Is there opportunity to expand upon our understanding of the nature of humanity?
I am not a philosopher nor am I a theologian. A most apt description of my way of thinking is "lazy intellectualist" and even then I am probably overstating my mental stick-with-it-ness.
When I ask the question about the expanding of understanding the nature of humanity, what I think I am really asking is, "can we take what has been thought about the material and immaterial nature of humanity over the centuries and express it in a way that makes it relevant to 21st-century American culture?"
The reason I am wondering this is because, from the moment I found out about my child's transgender experience, I have had the idea of us being physical beings and spiritual beings running as a background track for everything in my life. When Toby and I had our first conversation after the announcement of his transgender identity, I stressed to him that we are more than just our physical bodies and that what we do with this life should be more about our spiritual development than about the satisfying of what our bodies are telling us it wants.
As I've thought about this, in terms of Toby's journey, it has also caused me to think about how much of our Christian religious focus seems to be on correcting the things done with this physical body. It makes me wonder: how connected are the physical and spiritual aspects of each of us?
I am currently reading a book called "unChristian" by David Kinnaman, a researcher for the Barna Group when the book was published in 2007 and now that organization's CEO. Though the book is seventeen years old, the trends identified in it have continued since its publishing. The age group of people about whom this book was written were 16-29 in 2007 (33-46 in 2024). These are the individuals in our society that would be now called "Xennials": the last years of the Gen X generation and the oldest of the Millennial generation.
Not surprisingly, the number one road block/negative feeling/bad experience that this age group identified with regards to Christianity is the perceived hypocrisy within the Christian Church. "Outsiders consider us hypocritical - saying one thing and doing another - and they are skeptical of our morally superior attitudes. They say Christians pretend to be something unreal, conveying a polished image that is not accurate. Christians think the church is only a place for virtuous and morally pure people." (1)
In the passage from unChristian below, you see why this becomes an issue. By our own admission, Christians are not leading lives that live up to our own expectations.
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| Text from unChristian by David Kinnaman (2) |
Getting back to the question posed above: how connected are the physical and spiritual aspects of each of us? It would seem that the message of spiritual freedom described by Jesus as "abundant life" has gotten bogged down in a newer version of the compensatory laws of the Old Testament. Paul Clayton Gibbs, in his book "Kingdom Centric" describes these compensatory laws thusly, "In the Old Testament, they believed that black was black and white was white. Do something bad, and bad things will happen to you. Do something good, and good things will always be the result. Pursue sin and be punished; pursue righteousness and be rewarded." (3)
The idea that we, as Christians, have returned to this "I will do X so that God blesses me. I will not do Y so that God does not punish me" kind of religion is affirmed with more research-based information from Kinnaman's book. "The most common message people hear from us [Christians] is that Christianity is a religion of rules and regulations." (4)
When the researchers working with Kinnaman asked Christians about their personal faith priorities, the most common response was "lifestyle - being good, doing the right thing, not sinning." (5) One of the solutions to the lifestyle-focus of contemporary American Christianity is transparency, which I will explore in a later bit of writing.
I realize that traditionally, the teaching "body bad, spirit good" has been labeled as Gnosticism and considered heretical; however, as we hear things like "God is more interested in who you are than what you do," if makes me wonder if this is really true or is it just another contemporary Christian slogan, ready to be framed and placed for sale at Hobby Lobby or Mardel.
Earlier this week, I wrote in my journal: If I keep focusing on the "don't" then I bring bring back into the house the trash that Jesus has already taken to the curb. If I keep focusing on the "do" then I am nailing myself to a cross of my own making. In focusing on the "are" I see each opportunity throughout my day to be a chance to not be Ryan-like but instead become Christ-like.
Other potential bits of writing inspired by this session include:
Truth - Revealed, embedded or collectively discerned?
The hypostatic union of Christ and humanity's body and spirit
Who's driving the car - the body or the spirit?
1 - unChristian. David Kinnaman. Baker Books. 2007. Page 29.
2 - unChristian. David Kinnaman. Baker Books. 2007. Page 47
3 - Kindgom Centric. Paul Clayton Gibbs. Harris House. 2024. Page 41.
4 - unChristian. David Kinnaman. Baker Books. 2007. Page 48.
5 - unChristian. David Kinnaman. Baker Books. 2007. Page 49.