Me, Myself and I (Part 2)

One of the principal arguments made by deconstructionist philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau is that culture tames nature.

Rousseau suggested that societies form culture to restrain human nature and allow for an ordered, civilised, mutually beneficial shared existence.

In the absence of culture, we would have unbridled anarchy as each individual sought to give expression to their primal passions in pursuit of personal authenticity.

Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud suggested that much of the drive for autonomy and authenticity is connected to sexuality, so one can understand the need for a restraining civil order.

A world where everyone gets to give free and full expression to every sexual longing would be a dangerous and dehumanising place.

It’s not coincidental that this is precisely what pornography seeks to service – the desire for unrestrained sexual expression – and why pornography is so popular, so taboo, and so strange.

The upside of culture restraining nature is that most people behave in a civilised way toward each other.

We temper our thoughts, manage our feeling and limit our actions for fear of breaching the culture’s social code and facing the consequences of the community’s disapproval.

According to Freud, religion plays a valuable part in this. While religious beliefs may be fanciful and naive, they help restrain sexually overcharged human beings.

Both Rousseau and Freud argued that the downside of culture taming nature is that we end up suppressing our true selves and our deepest desires. This is done in exchange for social acceptance and harmony.

The cost, however, is that we must live with the deeply frustrating tension it creates.

For some, this tension is perceived as oppression and must be escaped if they are ever to be their authentic and happiest selves.

It’s no surprise, then, that western society, dominated by postmodern philosophical discourse, is obsessed with expressive individualism and the pursuit of personal authenticity. ^[1]

Finding your “true” identity by looking inside yourself, uncovering your true “nature”, and giving free and full expression to it, is the holy grail of postmodern life.

You do you! Be true to yourself! Live your truth! Follow your heart!

These are all mantras of the postmodern pilgrim journeying through life in search of themselves.

Throwing off the restraints of imposed cultural or religious beliefs and behaviours is a necessary part of that journey.

Postmodernism would suggest that anything that prevents you from giving full and free expression to your “true” self (which is determined almost entirely by how you feel) is a form of oppression to escape.

So what does all this mean for those seeking to follow Jesus faithfully?

Well, at the heart of the Christian message is a claim that human nature suffers the effects of disconnection from the Source of all life and love (God) and is consequently given over to self-serving idolatry and immorality.

Our lives have been taken captive by a corrupted and distorted desire to preserve, protect, and indulge our primal instincts, often at the expense of the well-being of others.

Human nature, therefore, needs to be restrained (and ultimately redeemed), not by the hand of the law or the dictates of culture, but by the power of love.

Without the transforming effect of God’s love, there is no way to experience our true or best selves.

Unfortunately, the pathway to that love winds through the valley of the shadow of death.

Only when this corrupted, distorted version of self is put to death can the true self be brought to life.

That is why the call to follow Jesus is expressed as both a loss and a gain. There is a self to deny and a self to discover; a self that must die and a self that must be raised to life (Matthew 16:25).

Christianity indeed proclaims a message of freedom, but it’s not the kind of freedom most would assume.

It isn’t the freedom to do as I please. It’s the freedom that comes with no longer needing to do as I please.

It’s the freedom that comes with dying to our old corrupted selves and rising in newness of life to discover the best version of ourselves, shaped and empowered by the life and love of God in Jesus.

Human culture certainly provides a valuable restraint against self-serving anarchy, but the key to finding our true and best selves is not escaping culture. It’s following Jesus.

When you bring all that you are and all that you have and submit and surrender it to the lordship and leadership of Jesus, it is transformed by His love and grace and takes on new meaning and purpose.

Follow Him in the wisdom of His way and the power of His Spirit, and you will find life, both His and yours.

(Read Me, myself and I (Part 1) here)

[1] For a thorough exploration of the rise of the autonomous self and the pursuit of the postmodern holy grail of expressive individualism, I highly recommend Carl Trueman’s Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution (Crossway Books, 2022). In it, Trueman maps the journey from the beginning of the postmodern project to the current reality we find ourselves in, highlighting the impact that various postmodern philosophies have had on society, culture, the social sciences, and politics in the west, including most significantly, the psychologizing and politicizing of sexual identity.