A theme that has occupied quite a bit of my thinking the last few years is that of ‘identity and otherness’. It appears to me as if there is a universal need for human beings to have a clearly defined identity, hence we all ask ourselves who we really are? This endeavor into the realm of the deep existential questions is obviously not always conducted with rigor and intellectual sharpness but the problem of being–what it means to exist–are in one way or another dealt with by all of us.
In his book Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition (Princeton University Press, 1994), the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor explains that human identity is partly shaped by the recognition, or non recognition, of others. Basically this means that we’re all in need of other people to affirm our existence to understand ourselves as actual ‘beings’. If Taylor is right, and I believe that he is, this observation will lead us onto an insight regarding how we all participate in a ‘game’ of defining each others identities and self-understandings. In this ‘game’ we tend to distinguish other people from ourselves by markers like gender, family, race, social groups, religious faiths, politic affiliations, etc., and the result of this is a world in which we live and define each other as either ‘us’ or ‘them’.
From a historical perspective there’s no doubt that the right to define the other hasn’t belonged to everyone on equal terms and there would most likely be few protests to the claim that we still have a clear power structure even within the democratic parts of the present world. However, we have seen a significant decentralization of power the last 500 years, a time period during which there has been a distinct focus on the ‘individual’. This development is important for the argument I’m putting forth because it has shaped our understanding on the close connection between ‘individual freedom’ and ‘existence’. My thesis here is that we tend to consider ‘individual freedom’ as a necessity for us to actually exist, hence we believe that freedom is the precondition for a ‘personal identity’.
The process of democratization should obviously be seen as a positive development but I believe that there is an inherent problem in the way we seem to be inclined to view our own ‘identity’ since the Enlightenment up till this present day. This problem has to do with how we relate to the concept of ‘freedom’. What I mean by this is that ‘freedom’ is commonly understood as ‘free from’ rather than ‘free to’. Thus, we find here an inner contradiction in the logic by which we live since we create a distance to those around us in order to be free (from them), but this distance then make it impossible for them to affirm our own identity, which as Taylor points out is necessary for the self-recognition of our own identity.
Something that troubles me when i center my attention towards this analysis is that the Church doesn’t really appear to ‘represent’ an alternative to the world. This is not to say that there hasn’t been Christian individuals who have done otherwise, but it seems to me that the collective opinion about the Church is that we are the ones who have not only drawn lines in the sand to distinguish ’us’ from ‘them’ – we have been the ones who have built high walls to keep the ones we have declared ‘monstrous’ out. This is ironic to me since I believe that the Christian faith is ‘the’ faith that contains an ‘antidote’ to the selfish heart. What I mean by this statement is that within the Christian gospel is embedded a unique, harsch condamnation against the exclusion of the ‘other’ and a call to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
The life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ represents a victory over the evil forces of this world and therefore a shattering of all the ‘identity markers’ we use to keep people at a proper distance from us. On the cross Jesus defeats sin and death and to follow him implies to ‘die’ with him because how else could we share in his resurrection? To follow Christ means to ‘die’ away from sin, to be transformed by the grace of God and to live a life shaped by his resurrection. If sin is to live with ‘your heart turned in on itself’ (Luther), then the life shaped by the resurrection means to have it directed towards the ‘other’. I think that there is a close correlation between this ‘symbolic’ definition of sin and the modern, individualistic desire to ‘exist free from others’. Thus, the desire to be free from others is something that we need to die away from if we want to follow Christ. In the end, Christ did not exclude ‘the other’ for his own freedom, but he walked obedient towards his divine calling, all the way to his death on the cross. Hence, the ‘sinless one’ became the ‘excluded one’ and this is how he unmasked the evil, sinful behavior of the heart that is turned in on itself.
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2.1-11)
Wow,…that’s some deep stuff …but, you close well and I submit you are on the right track….but to simplfy….The absolute and best book on the market to understand your ‘identity’ is a book titled ‘The Image Maker’ by Terry Crist. If you believe in why Christ came to this Earth, you will never be the same after reading this book.
Gary
Dear J.P.,
I would encourage you to keep searching and maturing your beliefs, but you don’t need my encouragement for that. You will do that on your own. That drive within you will force you to continue and pursue the answers you seek. I wish you all the best.
God bless,
I’m mulling this over and realizing that as I’m letting go of a “church is a club” mentality, I’m also opening my heart up to seeing Christ in people outside the church. This is changing my self identity. I’m now part of something so much bigger and surprising. There are so many talented non-churchgoers in my community who are doing exactly what God gifted them to do and it blesses me! I used to simply dismiss these poor souls as “unbelievers” and feel better about myself, but now I see many as brothers and sisters who simply haven’t met Jesus yet. In the meantime, I’m enjoying new friendships and becoming a new person myself. Thank you for your insight and depth. I appreciate your writing.
” the collective opinion about the Church is that we are the ones who have not only drawn lines in the sand to distinguish ’us’ from ‘them’ – we have been the ones who have built high walls to keep the ‘monstrous other’ out.”
I agree. Boy, do I agree! I have a lot of friends who aren’t Christian, and if I had a dime for every time they complain about Christians being hateful toward or just not caring about people who are different… Well, I wouldn’t be looking for a job right now, that’s for sure! They always add that, “Oh, not YOU, of course,” but honestly, I’ve been guilty of it too. For instance, I didn’t care nearly as much about the poor until I was unemployed and struggling to pay medical bills with no insurance.
One of the things I think the church needs to do the most of is LISTENING to people instead of judging them. I have gained more respect for Christ among my friends by listening to them, than I ever could have by preaching at them or condemning them. They know what I believe, and we can talk about it openly, but it doesn’t become a stumbling block between us.
Reblogged this on Sistersforchrist.
I love your writing-you’ve got some deep interesting thoughts. This is exactly the kind of writing on Christianity that I enjoy reading-refreshing and inspiring. Keep up the posts!:)
Thanks, I’ll try to keep it up.
I enjoyed your post! I think the challenge to the church is to be faithful to Scripture. This faithfulness will always separate the church FROM the world. This faithfulness will always separate the church TO Jesus Christ. However, this faithfulness will always DRIVE the church back to the world with Christ’s message of salvation.
The message of salvation, as you say, has its own harsh condemnation of the exclusion of the “other.” Christians cannot be faithful to Christ while also deliberately excluding people from salvation. This is loveless and it is foreign to Christianity.
However, we must also bear in mind the Gospel carries its own condemnation of the sinfulness of “the other people.” Those who are not yet saved do stand condemned before God already. This condemnation forms a line of category separation between those who are Christians and those who are not Christians.
So Christians must be separated from, separated to and driven towards. From the world…To Christ…Driven towards the lost.
In Sufism, our real quest on earth – in this life – is to unmask our Real Truth; calling it ‘Real Identity’ would be an oxymoron. That’s because Identity is based upon an illusion, a perception that is governed by imagination, illusion, falsehood. Truth is another matter all together. Truth is not swayed by opinions, illusions, imagination, thoughts, theories… it is a very difficult journey, because to reach our Truth (which I’m going to call – for now while using the oxymoron – ‘our true identity’) we need to basically give up our mind-formed, society-formed, conditioning-formed, identity, our perception of it, and, then surrender.
That’s what Jesus Christ did. He surrendered, completely, totally, to God, and to his God-assigned Truth (his true spiritual truth).
Identity has to do with prejudices, without them we lose our identity. That’s why spiritual people are trans-identity, they speak about cross-cutting, global concepts that touch us as humans of every kind, race-less, colorless, society-less, humans. Jesus Christ is above identity and its pettiness, he is with God, he sees life from up above, he sees hearts – truths. He speaks to our essence as humans, all of us, regardless of our time, space, constraints.
The one thing that is 100% in common between all of humanity is Heart. A pure heart is not reserved to one group of people. The same goes for a dark, evil heart.
Jesus, prophets of God, & spiritual masters, spoke about compassion, love, inner greatness, transcending conditioning, and basically getting rid of prejudices – which limit and pollute us.
Identity, therefore, is a pollutant, it is anti-spiritual, because it is a fertile ground for hatred, racism, discrimination, bias, etc.
Religious “institutions” – whether in Islam or Christianity (and even Buddhism has picked up on this) are all about identity. There are certain dress codes, beards, hair (or no hair) styles, certain groups to ‘belong’ to, certain ‘circles’ to identify with, certain lingo, certain concepts, certain everything that are all components of identity, a very rigid identity that at very best ‘questions’ the Other – if not reuse him/her.
But all of these identity factors are masks that mask and distort the truth of, dare I say, all religious institutions on earth.
Jesus Christ did not build an institution, he did not create a system, nor did he ask people to follow a system. Where did this system come from then? Jesus Christ is a soloist with disciples and followers, he did not give them titles and chairs, or certain robes and dress codes to distinguish them. Jesus Christ is not an institution, he is the epitome of love & light, and no institution in the world can contain or reflect (nor represent) his Truth. Only true sincere Christ lovers would, and in their own way.
Jesus Christ is the Head of the Christian Church. So says the Bible. To state that Jesus did not establish an institution is to neglect Christ’s role as the Author and Perfector of the Christian Faith. To state that Jesus Christ did not create a system is to ignore the teaching of the Bible. To state that Jesus Christ did not ask people to follow a system is to compartmentalise the Son as distinct from the Trinity.
Jesus did all of these things and He did them brilliantly. His system is clearly defined without being legalistic. His institution is not built on lust for power but upon the desire to serve. His followers are commanded to put their selves to death in order to identify with Him.
JP’s post was concerned with the way Christians can turn from the way of Jesus and become selfish by their exclusion of others (I think). I agree with his point but think your view of Christ risks destroying His distinctiveness and thus losing His genuine value.
I’ve been thinking about what freedom means recently. In the book “The Year of Living Biblically,” one of the more inspired things I think A.J. Jacobs says is that within religion, freedom is not freedom to choose but freedom from choice– knowing what we have to do each day and doing it without the freedom that comes with 700 cable channels. That, of course, was talking mostly about the ritualistic Jewish passages he was following. As Christians, then, our freedom to choose comes in our freedom to turn towards others, and the freedom we experience from obedience.
One of the best analogies I ever heard was about how “the perfect law that gives freedom” can be compared to music theory, and how one can only be a wonderful piano improvisor once s/he knows enough music theory to improvise within it. And, like C.S. Lewis’s comment about how “Good, as it is perfected, becomes not only less like evil but less like other good as well” (I don’t remember the exact quote), when I live within the rules of music theory, good classical becomes not only less like bad piano playing, but also less like good country music, good pop music.
So that when each of us, in the freedom that Christ gives us, chooses to serve others within the perfect law, the way I serve others looks not only less like selfishness, but less like the way you serve others.
Not 100% related to your approach to freedom, but it reminded me of my own musings on the subject…
Thanks for the comment and I must say that I really appreciate your thoughts here.
Great post, JP. Identity and self seems critical to the understanding of Jesus lessons. One understanding is that our ego, our human survival module, from early childhood, responds to all sorts of interactions according to their apparent threat. The ego has two responses: to avoid domination or to dominate. Our identity develops under a myriad influences but some believe that a few important situations at key times in life, from which we make a meaning that supports a choice about who we are, because of who we now believe other people are. Some of these other people include our parents, siblings, teachers, peers. How we come to be (our identity) is then constantly supported by our ego against any threat to its correctness. The lesson of Jesus seems largely to show that our being is an illusory concept and our soul, love, is true reality. Once we understand that, we can love ourselves in a persistent effort to move our ego and identity into the background in favour of others. Therefore we are giving ourselves opportunities, in love, to listen to the heart of others and talk to them, heart to heart, allowing the holy spirit to move freely.
Thanks. Here’s a video with Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks. The best part starts after 28 minutes. I think you might like it:
It seems you have discovered the path that works for you. I wish you well.
Good article and great picture. Banksy does some thought provoking work. I commend your use of irony in posting about human identity and using a picture from an artist who has escaped his identity. Clever juxtaposition!
Thanks!
J.P.,
This is the second post I’ve seen on your site that has really made me think. This need to be–yet aversion from being–”with” other people, rather than apart from them is something that I struggle with deeply and constantly. (I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice to say that I have problems with seeing associations with valuable, in many regards.)
Sure, it’s useful and nice to have friends, family, etc.; but it’s often more useful and nicer to be free from that very same association–or so it seems. Being one who’s never exactly “fit in,” and who has typically had little interest in doing so, it’s easy to see the association of others as a problem and inconvenience, rather than as an advantage of any kind. Still, I realize–in my more enlightened moments–that isolation detracts from inner happiness, while inclusion fosters that same happiness–insomuch as one can tolerate it.
So, because you’ve inspired me thus with this post, I plan to expand upon this theme and pull in further inspiration from an especially unlikely source (to be announced on my own blog). I will therein attempt to prove, to whatever degree it’s yet possible, that one piece of the grand puzzle that is the brokenness of our world is to be fully committed to community–and to “break into” that community wherever it does not currently realize that togetherness is better than separatism.
To be continued…