Expressive Individualism and the Church
Why do we worship? Not “we” as in some abstracted notion of the people of God but “we” as individuals. Do we worship to be made to feel good or do we worship as a response to the being and work of a holy God, and thereby conform ourselves (and understand our experiences and feelings) in light of that God? Unless it is the latter then we are allowing our own complicity in expressive individualism to drive our worship.
There is a real danger for Christians as they assess many modern developments regarding the human person—whether matters of sex and sexuality, abortion, euthanasia, or simply what we might call the generally self-centered nature of modern consumerist life. That danger is the one committed by the Pharisee in the Temple, the one who uttered the words, “I thank you, Lord, that I am not like other men.” That prayer immediately set him apart from his contemporaries and exempted him, at least in his own eyes, from the moral problems of his age.
Expressive Individualism in Contemporary Worship
If expressive individualism is the typical way in which people think of themselves and their relationship to the world, then Christians must understand that they too are deeply implicated. We can no more abstract ourselves from our social and cultural context, and the intuitions that our context cultivates, than we can leave our bodies and float to the moon. Indeed, our first thought must not be that of the Pharisee but rather that of the disciples when Jesus told them that one of them would betray him, “Is it I, Lord?” Such an approach will not only reflect and reinforce appropriate humility; it may also help to free us just a little from the culture that surrounds us. To know how the world encourages us to think and live will equip us to resist it.
Simply put, expressive individualism pervades modern Christian life. Those of us who attend churches with a traditionalist worship aesthetic would likely point to modern praise songs and worship styles as evidence for this. Many Christians view worship as a time to “express themselves”; in doing so, they highlight the benefits of “spontaneity,” or musical arrangements that play to the emotions, or lyrics that focus on first-person-singular feelings. This is low-hanging fruit to make the case that modern Christianity is deeply shaped by expressive individualism.
While the expression of feelings in worship is certainly not wrong—the Psalms are replete with such—the focus on emotions too often becomes an end in itself rather than a stage on the road to bringing those feelings into conformity with God’s Word. The inner psychological state of the psalmist is always ultimately to be interpreted through the grid of God’s revelation. Even Psalm 88, the bleakest psalm with the most painful expressions of desolation, addresses God at the start by his covenant name. The despair is still to be set within the context of God’s covenant commitment to his people. In the world of expressive individualism, however, the truth of emotions is found not in their conformity to God’s revelation but in the sincerity of their expression. When that characterizes a worship song, whether in terms of lyrics or music, it is highly problematic.
So there are legitimate grounds for seeing expressive individualism in contemporary worship.
But the situation is more subtle than that, and worship traditionalists do not have legitimate cause to reach for the words of the pharisee’s prayer simply because they are traditionalists.
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Look Within – and be Deceived
Satan is a liar and goes about seeking to deceive us all. And plenty of folks, including those fully into the New Age Movement and the like are fully ensnared by the enemy. Moreover, when it comes to syncretism (trying to combine and merge different religions and claim they all are equally true and can be happily amalgamated), the Christian should know what to do.
Deception exists. The problem is, those most likely to be deceived are those who don’t think deception exists – or that they are immune from it. And much of the population susceptible to deception are those who are into relativism, subjectivism, and emotivism – in other words, most modern secular folks!
If they deny that objective absolute truth exists, then they will toy with anything and everything that fits their fancy. But the notion of truth of course means that some things are not true – some things are false. When you buy into a worldview that says that truth is relative and happens to be whatever you think it is, then it is hard to say that some things are false, or wrong. So anything goes.
Nonetheless, those most into such relativism can still get quite upset if you dare to suggest they might be wrong. They can go on all day about how open they are and how tolerant they are, but as soon as you seek to share truth with them, they can get very ornery – and very intolerant.
Many of those into New Age mumbo jumbo and Eastern thought especially fit the bill here. And I recently had another very good example of this taking place. It had to do with something I had shared on the social media from the American Christian “activist mommy” Elizabeth Johnson.
She had posted a video interview she did with a former witch. I tagged a friend of mine who was also once involved in witchcraft since she would likely be interested in seeing it. The interview in question is found here: www.facebook.com/watch/?v=396653095561900
But a friend of hers – but not of mine – came along and started carrying on about how witchcraft and Christianity get along just swimmingly. She actually said this:
Why can’t witchcraft and Christianity go hand in hand? Why is it evil to be a witch? I am proud to call myself a witch. I love Jesus Christ and God/dess, and I also love to garden, I see magic everywhere, I acknowledge the spells I speak with every word, I love tarot, and honour natures rhythms, I adore astrology and I love practicing rituals for growth and love and harmony for all beings… I don’t understand why these two beautiful philosophies are so often opposing each other when it’s so clear to me they are really one at heart. If anyone can explain I am all ears.
Needless to say my friend and I both challenged her on this. We assured her that the two are NOT compatible. My friend spoke of her testimony: www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4pqnUfgZJQ
And I urged the gal to look at this article for more detail on these matters: billmuehlenberg.com/2022/01/09/a-closer-look-at-witchcraft/
But it seems she was not interested in what either of us had to say, and she did not even seem to bother looking at the links we shared with her. She kept posting loony stuff instead. For example she posted one meme saying “All religions are based on astrotheology” I said: “Um no, not even close.”
Her reply to me and other was often the following: “Haha. Blessings!” As if she was so loving and accepting and nice and we were somehow the bad guys here. Others challenged her as well, and then her true colours started coming to the fore. She made a few replies then took her ball and ran away.
She said to one Christian: “wow so rude! Everyone is allowed to have their own perspective – in the end that’s all that’s going on – nothing is objective. Despite your rudeness! I wish you nothing but blessings and peace.” And to another she said: “I’ve sourced information from all over the place, but ultimately I make decisions about my beliefs from within. I will be withdrawing from any contact with you and all your friends.”
As I say, with those words she pulled out.
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Warfield on Jesus’s Anger at the Death of Lazarus
The spectacle of the distress of Mary and her companions enraged Jesus because it brought poignantly home to his consciousness the evil of death, its unnaturalness, its “violent tyranny” as Calvin (on verse 38) phrases it. In Mary’s grief, he “contemplates” — still to adopt Calvin’s words (on verse 33), — “the general misery of the whole human race” and burns with rage against the oppressor of men.
One of B. B. Warfield’s most profound and widely read essays is “On the Emotional Life of Our Lord” first published in 1912. In the essay (originally written for a Princeton Theological Seminary faculty publication and republished many times since), Warfield considers all of those instances in the gospel accounts in which Jesus demonstrates deep and abiding emotions. It is at once a beautiful and moving essay, while at the same time a powerful statement that Christ’s true human nature brings forth true human emotions—ranging from compassion to anger. You can download the essay for free here, but there are new published versions (in booklet form with updated text and with introductions) here and here.
Since we are now in Easter week, I thought it would be a good time to consider Warfield’s discussion of Jesus’s anger upon learning of the death of his dear friend, Lazarus.
Warfield writes,The same term [for anger] occurs again in John’s narrative of our Lord’s demeanor at the grave of his beloved friend Lazarus (John 11:33, 38). When Jesus saw Mary weeping — or rather “wailing,” for the term is a strong one and implies the vocal expression of the grief — and the Jews which accompanied her also “wailing,” we are told, as our English version puts it, that “he groaned in the spirit and was troubled”; and again, when some of the Jews, remarking on his own manifestation of grief in tears, expressed their wonder that he who had opened the eyes of the blind man could not have preserved Lazarus from death, we are told that Jesus “again groaned in himself.”
But is “groaning,” as in the Authorized Version translation too tame?
The natural suggestion of the word “groan” is, however, that of pain or sorrow, not disapprobation; and this rendering of the term in question is therefore misleading. It is better rendered in the only remaining passage in which it occurs in the New Testament, Mark 14:5, by “murmured,” though this is much too weak a word to reproduce its implications. In that passage it is brought into close connection with a kindred term which determines its meaning. We read: “But there were some that had indignation among themselves . . . and they murmured against her.” Their feeling of irritated displeasure expressed itself in an outburst of temper. The margin of our Revised Version at John 11:33, 38, therefore, very properly proposes that we should for “groaned” in these passages, substitute “moved with indignation,” although that phrase too is scarcely strong enough.
We all know that “Jesus wept” is the shortest verse in the New Testament. But Warfield says “wept” will not do!
What John tells us, in point of fact, is that Jesus approached the grave of Lazarus, in a state, not of uncontrollable grief, but of irrepressible anger.
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Christians Need A Siege Mentality
Embracing a biblical siege mentality doesn’t mean adopting aggressive evangelism or open hostility toward unbelievers. The full compass of Christian living – warm hospitality, sensitive evangelism, joyful fellowship, and discerning cultural engagement – are arrows in the Christian’s quiver. It is worth noting that these do not exist alongside the Christian’s spiritual warfare, they are our spiritual warfare. These are precisely the behaviours that Christ is pleased to use to storm the very gates of hell.
When discussing missions with any zealous evangelist, it won’t be long before the phrase ‘siege mentality’ is mentioned with a head shake and a furrowed brow. From their spiritual walled castle, adherents of this mentality fearfully examine the moral decay in their surroundings and resolve to have little to do with unbelievers. The call to keep oneself unstained by the world has become their great commission; they’ve raised the drawbridge and put extra piranhas in the moat for good measure.
It is an amusing thought experiment to look out over my Tasmanian suburb and imagine a walled castle amid the streets. While such a building would be geographically strange, perhaps it is spiritually appropriate. After all, the siege mentality has one thing going for it: Christians are actually at war (Eph 6:12). This celestial war, waged on a terrestrial battlefield, rarely reaches the front intellectual burner for many Christians. While the siege mentality is a problem – and it is a problem – very much greater is the problem of believers walking out into the battlefield each day with their spiritual armour in a box under the bed. Walking out into the fray in one’s spiritual birthday suit doth not a battle plan make.
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