Hi Trevor, I agree totally with your analysis, including the comment about the church. I suggest emphasising the servanthood of Christ is the place to begin, in reply to your question
>Does the church first have to roll >back the idea that the autonomous self is paramount? How? but we need to live it as well as preach it, and it's certainly counter-cultural these days. Just before I read your email I was listening to a radio discussion of singles living alone. The presenter [Sally Loane] suggested that single people might be an untapped source of social capital, as if this was a novel idea, and not a point that Paul made nearly 2000 years ago! But lest I be misunderstood, I think we all have to discover how to live as servants whatever our living arrangements. [I'm not talking about picking up for the family!] Sue .On Sun, 12 Sep 2004 16:06:53 +0800, you wrote: >"I believe that one of the cruelest jokes we perpetrate on our young people >is to instill in them the falsehood that they are their own >meaning-makers." (from a page at the Becoming Disciples site). > >This quote made me think about the autonomous self. > >The primacy of the autonomous self is a cornerstone of Modernism. Rejection >of meta-narratives and relativisation of absolute truths may show that the >autonomous self is also a major element of evolving Post-modernism. > >All of the principal inputs received by young people today emphasize the >autonomy of the self. The self is presented as something which is divorced >from community and from history. > >Those inputs also have made individual ambition an essential part of the >autonomous self. Ambition is taught as something for the self - it is not >presented as something which can be shared. (BTW, it's not just our Western >European society. Witness the individual ambitions being generated in the >emerging middle classes of Asia, Eastern Europe, South America and even >Africa.) > >The autonomous self is a fundamental driver of economic rationalism and >thus globalisation, because that's what economic rationalism is about - a >society of ambitious human individuals competing with each other, a society >in which there have to be winners and losers (basically because competitive >ambition is the driver, the pie is not big enough to satisfy all individual >ambition, and in any case some will always want a bigger slice of the pie). >Any notion of winners helping losers is alien to the model - ambitious >competitors in a race don't help each other. > >It seems to me that parts of the Christian Church have bought into the >paradigm of the autonomous self as well, with their emphasis on personal >salvation and with their promises of personal health and wealth through >faith. Does that view of the Gospel mean that some must be saved and some >must achieve health and wealth, at the expense of others - an economic >rationalist model superimposed (very uncomfortably, I would think) over the >Gospel? > >More to the point, how can what's left of the church present the Gospel >honestly to a society in which at least 3 generations have been immersed in >this culture of the autonomous self? Does the church first have to roll >back the idea that the autonomous self is paramount? How? > >Are the claims of primacy for the autonomous self part of the cruel joke? > > >------------------------------------------------------ >- You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] >- To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe >insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) >See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm >------------------------------------------------------ Sue Bolton Sydney, Australia ------------------------------------------------------ - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm ------------------------------------------------------
