative exegesis. What the Renaissance activated was the latent structural power of human self-cognition—that capacity of Reason to operate in the face of the world without religious mediation.
Reason, in this era, rediscovered its own creativity. Through art, science, and humanistic inquiry, it rebuilt the relationship between Man and the World, much like the Prodigal in his initial phase of freedom, facing the vast horizon as an independent subject for the first time. It must be emphasized: This exodus was not a betrayal, nor a negation of the Absolute. On the contrary, it proved that Reason still carried the faculties bestowed by the Father—the "homology between human reason and 1st-dimensional truth" discussed earlier.
That Reason could generate such fundamental shifts in scientific method and artistic innovation immediately following its departure proves that its potential was never fully suppressed, only misunderstood and constrained by the religious framework. Reason flourished because it inherited the possibilities of creation from the Source; and these possibilities do not depend upon religious structures—indeed, they often manifest in purer forms outside of them.
However, the exodus of Reason also portended a latent crisis. Just as the Prodigal attained freedom but simultaneously distanced himself from his foundation, the rapid expansion of Reason post-Renaissance meant a gradual detachment from the Source of Absolute Truth. Reason mistook Freedom for the end itself, unaware that freedom, if perpetually severed from its roots, inevitably exhausts its capacity and loses its orientation, eventually entering a state of spiritual poverty.
Reason failed to realize that in its own eyes, to cast off religious suppression was equivalent to casting off the Father. Yet the symbolic structure informs us: Reason revolted against the Elder Brother, not the Father Himself.
Reason opposed the Religion that controlled the channels of cognition; it did not oppose the Source of Truth. Thus, the Renaissance as an "Exodus" possesses an irreplaceable historical value: it liberated Reason from the veil of religion and allowed Humanity to face the world as a complete subject, thereby inaugurating the Scientific Age. Yet, it also propelled Reason into a state of unguided freedom, which, if prolonged, leads inevitably to exhaustion—the depletion of the Prodigal’s substance.
In short, the exodus of Reason was necessary because religious institutions had blocked the direct relationship between Reason and Truth. But the exodus was also perilous, for in staying too long from the Source, Reason gradually loses its ability to confront meaning, value, and ultimate concerns. This section reveals the dual structure: Reason had to leave the "Home," but Reason will eventually realize that the Home is not Religion, but Truth itself.
