I didn't intend, necessarily, to write or report on what I was learning, but after viewing the first video and reading the first chapter of the book, I'm pretty excited about the kinds of thoughts in triggers in my mind. The following is an extended quote from Chapter 1, that I felt most compelling:
In order for Christianity to be "meaningful" in the culture, it must validate the culture's demands for meaning and power and try to fulfill them. It does this by accepting the cultural structure as the basis of its own understanding — that is, the imperfect present linked to, but separated from, the ideal by time and guilt. The variant forms of Christian thought and practice — conservative, liberal, evangelical, fundamentalist, charismatic, orthodox — are but various forms of this one cultural orientation. In spite of the specific features by which each distinguishes itself from the others, or those features by which the others characterize it, there is a remarkable structural unanimity.
For example, all are one in the condemnation of the present as deficient to the ideal or even a betrayal of it. One stresses contemporary "immorality" in terms of promiscuous and deviant sex, drug and alcohol addiction, and preoccupation with "materialistic concerns." Another attacks "secular humanism." Another stresses systemic poverty and indifference to human values. Still another points to obsession with ideology that feeds the arms race and the peculiar economy attending it. Another concentrates on the neglect of traditional religious and patriotic practices.
It is the circle of reality as a whole that is legitimated by religion, and the condemnation of the present, in whatever form this may take, is one of the most important ways this circle is supported. Condemnation of the present is not an attack on the culture but a reinforcement of its structure.
Hessert's main argument is that western society has one "circle of reality" through which it approaches life. Generally this is the distance between what is and what might be. We see ourselves as we are and the distance between now and some ideal future as the purpose of life. We want something different than what we have - whether it's a job, money, a relationship, happiness, peace, freedom, weight loss, whatever - and we work towards achieving it.
His argument is essentially that most of Christianity has generally participated in this same western "circle of reality." Typically, though, various Christian denominations find an alternative goal. They replace whatever "worldly" thing we're searching for with Jesus or fulfillment or social justice or whatever, calling it a different perspective or worldview, but really just reinforcing the very same "circle of reality" centered in pursuit.
It's only chapter one, so I don't have a lot, yet, to say about the alternative, but I'm fascinated by the religious implications of Hessert's idea that there is an alternative - an alternative that is perhaps much closer to Christ and Christ's teaching than what we've come to know as Christianity.
Established religion, at least in this western "circle of reality," tells us there's something wrong with the world. It highlights the difference between what is and what could be, focusing on all the problems that prevent the now from being the ideal. What if a better understanding of Christianity says there's nothing wrong with the world, just our perception of it?
Rollins used the analogy of fish in the water. They're not conscious of the water itself, it is just part of the fabric of a fish's reality. Our "circle of reality" is not something we inherently see, but the structure by which we experience the world. Jesus called us to notice the water, to see our "circle of reality," and then Jesus challenged us to adopt a different one. The critique of Christianity is not about the substance of our beliefs, but about the very frame around which we build them.
Jesus provides a fundamentally different way of seeing and understanding existence. "Blessed are the poor" makes no sense in our culture, neither does "love your enemies," or "give without asking anything in return." These ideas fundamentally contradict how we understand the world. Our "circle of reality" is built around acquisition and improvement, but Jesus calls us to look at things differently.
What if the Kingdom of God is not something in the future (the ideal), but it's just a different way of seeing what's already here? Again, it's only chapter one, but I'm excited to see how Hessert (and Rollins) explores this argument more thoroughly. What if the culmination of all things is not some far off resolution to a current problem, but the result of people seeing the world as it is?
I love the optimism of this idea: that there's nothing wrong with the world, just something profoundly wrong with how we look at it (and thus how we live in it).*
*I found out this is, apparently, a Henry Miller quote. Who knew? (Not me. I promise.)
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