WORK COMPETITION Who wrote the attack on ruthless capitalists printed below?
KATABASIS PRESS is offering prizes of its anthology Work – containing all sorts of personal accounts, essays and poems about work – to the first 3 correct answers by email and the first 3 correct answers by post to be received by Sofia editor. Answers must give a postal address in Britain. editor@sofn.org.uk 10 St Martin’s Close, London NW1 0HR 9 Sofia 102 Christmas December 2011 Thirty years ago I was intrigued by Paul van Buren’s idea that there could be a ‘secular meaning’ of the Gospel The Secular Meaning of the Gospel, 1963).
Van Buren’s book was published in the same year as Honest to God and the paperback version carried an endorsement by John Robinson. Van Buren argued that ‘modern man’ cannot understand the mythological setting of the Christian message and that it is necessary to translate the gospel into modern terms. The ‘modern terms’ van Buren had in mind were drawn from existential psychology. His argument went like this: 1. There is ‘something wrong’ with man. Man is in bondage and in need of freedom. Men are bound by fear and anxiety, mistrust and self-concern. 2. Faith must be interpreted as the realisation of man’s original possibility of ‘authentic existence’. 3. To ‘exist authentically’ is to be a true man. 4. The true nature of man is ‘freedom for others’. 5. Jesus was a ‘true man’ because of his remarkable and particular freedom from self-concern and openness to the concerns of others.
He defines what it means to be a man. 6. Jesus’s freedom is ‘contagious’ and therefore he is our ‘liberator’. He sets us free. 7. Today we no longer know how to use the word ‘God’. The question about God can only be answered by pointing to the man Jesus. 8. This is the secular meaning of the gospel. We should not try to ‘make others into Christians’. Our mission is simply to be ‘a man’, as defined by Jesus.
In response to item (1), it seems doubtful that the human condition can be reduced to a single diagnosis and a single cure. It’s true that we often suffer from insecurity and various neuroses and jealousies, which lead to harmful behaviour towards others but that’s what apes are like, particularly chimpanzees and humans. Humans have the ability, however, to try out various strategies which can help alleviate some of these tendencies. For example, we can resolve to be patient and kind instead of intolerant and aggressive.
With practice, we can become better apes. Looking at items (2) and (3) on van Buren’s list, it’s true that human apes do have a natural tendency to conform to social norms and therefore live ‘inauthentically’. This behaviour can be highly rewarding: we can all think of infuriating examples of people who get promoted on the basis of conformity rather than ability. For many people, however, conformity to social norms creates an intolerable tension between what is felt to be the ‘true’ self and the ‘false’ self. People who have completely lost touch with their ‘true self’ sometimes report feeling dead inside. Rediscovering or ‘coming out’ as our true selves can be an exhilarating and liberating experience. It can also, of course, lead to social ostracism and even physical danger. Items (4) and (5) on Van Buren’s list seem to be expressing the idea that the man or woman who has discovered his or her ‘true self’ is no longer at the mercy of external judgment; they are serene and selfcontained. Such a person has little need of a defensive shield and they are more open and compassionate towards others.
Coming to points (6) and (7), we have no need of a perfect historical exemplar of this mode of existence and to imagine one is to create an idol. We do not need a mythical liberator. All we need to know is whether the theory works in practice; whether, if we practise being true to ourselves we will increasingly experience states of ecstatic freedom.
Van Buren writes that we no longer know how to use the word ‘God’. I think we know all too well that ‘God’, conceptualised as an omnipotent person, is an infinite threat to human freedom and that atheism is now a spiritual necessity. But we can cultivate ‘divinity’ in ourselves and in others to the extent that we have the courage to be ourselves. Our mission is simply to be human and to encourage others to do likewise. _________________________________________ David Warden studied theology at the University of Kent and he is chairman of the Dorset Humanists.