Advances in Culture Doomed By Individualism
January 03, 2005
While various aspects of postmodernism seem promising (e.g. the valuing of mystery, spirituality, and experience), today's culture will forever remain hamstrung as long as individualism is encouraged and defended.
When compared with ancient peoples, Moderns have tended to view themselves as intellectually and morally superior. Postmoderns have been willing to adjust this stance, but just how far?
In 1985, as part of his seminal work: Habits of the Heart, Robert Bellah made a very astute observation:
We thus face a profound impasse. Modern individualism seems to be producing a way of life that is neither individually nor socially viable, yet a return to traditional forms would be to return to intolerable discrimination and oppression. The question, then, is whether the older civic and biblical traditions have the capacity to reformulate themselves while simultaneously remaining faithful to their own deepest insights (p. 144).
And now 20 years later we're still asking whether or not those older biblical traditions can (or even should) be "reformulated" and embraced in our future as a corrective to how modernism has failed us. Emerging leaders often articulate a commitment to and an embracing of the contemporary, popular culture (c.f. Neibuhr's "Christ of Culture" in Christ and Culture), without adequately addressing the individualism which dooms its success.
Stan Grenz represents one of the voices opposing this view. In his book, Theology for the Community of God, Grenz asserts the following:
The modern Western fascination with individualism, however, is waning, especially within the human sciences. Many thinkers are realizing that our understanding of the human phenomenon must reflect a more adequate balance between its individual and social dimensions (p. 23).
I sincerely hope that Grenz is right, but am growing increasingly convinced that he's wrong. Yet something must be done. Rampant individualism cannot continue to go unchecked. So what's the solution? I'm fairly confident that it's the recapturing of a bibliohistorical ethic, but I'd enjoy hearing hearing what you think.
Jimmy (formerly of fluidfaith.blogspot.com) said in a personal conversation recently that suburbia is one of the chief sources of this problem of individualism. Our lives are literally structured in isolating ways - you have to drive everywhere, people don't live close together, and there is little shared space. None of this is true of highly urban areas, but very true of the suburbs.
For a secular angle on how urbanites have transcended the modernist sense of individual isolation, I recommend Ethan Watters' Urban Tribes.
Posted by: Justin Baeder | January 03, 2005 at 08:44 PM
There is nothing wrong with being an individual. However, we tend to suffer from "Rugged Individualism," the old "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" and "don't take handouts from anyone" that is at the very core of everything we do as Americans. It is individualism at its most manic and virulent.
The church in America has failed to divorce itself from rugged individualism. Tell the average person in the average church that you just lost your job and the response is along the lines of "I'm sorry. I'll pray for you. How about those Red Sox?" That ain't gonna cut it. People are almost afraid that bad news is like a virus they can catch. The idea that we should never have anything bad happen to us tends to reinforce individualism when it should be doing the opposite. It forces us into little (seemingly)fortified islands that the Enemy destroys with impunity.
I could talk about this topic forever, but have other things to do today, so it will have to wait. Suffice it to say that you are dead on, DP, with seeing this as a problem. Hopefully we in the Church can shine light into the darkness of individualism before it is too late.
Posted by: DLE | January 04, 2005 at 09:16 AM