1.6 Use 'Instauration' in a Sentence. 

In the 60s the plan was to demolish Stratford City Hall. Seven women saved it.

Our ‘work’ is personal change and growth. This is seen as inner work. Inner work is not paid work, but it might dramatically affect our work-for-pay. Often inner work is seen as deconstruction. This can be either (de)construction or de(con)struction. It is common nowadays to deconstruct one’s faith or worldview.

The danger in deconstruction is that nothing might remain in the end. Deconstruction will be only destruction and decay unless there is a rebuilding. The 2% principle of gradualism is gentle change. Deconstruction appears to be more abrasive and aggressive. Both gradualism and aggressivism have their season. The challenge is to always leave behind what is unnecessary and to strengthen what remains.

Let’s reframe deconstruction here as instauration. Instauration is a word from the 17th century that suggests a restoration to a previous point of health or wholeness. This is suggestive of the indigenous perspective on self-actualization in Maslow’s hierarchy. (See the detailed explanation here.) Perhaps instauration might also be similar to Brueggmann's process of orientation, disorientation, and new orientation. It is a restoration, but to a better way.

 This is the pathway to finding what is true. By true, we mean two things. The first is what we consider to be the ‘truth.’ The second, a verb, is that which is rendered true, like a wheel that is no longer round but is made true, restored to its original, perfect shape. Change that is true may mean dismantling your values and beliefs, examining them, and using what remains in a restoration project, building something new, strong, and true, out of the old.

 I see my goal as the inner work of instauration, restoration to wholeness. This is fundamental and personal; a transformational values shift toward what is true.