Two thoughts.....
1. IMO, both Judaism and early Christianity were very corporate. The emphasis was on the PEOPLE of God, the family, the community, the communion, the oikos of God....the Body of Christ. Forgive the grammar, but it was very much "Jesus and WE" (Or God and WE). A very strong sense of community, family. The church is defined in the ancient Creed as "the Communion of Saints." BUT.... Christianity is one of two major religions that was founded in one culture but developed in a VERY different one..... Christianity became ROMAN. I took at upper division course in the History of Ancient Greece and Rome" and if there's one point I got from that, it's the OBSESSION that Rome had with individualism (entirely interlocked with institutionalism, centrality, POWER). I think Christianity became shaped in that milieu of individualism, meism, institutionalism, centrality, power. I think the closer to the City of Rome, the more this was the case (and so ROMAN Catholicism is impacted by this far more than most forms of Eastern Orthodoxy) This obsession became a part of the DNA of Western Christianity. And sadly, it was inherited hook, line and sinker by Protestantism. Luther decried it, Lutheranism speaks MUCH of the COMMUNITY of faith (my congregation goes so far as to change lyrics of songs we sing to avoid all the "I" stuff so often found in western hymnology). But while the institutionalism and power obsessions are found less in Protestantism than in the Roman Church, the "me-ism" is often just as strong. And it's just as divisive. By the way, the Enlightenment (also a WESTERN experience) only made it worse. And the Awakening (another WESTERN experience) and its emphasis on what SELF feels/experiences also made it worse.
2. Just PART of the problem with the me-ism is how it destroys truth. Sadly, that whole obsessively ROMAN thing with POWER, control, individualism came to mean that truth is entirely irrelevant. It means that all are rendered docilic - they are just to swallow whole WHATEVER the Power One says/teaches because the Power One insists that only the Power One Knows. Self is equated (at least!) with God. POWER of self became the issue, not truth. In early Western Christianity, Truth became entirely irrelevant, all that mattered was the need for all to be quiet, docilic, submissive obedient ones to the Roman Church BECAUSE it itself insisted it itself was The All Powerful Lord and God. Now, yup, the "defense" of that rubric is "Well, God does that! Jesus did that!" Which only shows the level of egoism and power-quest and boldness in equating self with God (and the evading that Jesus actually said we are to follow him NOT because of His claims of self for self but because of the miracles, the Scriptures and the Resurrection). Did this too get passed on to Protestantism? Yes, it often did. Protestant preachers are apt to say "Just swallow whole whatever I'M saying cuz I'M claiming for ME alone that I just know." Where did they inherit this from? The Roman Catholic Church. Wanna know why Ecumenical Councils became entirely irrelevant by the year 800? There it is. And yes, it's still true (a point Luther greatly lamented as he noted the great need for an Ecumenical Council in his own time, while recognizing none had even been possible for 700 years given the milieu that Christianity got from Rome). All this has gone right were it could have been predicted in 800 AD: to relativism, indiividualism and personal experience. For the past 12 years, I have been very focused on this: And the need for humility, community and accountability. George, my Orthodox friend, this is an area where East is better than West and could offer much leadership..... indeed, there have been some (including from Lutheranism) that have gone East for this very reason, and I do understand that. I still hold to the Lutheran response, but I see the appeal to the Orthodox one..... and I do greatly admire Orthodoxy for better resisting all this and those in the West. And it is a major part for my I left the RCC. My Greek Orthodox friend passionately believes that IF I had gone to an Orthodox church rather than a Lutheran church at that critical time in my life..... if Orthodox had reached out to me rather than Lutherans, she believed I'd be an Orthodox priest right now, lol. We all have our paths.....
Pax Christi
- Josiah
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