Atonement and Consumption: Part 1 (Problem: Loneliness and the Sense of Self)

A couple of years ago for a class project, I addressed a contemporary problem and how the atonement of Christ might speak to it. I chose the rampant consumerism existent in much of today's world. What I found is that consumerism is not so much a problem as it is a problematic answer to an epidemic that is underlying all of our strivings and hopes. It is the problem of searching for what our identity is as human beings and how that is to be realized or best found. What follows in the next few posts of this thread about "Atonement and Consumption" is how I addressed this issue. [I have made minor adaptations to make it a little more "blogger-friendly" and added a few sentences here and there to highlight where my thought has developed since writing the paper or where I thought clarity might be needed. If the citations bore you, I apologize, but I want to give credit where credit is due. I warmly welcome any questions, interjections, concerns, or whatever other types of comments you may use to interact with me.] This first post is about identifying the underlying issue: the contemporary sense of self.

‘Who am I?’ The pursuit of responding to this question is one that has taken a rather interesting turn in this world shifting from modernity to postmodernity. This pursuit is marked by a change in the contexts in which to search for the answer as well as a change in the conclusions reached by the seekers. Historically speaking, the shift has moved from believing that humans are identified by being created in the image of God (premodern) to believing that humans are defined by their scientific and genetic make-up (modern) to believing in an “insubstantial self” defined merely by the language used to describe the self (postmodern).[i] Language and hermeneutics are central components to the postmodern view of reality, but they are not the only pillars of the context in which one today seeks to identify oneself.

The very language of the previous sentence (‘identifying oneself’) introduces well the motif I wish to briefly investigate: loneliness. Individual autonomy is a hallmark of the modern sense of self, but it is apparent this is one that will not go away easily. John McGraw addressed this issue in the language of ‘loneliness’ not only as the human predicament, but as the context in which the postmodern seeks to define the self.[ii] Especially on the issue of ‘ethical loneliness,’ McGraw mentions Nietzsche’s “elitist morality entrenched in the self’s overcoming of loneliness and its transforming loneliness into solitude,”[iii] thereby still leaving the self alone, though not caught up in the hopelessness of loneliness. A nuanced approach to this search for self-significance that has become overly popular is the therapeutic context. People today are increasingly “taking a therapeutic approach to the problems associated with relationships and self-esteem, to the problems of ultimate meaning and purpose, in short, to life itself and to life’s most basic existential questions.”[iv] Although there are at least two people interacting in the therapeutic context, the intent of the one seeking “help” is so centered on the self than once “help” has supposedly been given, he/she can discard the therapist (and/or anyone else who may have been involved in the process) and go about living life knowing his or her own purpose and identity. Thus, it seems that the therapeutic has the tendency to feed into the problem of loneliness. Please do not hear me arguing against therapy or counseling, only that in terms of finding one's identity, we may have better contexts in which to pursue that search (i.e., community).

The majority of McGraw’s treatise, however, focuses upon the predicament (not just the context) of loneliness and its extensiveness in humanity’s experience. Perhaps his reference to Joseph Conrad’s statement that we are “lonely from the cradle to the grave and perhaps beyond” encapsulates the problem of loneliness most potently.[v] ‘Loneliness,’ which is the first thing God says “is not good” (Genesis 2:18), coupled with ‘alienation,’ (broken relationship) expressed by sinful disobedience, is what is in need of being redeemed. One way of remedying the predicament we have already seen: Nietzsche’s prescription of triumphing the sense of ‘loneliness’ and transforming it into a seemingly perpetual state of ‘solitude.’ I will critique this in one of the later threads on this blog. Before moving to where I believe the Gospel intersects this predicament, attention to and a critique of another popularly proposed solution is in order. This popularly proposed solution is the rampant consumerism I mentioned in the introductory paragraph. Let's pick up there tomorrow (or soon, anyway)...

...to be continued...

References:
[i] James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog, 3rd ed., (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1997), 182.
[ii] John C. McGraw, “God and the Problem of Loneliness,” Religious Studies 28, (1992), 319-46.
[iii] Ibid., 332, italics mine.
[iv] Craig M. Gay, The Way of the (Modern) World: Or, Why It’s Tempting to Live as if God Doesn’t Exist, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 185.
[v] McGraw, “God and the Problem of Loneliness,” 334.