Abstract Christianity, an Introduction
Does anyone else out there have a problem with the abstractness of Christian ideas, especially when expressed by a certain tendency in Christian language to spout spiritual words regardless of a persons true heart and spiritual condition? I do. My purpose is not to doubt the sincerity or truth of typical Christian language, only to recognize a problem and offer a solution. (or at least a direction towards one)
I’m generally quickly turned off to Christianese the moment I recognize it being spoken. No point in me explaining why right now, but it definitely raises big red flags in my heart and mind. Flags that whisper in my ear (or maybe scream) to be careful about what I’m hearing, and to test whether its the true position held by the person speaking it. I can’t help but ask the questions in my mind, “Does this person really feel the world and God in this way? Or is it somehow something they’ve been taught (by Christian culture) to do and say? Regardless of whether there’s truth in the words, why does this person feel the need to speak in such abstraction, rather than the concrete descriptive words of their heart’s condition?” Furthermore, my heart aches with the possibility that it is the ideas spoken in such vagueness that may also indicate an emptiness still found within a person’s soul, even though it was a (supposed) promise of Christianity to fix all the problems and heartaches of life.
I think it has a lot to do with the subculture we’ve created around the Christian Religion, a subculture that questions your salvation or your sincerity if you and your language aren’t magically transformed into precisely what your Christian community is doing/saying/thinking.
I don’t wish to discuss the validity of Christian language as a whole. This post is for you out there who recognize a trend and are like me, searching for the concrete ideas in Christianity rather than the abstract. We are not given absolute instruction in how to live, and must therefore derive concrete actions from abstract ideas.
Christian language is as a whole, abstract. Perhaps my observation on this subject comes as more as an observation of the sub-culture within the Christian sub-culture in which my life is lived. I am among the youth of the modern Christian movement, the one that loves coffee shop fellowship and energetic concert-style worship. (not saying that I personally do or don’t prefer either of these, only characterizing the movement) Perhaps it is this demographic of modern Christianity that finds itself trying to derive faith from the abstractness of its own language and ideas. Perhaps other generations didn’t find a challenge in the language on which their reality and faith were built. I would strongly argue that mine is one that does. It may not recognize this as a challenge, or understand how language effects one’s perception of reality. Or how one’s language (and derived reality) are shaped and molded beyond their own awareness as they live and grow within whatever cultures and sub-cultures they find themselves a part of.
If that be the case, then it is my peers to whom I am addressing this discussion.
Consider, for example, the idea of Love. Obviously, offering such a word can bring floods of feelings to a heart’s doorstep. It can invoke a vast array of thoughts and ideas and memories and desires. I wish to further narrow your thought process by specifically saying that I am speaking about the type of love that is associated with the ministry of Christ. Christian love. We have been commanded to love our God, and love our neighbor. We have been given a perfect example of love in Christ. If you were to stop and look at that statement, to truly put into absolute terms what this means, would we not find that it only leads us to certain confusing feelings about how to truly carry out what Jesus was speaking about? Afterall, what exactly is meant by a neighbor? And if your answer is the generic everyone, why is it that even Christians have such a void of love in their lives — recognizable by the presence of all the same iniquities and brokenness and mistreatment found outside of Christian communities? It seems fairly obvious to me that that to talk about love as often as Christians do doesn’t actually put the action into their behavior when the time actually comes to carry out that so-called Christian love. It could be because of unwillingness, pride, forgetfulness, or perhaps just not knowing exactly what, in concrete terms, love looks/sounds/feels like in the first place.
My desire is to find those concrete ideas within the abstractions and carry them out. Testing them as reality, giving them a chance to build the character and vitality that the abstract ideas claim to offer. It is my desire to share this journey with others, to bring realness to my community and generation. I desire to share this journey with people either at a place in their journey where they are finding concreteness of their own or at a place where they are still searching for any slight sign of a real feeling behind it all. Where the words are more than just words, where love is action and heaven doesn’t sound like a boring world of clouds and cuteness.
I hope to hear from those who find their way through the abstraction. It is with them that my heart desires to share a coffee or an evening over pipe and beverage with. It is with you out there who have lived and experienced the concrete reality of love, holiness, and virtue, and have found those traces of the goodness that our world is build upon.
This topic is obviously not one that I can completely discuss in one day, one post, or to be honest, even one lifetime. I’ll be writing more on this subject in the near future.
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Amos:
First off, this is precisely the reason I believe you and I have become the friends we have. I was just talking to Lorelei last night about the abstractness of the word “love” in the Christian bubble these days and how best to execute it the way Christ would have us.
Obviously, most people will toss at you the whole “everyone is my neighbor” bit. That indeed may be, but as you so rightly pointed out, few actually live that out – often including myself.
Dr. Dell Tackett did some research and found that something like only 9 or 10% of Christians actually live out a Bible-based Christian worldview and that’s what drove him towards seeking out ColdWater Media in order to do the Truth Project. There are two things that I think we should take away from that statistic: First, one must deal with the initial shock that 90% of Christians are duping themselves into living half-lives, somewhere between the secular and the Christian but never quite in either realm. And next one must ask oneself this question: What is the true root of this tragedy?
That second question is one that spurs me on in all I do, in all my endeavors towards becoming a better artist.
Ravi Zacharias explained once that there are three ways by which people develop their worldview: First through the theoretical (philosophy, theology, etc), secondly through having their imaginations piqued (through the arts, the media, etc) — That is to say, media in whatever form, either expounds specific philosophical ideas or demeans others and people develop their own ideas accordingly. And lastly, Ravi said lies pure prescriptivism, where a person simply takes on the ideas held by those around them. This last bit is purely subjective, has no rational ability to defend itself, but it is also where the vast majority of people – Christian or otherwise – find themselves.
The second most effective way to disseminate an idea, Ravi says however, is through the arts. And depending on the origins of that idea, it CAN be rationally and philosophically defended, and it is that fact that drives me on to do media.
I love to live in the realm of the philosophical, theological and theoretical, but like you, I must find practical, real-world applications of those theories in some way, or else they are meaningless. Christ himself, I think, has said as much as his parables always included a call to action.
There is a disconnect somewhere in our culture between thought and action. People seem to do either one or the other, but hardly ever both.
It brings to mind that C.S. Lewis quote:
“We are half hearted creatures fooling about with sex and ambition and religious effort when infinite joy is offered to us like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
Something definitely needs to be changed…
Anyways all that to say, bro, that you rock… Hardcore. ^_^
Your words ring so true Parker. Thanks for the comment. Conversation like this is what I miss about Colorado.
Funny you should mention that quote :) –>
http://amoslanka.wordpress.com/2007/06/10/sex-and-ambition/
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