According to the well-known "secularization theory" of Max Weber, religion - under the conditions of modernity - goes through various stages. First, religion is privatized, its domain shrunk to the island of private subjectivity. Statements such as "Jesus is alive" and "Jesus is Lord" are no longer regarded as objective, public claims based on historical events but become references to one's personal experience. As for "Jesus is alive," in the words of the famous gospel song, "You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart." And typically, "Jesus is Lord" refers to my personal decision to make Jesus my Lord and Savior. While the apostles testified to historical events of which they were eyewitnesses, "giving your testimony" in evangelical Christianity today typically means talking about one's inner experience and moral transformation. Once privatized, religion becomes relativized. No longer truth, it is your truth. Since religious beliefs are no longer claims about public events, they can only be justified now in terms of what each individual finds meaningful, useful and transformative.
The creedal, objective, and historical faith of traditional Christianity could not be translated into purely subjective terms. However, precisely because American religion has long cherished an opposition to more traditional forms of Christianity in favor of the sovereign inner experience of the individual, it not only survives but thrives in the atmosphere of this secularization process. A type of religion that most premodern Christian would have considered nearly heretical, can become, in the American experience, the epitome of orthodoxy.
Christless Christianity by Michael Horton, Baker Books, 2008, pp. 50-501. (Emphasis is the author's.)
Persis, I really wrestled with some of these ideas recently when I prepared my testimony for a Women's Tea. I nearly canned telling much of my story in fear of sensationalizing the Gospel message because my story is heavy with "personal experience", but thankfully I didn't.
ReplyDeleteWhen sharing our testimony of how God saved us I think there needs to be a wholesome balance - a clear Gospel presentation and our personal experience. We have become new creations - this truly is "experiential"; ie - peace, joy, a transformed mind. etc. And in some cases, some have also had extraordinary "experiences" that God chose to performed. The demoniac at Gadera in Lk 8:39 was told by Christ to go and tell what had been done for him.
But Horton's warning is good. Our Romans professor would also poke fun at the weak Gospel presentation given in that hymn.
Good thoughts today sister.
Diane, I think Horton would agree with you, and so do I. :) There's no question that the gospel changes us, and we should relate it to give God the glory. He's addressing the tendency to (paraphrasing what he said at the Ligonier Conference) make the gospel all about me and my experience - not what happened outside of Jerusalem 2000 years ago.
DeleteI used to sing that hymn. Even the first verse is all about me and not about what Paul wrote in the beginning of 1 Cor. 15.
"A type of religion that most premodern Christian would have considered nearly heretical, can become, in the American experience, the epitome of orthodoxy."
ReplyDeleteOuch!
Thanks for sharing Persis.
I was wondering if I should read this book. Guess so :-)
ReplyDelete