PSYCHO-Social Philosophy

I am teach­ing Social Phi­los­o­phy again this semes­ter. It is an inter­est­ing study with ancient roots. From the very begin­ning of time, humans have tried to shape, manip­u­late, and con­trol each other. Some exper­i­ments have had short-lived suc­cess — oth­ers have been dis­as­ters from the out­set. In the Gar­den of Eden, God and Satan had com­pet­ing views of how things should be (trust v mis­trust). Adam and Eve allowed them­selves to be manip­u­lated into the infe­rior view. The rest is the never-ending his­tory of the con­flict­ing per­cep­tions of what ought to be. It has included per­se­cu­tions, wars, exe­cu­tions, oppres­sive leg­is­la­tion, and end­less re-writes of real­ity. It has also had its brave indi­vid­u­als — its “meek” that man­age to “inherit the earth.”

Jesus’ com­pet­ing view turns every­thing right side up by turn­ing every­thing upside down. To lead means to serve. Reign­ing means wash­ing feet. Love trumps power. Sac­ri­fice is pre­ferred to con­trol. Humil­ity con­quers the day. Suc­cess means being called out from the com­pet­ing insan­i­ties to find the God that has always been there in the peace­ful affir­ma­tions of life.

Diet­rich Bon­ho­ef­fer, the Ger­man mar­tyr of the mid-twentieth cen­tury, warned us of any­one try­ing to shape the church in his or her own image. The church is Spirit. It is like the wind. You can see it develop and change, but it is futile to try to cap­ture it in some social form. In short, the church is about all of us — not any one of us. The vision of it belongs to God. Our job is to behold it in awe.

There are illu­sions built into social manip­u­la­tion, but they are illu­sions seen by the few when they are in progress and by the many after the dis­as­ters they become (the French Rev­o­lu­tion was engi­neered by a man that was once a pacifist…in time he dies by the very instru­ment that he used to kill many others…“if you live by the sword, you will die by the sword” — Jesus of Nazareth).

For all of the political/social noise that goes on around me, I sit still. My life is not deter­mined by any of it. Your life and your life cir­cum­stances are not the same thing. Sal­va­tion can­not be leg­is­lated. The­o­ries come and go. Gov­ern­ments rise and fall. The soul can endure them all and be cap­tured by none when you stay spir­i­tu­ally aware.