Philosophy
John Kersey is
strongly influenced by the humanistic and educational philosophies of
Carl Jung, Carl R. Rogers, Malcolm Knowles and Alfred North Whitehead.
He further cites as spiritual influences Harold Nicholson, Thomas
Merton, Matthew Fox, White Eagle and H. John Zitko.As a classical liberal and libertarian thinker, John Kersey believes strongly in the transformative power of individual empowerment, and that empowered individuals will co-operate to produce a humane society without the need for external coercion or imposition by the state. He is an advocate and practitioner of polymathy and an opponent of contemporary "professionalism" and "expert culture", seeing these as primarily protectionist and reductive trends.
John Kersey has been a consistent activist for educational opportunities outside the political and financial influence of government, and believes education to be an essentially spiritual and transformative process. He rejects strongly the use of mass state education as a tool for politicised social engineering, and in his writings has exposed the political motivation behind much of the rhetoric of the statist educational establishment.
In music, John Kersey rejects concepts of "canon" as inherently authoritarian, and has spoken publically against attempts to rebrand the study of music along specifically politicised lines in the "new" musicology. Although acknowledging that there are significant aspects of music that are illuminated through study by scientific method, he believes that the essence of music lies in mysticism and that its creation and interpretation through performance are valid academic activities in their own right.
He is opposed to the very existence of an "arts establishment", believing that worthwhile art can only be created from a perspective of ideological independence and that public funding serves to distort the arts market in favour of the rich and politically influential while having little regard for genuinely innovative artistic activity.
John
Kersey's theological approach is both fully liberal and fully Catholic,
drawing on traditions from the earliest years of Christianity as well
as more recent developments within Process Theology and Unitarian
Universalism. He perceives the mystic and esoteric paths as means
towards spiritual enlightenment and the spiritual life as integral to
personal development. He believes that the development of the
individual conscience that is integral to Christianity is vital for a
free society, and that the foundations of the Judaeo-Christian heritage
continue to offer the most effective means of opposition to the
totalitarian state.
