Transcript Habits of the Heart: The Habit of Cultural Critique

Habits of the Heart:
The Habit of Cultural Critique
Michael Goheen
Vancouver, B.C.
Tracing the Phrase
▪ Theme: Habits of the heart
▪ Made popular by Robert Bellah’s book
(Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment
in American Life)
▪ Bellah borrows phrase from Alexis de
Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
Habits of the heart in ‘Democracy in America’
Habitual social, economic, and political
practices and customs that flowed, often
unconsciously, from hidden beliefs,
assumptions, and commitments.
Tracing the Phrase
▪ Theme: Habits of the heart
▪ Made popular by Bellah’s book
▪ Bellah borrows from de Tocqueville
▪ Tocqueville indebted to Jean-Jacques
Rousseau and Blaise Pascal
Rousseau and Pascal
Habits of the heart: Laws of behaviour and habitual
practices are ‘not inscribed on brass or marble, but in
the hearts of citizens’ (Rousseau in Social Contract).
‘We know the truth, not only by reason, but also by
the heart, and it is in this last way that we know first
principles; and reason which has no part in it, tries in
vain to impugn them’ (Pascal in Pensées).
Psalm 119
Pascal’s comments are based on Psalm 119
Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him
with all their heart. v.2
I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart
on your laws. v.30
I run in the path of your commands, for you have set
my heart free. v. 32
Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward
selfish gain. v.36
My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very
end. v.112
Summary: Historical Review
▪ Human behaviour (social, political,
economic, educational, etc.) is a matter
of habit and custom
▪ Habits and customs are rooted in
heart
▪ What is the heart?
Heart in Scripture
▪ Most popular anthropological term:
1000 times in Scripture
▪ Deepest core and centre of our being
▪ All human life flows from heart
▪ Religious: directed toward God or
idol (God-substitute)
Religious Nature of Human Beings
▪
Idol
God
▪Humankind
Heart in Biblical Perspective
‘Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life’ (Proverbs 4:23).
‘. . . the heart is the person concentrated in religious
unity; the many functions and activities by which we
come to know a person are the expressions of this
religious unity’ (Stuart Fowler).
Nature of Humanity
Heart:
religious
core
Religious Beliefs Embodied Communally
▪Humanity created to live in community
▪Religious beliefs are communally held
▪Religious beliefs find expression in communal life
‘The ideas and values of the modern age are not only
intellectualized but they are embedded in powerful
institutions, arguably the most powerful institutions that
have ever existed. . . . the key ideas, values, and
characteristics of modernity are ‘carried by specific
institutions . . .’ (John Davison Hunter).
Culture: Common way of life rooted in
shared religious commitments
Heart:
religious
core
Two Illustrations
▪ Habits of the heart
▸ Medicine
▸ Housing
▸ Education
▪ All:
▸ Shaped by underlying religious beliefs about
human being
▸ Lack of awareness of foundational beliefs
Unaware of Foundational Beliefs
If you want to know about water, don’t ask a fish (Chinese
proverb).
‘Initially I am not aware of [my cultural worldview]. As
long as I retain the innocence of a thoroughly indigenous
western man, unshaken by serious involvement in another
culture, I am not aware of [my cultural worldview]. It is
simply “how things are” . . . No [worldview] is seen as a
[worldview] by those who inhabit it: it is simply the way
things are’ (Newbigin).
Problem: Cultural habits of heart
shaped to some degree by idolatry!
Heart:
religious
Core
Idolatry
Habit of Cultural Critique
▪ If: our core beliefs and social habits
incompatible with gospel
▪ Then: we need to develop habit of
cultural critique
▪ Not easy:
▸Lack of critical distance
▸Myth of a Christian culture
▸Myth of secular, neutral culture
Uncovering the Hidden Credo
‘Incomparably the most urgent missionary task
for the next few decades is the mission to
‘modernity’ . . . It calls for the use of sharp
intellectual tools to probe behind the
unquestioned assumptions of modernity and
uncover the hidden credo which supports them’
(Newbigin).
CULTURE
(patterns of life together)
Marriage Family Economic Political Education Media
Sports Entertainment Art Architecture Customs etc. etc.
______________________________________________
Shapes
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS (Credo)
Gives
meaning
Our religious beliefs are embedded in
a story about the whole world.
All of our lives will be shaped by
some story – either the story of
Scripture or the story of our culture.
Six Important Elements of Cultural
Critique
First, developing a habit of cultural
critique will mean fostering the tension
between the Biblical story and our
cultural story.
Tension Between Gospel and Culture
The deeper the consciousness of the tension and
the urge to take this yoke upon itself are felt, the
healthier the Church is. The more oblivious of
this tension the Church is, the more well
established and at home in this world it feels, the
more it is in deadly danger of being the salt that
has lost its savour.
- Hendrik Kraemer
I didn’t realize until I took INT, and now this course
how much I try to make Western culture and the
Biblical worldview fit together. I realize more and
more that they are actually opposite and against each
other. Yet I must live in this culture because I am a
part of it.
- Redeemer Student 2001
Six Important Elements of Cultural
Critique
Second, developing a habit of cultural
critique will mean knowing our
cultural story.
Knowing Our History
First item on agenda of revolutionary
curriculum in history because ‘history
is our most potent intellectual means
of achieving a “raised consciousness”’
(Neal Postman).
Six Important Elements of Cultural
Critique
Third, developing a habit of cultural
critique will mean discerning the
religious foundation of our cultural
story.
Historical Development
Who named these anyway?
▪ Middle Ages
▪ Renaissance
▪ Enlightenment
What is the hero of the story?
1350
1750
Middle Ages Renaissance Enlightenment
‘hero’ suppressed
‘hero’
born again
‘hero’ becomes light
of the world
What? Rationalistic humanism
Modern Western Confession of Faith
I believe in Man. I believe in the ability of man
apart from God to define the world and solve the
problems of the world.
I believe in Science Almighty. I believe in the
power of human reason disciplined by the scientific
method to understand, control, and change our
world.
Modern Western Confession of Faith
I believe in Technology and a Rational Society, its
only begotten sons which have the power to
redeem our world.
I believe in the Spirit of Progress. I believe that a
science-based technology and a rationally
organised society will enable me to realise my
ultimate human goal – freedom, happiness and
comforts of material abundance. To this I commit
myself with all my resources, time and money.
Amen.
Western Faith: Rationalistic
Humanism
Rationalistic humanism: Autonomous man is
capable of defining the world (Creator) and solving
problems of world bringing about a new world with
science and technology (Redeemer).
What are dominant religious spirits
today?
• Postmodernity (attack on rationalistic humanism)
• Economic globalisation (global spread of
economic form of rationalistic humanism)
• Consumerism (result of both)
Six Important Elements of Cultural
Critique
Fourth, developing a habit of cultural
critique will mean identifying and
understanding the most powerful
institutional ‘carriers’ or embodiments of
our story.
Three ‘Carriers’ of Modern Story
According to J.D. Hunter
▪ Political: nation state
▪ Economic: industrial capitalism
▪ Cultural: school, media
Powerful Embodiments Today
▪ Global, consumer capitalism
▪ Proliferation of new technologies
▪ Media
▪ School
▪ City
Six Important Elements of Cultural
Critique
Fifth, developing a habit of cultural
critique will mean reading and communal
dialogue.
Communal Dialogue
▪ Need for communal dialogue
▪ ‘I pray that you, being rooted and
established in love, may have the power,
together with all the saints, to grasp how
wide and long and high and deep is the love
of Christ . . .’ (Eph.3:18).
▪ Other cultures: Mutual enrichment and
critique
Six Important Elements of Cultural
Critique
Sixth, developing a habit of cultural
critique will mean taking hold of the
spiritual weapons God has given for
waging war.
Spiritual Weapons
▪ Battle of kingdoms for whole creation
▪ Need, not only for sharp intellectual
tools, but for spiritual weapons
Paul’s Admonition
‘For though we live in the world, we do not wage
war as the world does. The weapons we fight
with are not the weapons of this world. On the
contrary, they have divine power to demolish
strongholds. We demolish arguments and every
pretension that sets itself up against the
knowledge of God, and we take captive every
thought to make it obedient to Christ’ (2
Corinthians 10:3-5).
Wisdom and Discernment
‘Test everything.
Hold on to the good.
Avoid every kind of evil.’
(1 Thess. 5:21-22)
Prayer for Wisdom and Discernment
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of
wisdom . . . (Eph.1:17).
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound
more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so
that you may be able to discern what is best and may
be pure and blameless until the day of Christ . . .
(Phil.1:9f.)
Prayer for Wisdom
For this reason, since the day we heard about you,
we have not stopped praying for you and asking God
to fill you with knowledge of his will through all
spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray
this in order that you may live a life worthy of the
Lord and may please him in every way . . . (Col.1:910).
Loving Resistance Fighters
▪ Loving our culture as part of God’s good
creation (participation)
▪ Resisting the idolatry that distorts it
(separation)
Some questions for homeeducators:
▪How can we negotiate the
love/participation and resist/separation
tension in cultural engagement?
▪How can we develop the habit of
cultural critique in our families, our
children?
Romans 12:1,2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of
God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living
sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this
is your spiritual act of worship. Do not
conform any longer to the pattern of this
world but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind. Then you will be able to test
and approve what God’s will is—his good,
pleasing, and perfect will.