Expressive individualism – why does it matter?
If you are a frog, you jump from a pot of boiling water. But if you are placed in a pot of tepid water that is gradually heated to boiling, you die. It’s been one way to explain why humans react quickly to sudden events but fail to react to slowly changing conditions until it’s too late.
This is why expressive individualism matters. It’s the reason behind the saying ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’. It’s the reality behind why people switch off from listening to our preaching, telling people to follow Jesus, if our attitudes and actions suggest ours is walking in the opposite direction.
I’m asking the question I’ve heard many express, albeit using different words, why does expressive individualism matter (see part 1 for a brief attempt at identifying what this means). My starting point is calling back to my mind the word translated “church” in the English Bible is ekklesia. This word combines the Greek words kaleo (to call), with the prefix ek (out). Therefore, the word literally means “the called-out ones.” I suspect the practical, working definition of “church” in many recent conversations is somewhat different. Words more frequently mentioned have been ‘identification’, ‘acceptance’, ’relevance’ and ‘inclusive’.
Does it matter? I think so and here’s my attempt to (as briefly as I can) give three reasons to answer why?
- If we do not identify expressive individualism, we become so accustomed to it, we unconsciously become an expression of its’ practices and habits.
It’s possible this is the hardest step. The two biggest difficulties, as I view this element of our challenges in this area are:
- It’s very, very appealing. The clue’s in the word ‘individualism’. This is more appealing than the claims of a charismatic leader who beckons you in their direction. The person who’s calling you to you their full allegiance is yourself! The appeal is bespoke to you.
- It sounds so right. Like most heresies it’s mostly true. Honestly, I’ve never been tempted to listen to the claims of someone I know to be an atheist. But someone who’s shaped a philosophy of life, which suits me, which is tailored to ignore my failings and weaknesses and pander to my every desire and whim and tell me that’s why I’m here – to fulfil my every wish, irrespective of who else gets in the way – well that’s another story.
When I examine the conversation between Jesus and the devil revealed for us in Luke
I notice a couple of things. Firstly, if these three temptations were genuinely tempting to Jesus, the one 100% sinless human being to have walked this earth, then I must be doubly attentive. I can and I am fooled much more easily. Secondly, the reason they were so tempting is because they sounded almost true.
- If we do not address expressive individualism, it becomes a Trojan horse, by the time you realise it’s there, you’ve been taken over.
‘Culture is to humans as water is to fish’ as the saying goes. It’s an invaluable insight describing how the most important and obvious things can be difficult to see and articulate. A fish lives its entire life swimming through water, without knowing what water is. My sense is the Church across the UK is only now waking up to the fact the water supply we’ve been swimming was changes a few decades ago. What we previously identified as the sexual revolution, or consumerism, are in fact different expressions of expressive individualism.
This is the very nature of sin. Of course, even the usage of this word, is most likely to be misunderstood, considered inappropriate and in the eyes of many, not simply outside of the church, best not used at all. Yet neither denial, avoidance, nor repression of reality is ever helpful in the longer term for the human heart.
‘The so-called sexual revolution of the last sixty years, culminating in its latest triumph – the normalisation of transgenderism – cannot properly be understood until it is within the context of the much broader transformation in how society understands the nature of human selfhood.’
- I see the danger in myself. The biblical perspective, expressed by Jeremiah is ‘the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?’ (Jer. 17:9). Personal understanding will only ever be partial, but any insight into the divine perspective (it seems to me in my own experience) only ever comes with ownership, an acceptance of personal responsibility: my sin. I’ve just returned to finish off this article following a conversation with a young man who believes God is calling him to re-engage with the people groups he was immersed in when he came to faith in Jesus. He spoke about the street, drug abuse, punk, art, LGBT communities. ‘Before I became a Christian, my language, my attitudes and many of my actions were simply how it was, (insert: part of the water he swam in), but when I began to follow Jesus, my whole perspective was changed. I want to go back to them now, not to judge, but to help others see what I have seen. Jesus loves every bit as much as me.’
- I see the danger in the church. The idea that all human beings are of equal worth is rooted in the idea all human beings are made in the image of God. The problem with expressive individualism lies around the detachment of these two things. Once our individual worth is severed from its rootedness in the sacred, we have switched kingdoms.
- If we do not reveal a new way, which authentically expresses the life of Jesus, we shall become guilty of preaching a gospel other than that of Jesus Christ, who is himself ‘the way, the truth and the life’.
I believe I need to be honest about who I am with anyone who gets close enough to take notice. The vast majority of the people I’ve had a conversation of any depth with appear to be searching for a way of living authentically, at peace with themselves and others. They may or may not have factored the existence of God into the equation at this stage. However, when people see lived out before their very own eyes a person whose life, generally, suggests this is their lived experience, they want to know more. At this point, what are we presenting and suggesting to them? The danger is this: I can do it. But whoever they’re observing, it is only a matter of time before the cracks begin to show. Admittedly some are better than others, if we measure goodness in percentage terms, or maybe they’re just better at the art of deception?
Perhaps this is why Jesus stresses the same twice within the instructions he gives to the seventy-two in Luke 10:8-9 ‘When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal those there who are ill and tell them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”
People need more than a better version of themselves, they need to see more than the best version of themselves. They need to see Jesus.
