Dear Cornerstone Family,
I had a lovely conversation this week with a thoughtful young man in our community. He overheard the final minutes of a phone conversation I shared with a friend. In that conversation, I referenced a line of thought in Charles Taylor’s book, Sources of the Self. Taylor argues that in late modernity a seismic shift in understanding about the human person took place. The historic Christian understanding of the human soul was in large part replaced with a secularized concept of the human self. Taylor goes on to note how this shift moved society over time away from traditional understandings of human identity arising from within the moral framework of the universe to radically individual self-conceptions of human identity rooted in personality and psychology. (Yep, a little heady, but a very important observation.)
When I hung up, the young man at the table next to me introduced himself. He apologized for eavesdropping on my phone conversation, but the cultural shifts I referenced fascinated him. He noted the civil unrest we’re presently experiencing in America, expressing real concern about whether the fabric of the nation can maintain itself much longer (alluding specifically to the presidential election in November). He then asked, “Do you think the shifts you mentioned are part of the reason we’ve lost the ability to have meaningful dialogues on social issues today?”
I could tell he sensed a connection but couldn’t quite put his finger on it. I told him that anytime we jettison a divinely created, morally framed understanding of reality and opt for a subjective, psychological-sociological framed understanding of reality—where each person is free to forge or create their own identity and meaning—societal fragmentation is inevitable. “In my opinion,” I said, “one of the evidences that such fragmentation is well underway in America is our inability to have reasonable, respectful discourse when we disagree on social issues.”
He nodded, so I continued. “If we embrace subjective self-conceptions of personal identity; one where the individual is free to determine who he or she is, then we necessarily cut ourselves off from the possibility of a commonly held understanding of reality. We’re all living in our own worlds so to speak. Furthermore, if we determine self-identity, then it necessarily follows that we can choose our own morality. This in turn necessarily cuts us off from a commonly held sense of what is right and wrong and thus a vision for moving forward together.”
Now, I didn’t think of it at the time, but it’s worth noting now. In his book, Culture Wars, James Davison Hunter argues that whenever a nation’s communal life and habits of social connection erode, the nation becomes increasingly dependent on the exercise of power to hold things together. This is why, Hunter suggests, American society is looking increasingly to governing officials, laws, and the exercise of political power to provide solutions for our social and cultural problems. Hunter wrote that in 1991. It’s truer today than it was then.
On this July 4th weekend, in the midst of great concern for our nation, it’s right for us to give thanks to God for the freedoms we still enjoy. Chief among them, the freedom to do what we’re doing right now— worship! Friends, that’s a tremendous blessing. Don’t take it for granted! But as we exercise our freedom to worship today, let’s remember WHO we look to for help and hope. Not to princes who cannot save (Psalm 146:3) but to our God (Psalm 121:1-2) who has set His son, Jesus Christ, on the throne of heaven and given Him the name above every name (Philippians 2:9). Only under His blessed rule are we free indeed (John 8:36).
Your servant,
Nate