Ep 24: The World As Best As I Remember It, Vol. 1

As we wrap up Season 2 with these last two episodes, we zoom out to summarize the Soil and Roots journey so far.  What are the three primary problems in Western Christianity and culture?  What are the three solutions?  Why is Heartview so vital for Christians, and why are we typically reluctant to engage in it?

Finally, to further illustrate just how important discipleship is, we take a brief tour of the last 2,000 years of Western thought.  Based on groundbreaking work by leading Christian thinkers, we explore just how radically different our cultural assumptions are now compared to those of any previous age.  These “Ideas in the Air” are driving western culture deeper and deeper into despair, yet the ever-growing Kingdom of Light invites us to hope, life, and healing.  

To access the free visual aids mentioned in this episode, go to the Resources tab at www.soilandroots.org.  

TRANSCRIPTION

Ep 24: The World As Best As I Remember It, Vol. 1

The World as Best as I Remember It, Volume 1

Three Primary Problems

If you haven’t already done so, make sure to head over to soilandroots.org and sign up for our weekly email newsletter. I send out thoughts on spiritual formation, deep discipleship, and how we grow in our friendship with Jesus in community.

We’re rounding the corner on Season 2!  Thanks for taking this journey with us to explore the Discipleship Dilemma.  We’re finishing up the season with two final episodes that tie up some loose ends before we launch into Season 3.

Back in season 1, we identified a major concern, what Dallas Willard called the “Great Omission.”  Modern Christianity isn’t making genuine disciples.  It may be making converts, it may be making knowledgeable Christians, but it struggles to make people who think, act, relate, and love like Jesus. We are formed to be more like Jesus the more we become friends with Him, but that isn’t generally the narrative we hear or embrace.

In our era, we face three additional problems that work against our spiritual formation: the Forgotten Kingdom, the Discipleship Dilemma, and the Formation Gap. The good news is all three problems have fairly straightforward solutions, enabling us to reconnect with God, others, ourselves, and creation and culture.  The “more” that many of our hearts find missing can be found.

Courageous Curiosity

The problem we’ve been exploring this season, the Discipleship Dilemma, brings up some questions about what type of person engages in intentional spiritual formation.

I have been following Jesus for most of my life. And yet for the most part, I listen to little Christian music anymore.  I grew up listening to it, as a musician, I’ve played a ton of it, and I even worked in that industry for a few years back in the day.

So why would a lifelong Christian not be into Christian music?

Because much of Christian music has lost its…curiosity.  Christian music no longer asks “why.”

That’s what great artists are. They’re curious. Painters, sculptors, writers, musicians.

That’s what great scientists are. Curious.  They’re explorers.

The field of science was originally birthed by people asking, “Why?” You wouldn’t know it today, but virtually all of the great names associated with the birth of modern science were possessed by a curiosity to understand how God created, and they accepted God’s existence as a matter of fact.

Curiosity is the doorway to depth. And depth is the pathway to growth.  I’ll say that again. Curiosity is the doorway to depth, and depth is the pathway to growth.

Rich Mullins

The titles of Episodes 24 and 25 are a tip of the hat to a wonderful poet, musician, and thinker – the late Rich Mullins. He was a complex and sometimes controversial figure, but his music, ideas, and words persist today, a few decades after his death.  And hey, he played the hammer dulcimer, so come on.

Let me read a few lyrics from one of his songs called “If I Stand.” It remains one of the most compelling, authentic, and curious Christian songs written in the past several decades.

There’s more that rises in the morning than the sun
And more that shines in the night than just the moon.

It’s more than just this fire here that keeps me warm
In a shelter that is larger than this room.

And there’s a loyalty that’s deeper than mere sentiments
And a music higher than the songs that I can sing.

The stuff of Earth competes for the allegiance
I owe only to the Giver Of all good things.

So if I stand let me stand on the promise that you will pull me through
And if I can’t, let me fall on the grace that first brought me to You.

And if I sing let me sing for the joy that has born in me these songs
And if I weep let it be as a man who is longing for his home.[1]

We could explore and debate just this one section for weeks.  Unlike most music today, Mullins didn’t answer every question; he wasn’t content with simplicity, or he didn’t put words on a page simply because they rhymed or sounded like a Bible verse.

He left many ideas on the table.  He invited the listener to join him as he explored. He invited their curiosity. He was uncomfortably real and transparent, and he invited us to be the same.

Mullins wasn’t primarily a performer; he wasn’t an artist trying to score a huge contract or a big record deal. Most of what he made he gave away, and he survived on a meager salary.  He was a Christian musician before all of the Christian music companies were gobbled up by worldwide conglomerates. He was an intensely curious, passionate poet.  An artist.

Why do I mention this?  Because music tends to reflect culture.  If Christian music has truly become formulaic and at times shallow, we see that as a reflection of ourselves.

But the essence of Heartview is what Rich Mullins modeled, a courageous curiosity.  When we sit with God and a trusted friend to answer questions about why we are the way we are, we’re inviting God and others to engage in genuine discipleship.

I find Jesus to be a man who continually invites those around Him to be curious.  He invited heart exploration; at times, he seemed to demand it.  He was constantly exploring people’s motivations, their faith, and their doubts. He had an uncanny ability to discern the true desires of people’s hearts, and He regularly told them what they were!  It’s just extraordinary.

Heartview as a Lifestyle

So why don’t we engage in Heartview more often?  Why aren’t we courageously curious about the depths of our hearts? Why don’t we intentionally sit down with our spouse or friend and prayerfully ask some questions like these:

• “Why do I struggle with anxiety?”
• “Why am I so fearful about the future?”
• “Why do I get emotionally triggered when someone does such and such?”
• “Why am I emotionally numb?”
• “Why do I hoard my money?”
• “Why do I spend all of my money?”
• “Why do I struggle to form deeper friendships?”
• “Why do I seem to give myself to anyone and everyone?”
• “Why do I try to take control over everything?”

If we truly want to become like Jesus, these are the types of questions we might ask.  Because it’s pretty easy to look at Jesus in light of these same questions and consider how He would answer:

• “Why did Jesus struggle with anxiety?”  He didn’t.
• “Why was Jesus fearful about the future?”  He wasn’t.
• “Why did Jesus get emotionally triggered when someone did such and such?” When reacting emotionally, it was from a sense of compassion or justice, in the highest sense of those words.
• “Why was Jesus emotionally numb?” He wasn’t.
• “Why did Jesus hoard money?” He didn’t.
• “Why did Jesus spend all of His money?”  He didn’t.  He didn’t seem all that concerned with money himself, though He taught on it.  He trusted that His Father would provide His needs.
• “Why did Jesus struggle to form deeper friendships?” He didn’t, but He was certainly careful about who He gave His heart to.
• “Why did Jesus seem to give himself over to anyone and everyone?”  He didn’t.  The Bible is clear that Jesus discerned the hearts of those around Him.  In some cases, he was intensely, and even uncomfortably, vulnerable. In other cases, He walked away from people and refused to give himself to them.
• “Why did Jesus try to take control over everything?” He didn’t.  He did the will of His Father.

If we want to be like Jesus, we should be intensely curious about ourselves and intensely curious about Him.  We can’t become like someone we don’t know. And we can’t become like someone else if we don’t know ourselves.

So why might we be reluctant to explore our Eight Indicators with God and friends so that we can become more like Jesus?

It’s intensely personal. It’s hard.  

Remember this A.W. Tozer’s quote – a quote that is fundamental to this entire podcast series.

That our idea of God corresponds as nearly as possible to the true being of God is of immense importance to us. Compared with our actual thoughts about Him, our creedal statements are of little consequence. Our real idea of God may lie buried under the rubbish of conventional religious notions and may require an intelligent and vigorous search before it is finally unearthed and exposed for what it is. Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God.” [2]

“Painful self-probing.”  Who wants to do that today?

Technology. If we want an answer to a question, we just consult the Oracle.  And by Oracle, I mean Google.  We have instant information at our fingertips, day or night.  We are so formed into the idea that answers are quick and easy, we have forgotten that being human isn’t quick, and it sure as heck isn’t easy.

I’m not a Luddite.  I don’t think we should retreat to the preindustrial era like some M. Night Shyamalan movie. I am saying that while technology brings incredible benefits, it is undeniable that it has also brought extraordinary pain, suffering, and isolation.  Just consult the Oracle.  Google something like “sociological impact of technology on children.”

Loss of Community. The third reason we struggle with Heartview is the loss of Christian community, as I mentioned a few minutes ago. Modern Christianity, as part of modern society, looks very little like the New Testament church.  And that has led to some incredibly damaging ideas and assumptions that continue to plague churches and Christian communities today.

So, when you combine the fact that Heartview is difficult (and we don’t like difficult), the way technology has numbed much of our curiosity, and the fact that most Christians don’t even have a frame of reference for Biblical community, Heartview doesn’t even cross our radar.  And that means that while we don’t struggle to accumulate Biblical information, we do struggle to become more like Jesus. We struggle to experience the “more” that the Christian life has to offer. We struggle for a deeper connection: to God, others, and even ourselves.

But there are even some deeper reasons why we need to recapture Heartview as the primary means of discipleship, and they have to do with Ideas in the Air.

Ideas in the Air

If you’re able, pull up the picture called Creation Picture 2 from the Resources tab at www.soilandroots.org. We originally looked at it in Episode 17.

You can see that Ideas exist in two locations in that picture.  Ideas in the Air and Ideas in the Soil.  The Ideas in our Soil are embraced by our hearts primarily because of our stories. Ideas in the Air exist primarily because of culture.

So, what are Ideas in the Air like?

I was in a group discussion a few weeks ago, and someone mentioned that we are all born into cultures that have built-in assumptions and conclusions that no one questions.  It’s like asking a fish what they think of being wet all the time.  The fish wouldn’t know how to answer the question. He doesn’t know he’s wet.  It’s just the reality he was born into.

That’s precisely what I mean when we talk about the Ideas in the Air.  Unconscious principles and assumptions that we’re born into and assume without thinking about it.  Ideas in the Air are like the air we breathe.

But Ideas in the Air aren’t there by accident, and they aren’t formed overnight.  The Ideas in the Air today are the result of a 2,000-year journey.

A Brief Review of Western Thought

So, let’s take a quick trip through a few millennia of Western thought.

There are various ways to categorize the last 2,000 years of Western history, but let’s just break it down into four main periods:

1. Ancient history: basically, that’s everything from the beginning of recorded history to around 500 AD.
2. Medieval period: that’s 500–1500 AD.
3. Modern era: roughly 1500 to the 1950s.
4. Post-modern era: the 1950s to the present.

So just keep these four blocks of history in our minds.

There’s a great thinker and author named Glenn Sunshine who wrote a book called Why You Think the Way You Do.  Besides having the world’s best last name, he has done the Christian community a ginormous favor by tracing the history of Western thought from the time of Christ to the present.

He approaches his book from a worldview perspective, but he also uses some of the types of language we use here. He talks about the governing ideas and assumptions that impact entire cultures, what you and I call Ideas in the Air.

Sunshine writes about the power and influence of Ideas in the Air, and how they’ve changed through the four major periods of Western thought.

Ancient History

So, let’s start with the time of Christ in ancient history.

Without going too deep into the weeds, Sunshine maintains that the hybrid Greek/Roman influences at the time of Christ created a culture based on the idea of hierarchy.

“The higher up on the hierarchy you are, the more authority you have over the things that are below you and the more rights and privileges you can claim for yourself.  Herbivores can demand the lives of plants for their food. Carnivores can take the lives of the herbivores.  Humanity can kill them both.  And the gods can demand whatever sacrifices they want from humans.” [3]

And within the human race, the idea of hierarchy persisted.  Most of the time, it was men in power who ruled over everyone else. The history of various civilizations included human sacrifice, which influenced Rome, which still had a low view of human life at the time of Christ, particularly toward women and children, and engaged in gladiatorial games as a means of sport and entertainment.

The Roman Empire had its gods – although those gods were petty, at times cruel, and often disinterested in the affairs of men.

Still, the people of that age unconsciously assumed that higher powers – gods –were responsible for creating the world and placing them in it.  Humans unconsciously assumed they were not the originators of the earth, and that there was some sort of divine presence that wasn’t them.

Christianity turned the Greco-Roman ideas upside down.  Unlike their gods, the Christian God created the world for goodness, He placed mankind in it to flourish, and He is deeply interested and involved in the affairs of men, for our benefit.

Though it would take hundreds of years, Christianity radically changed the underlying, unconscious ideas of Western culture, and by the Middle Ages, people born into that era were ushered into an entirely different set of cultural assumptions.

The Middle Ages

Which brings us to the Medieval Era.  Despite the fact that many people think it was only characterized by misery and the Black Plague, that’s not true.

Sunshine writes, “Far from being a stagnant, backwards era, the nearly thousand years that made up the Middle Ages were in fact a dynamic period that laid the foundation for Western civilization…”

“The medieval assumed that the world was real and that it was created by God with its own integrity, but that it also mirrors God’s nature and character.”

“We, as beings made in the image of God, can understand the world, and thus we can learn both by studying the world itself and by using our reason to interpret the world and its significance.”

“Since the world was created by a good God and reflects His nature, it is also inherently moral.  We can learn moral lessons from the universe, and our laws must conform to natural moral law.” [4]

Don’t miss these things that Sunshine says characterized the unconscious assumptions of someone living in the Middle Ages: we are made in the image of God, the world reflects God’s nature and character, and can be studied to learn more about Him, and the world is inherently moral.

Modernity

Then came the Age of Modernity.  Back in Episode 15, we explored Rod Dreher’s comments on the major events that drastically altered medieval assumptions through the 500 years or so of the Modern Era.

Dreher said humanity lost the belief in the connection between God and Creation in the 1300’s. Then came the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s, which brought about the collapse of religious unity and authority.  That was followed by the Enlightenment in the 1700s, which began privatizing religious life and separating it from the rest of reality.  Then the Industrial Revolution brought about tumultuous changes across all aspects of society, including family and community.  And then the Sexual Revolution in the 1960s, which promoted the idea that our identity is not found in God or even our humanity. It’s found primarily in our sexuality.

Post-Modernism

Which brings us to the Post-Modern era.  Post-modernism is essentially founded on the idea that there is no truth or that truth can be defined by the individual. It’s skeptical, it asks questions but doesn’t expect truthful answers, because it questions the existence of any real truth.

Most of us have been born into Post-Modernism. It’s the air we breathe.  But this type of air is new in Western civilization.

When God is dead, truth is relative, and our existence is futile, one thing rises from the ashes of three previous periods of history: the self.

Carl Trueman wrote a fascinating book called Strange New World, in which he explores the postmodern notion of “self.”

He writes, “I am referring not to this commonsense way of using the term but rather to the deeper notion of where the ‘real me’ is found, how that shapes my view of life, and in what the fulfillment of happiness of that ‘real me’ consists.”

He goes on to write, “The modern self assumes the authority of inner feelings and sees authenticity as defined by the ability to give social expression to the same. The modern self also assumes that society at large will recognize and affirm this behavior.” [5] (italics mine)

In post-modernism, the “real me” is what Trueman refers to as “inner feelings.”  I don’t think he’s talking about emotions the way we do here, as indicators of what’s going on in our hearts.

Trueman almost equates “inner feelings” with desires.  So, the “real me” is my desires, whether those desires are good or bad.  Remember, in post-modernism, there is no good or bad.

The post-modernist unconsciously assumes her authentic self is her desires and how she feels about them. It’s what makes her authentic.  And those desires must be recognized and affirmed by society.  Otherwise, she is no longer authentic.

For what it’s worth, I’m going to try adding to this conversation a bit and go one step beyond these authors.

Self-deification

Note that at the time of Christ’s birth, human beings placed little value on other human beings, though they also assumed that some sort of divine beings had created the world and placed them in it.  Though Pharaohs and some other kings assigned divinity to themselves, the “average Joe” assumed they were not gods, could not claim that type of authority, and saw themselves fitting into a world they didn’t create.

Because of Christianity’s dramatic influence, medievalists placed a very high value on human beings and saw God’s presence and mark in everything, not just in the Bible but in every human being and every spec of creation.

But over the last 500 years, the unconscious assumptions of Western civilization have dramatically changed again. We have lost the assumptions of the Middle Ages. We no longer unconsciously assume there is a God or gods who created us and the earth.

Darwin’s theory of evolution has dispelled that idea in many hearts and minds. We are here by chance.  Unlike all of the previous periods we’ve looked at, we are the first age to unconsciously assume there is no divine power that created the earth and that gives us purpose.

What’s left?  We all worship something.  So, what do we worship in the absence of any type of god? You might be thinking, “Well, we worship ourselves.”  That’s true, but why do we unconsciously assume we are worthy of worship?

It’s not just that the modern human believes she has the right to live according to her inner feelings.  It’s that she unconsciously assumes…she’s divine.

The war of ideas in Western culture is not just over creation vs evolution, or socialism vs capitalism, or sexuality or gender.  It’s a war over who gets to define reality…meaning it’s a war over claims of divinity.

If we’re divine, can we not choose who lives and dies? If that old person no longer serves society, kill him.  If that baby is going to ruin my sex life, kill her.

If we’re divine, can we not choose whom we sleep with whenever we want?  Can we not define marriage as we see fit?  If we don’t like the gender we’re born with, of course, we can change it.  That’s what gods do.

I admit I’m going a bit beyond Sunshine and Trueman here, but I don’t think I’m going much further. It’s not just that humans have the right to express their inner feelings and expect society to affirm that. It’s that they believe they have the right to dictate and determine reality.

What I’m arguing isn’t that we’ve become selfish or self-absorbed, although those things may be true.  I’m arguing that underneath all of the rhetoric and policies and press releases and hype, Western thought has devolved to the point that our kids are being born into a culture that unconsciously assumes every human being is a god.

As such, we have the right to determine life and death, sexuality and gender, and what is right and wrong.  Yes, this is very much, “and every man did what was right in his own eyes.” But it’s not because we are simply rejecting God. It’s because He never existed, and we are our gods.

A War of Ideas

A strange new world indeed.  The war in the West is over ideas of identity.  On one hand, we have a set of people who believe reality is determined by a God of some sort, who created the world with purpose and placed us in it.  On the other hand, there is a growing number of people who hold to no divine power, believe we are here by chance, and thus assume divine authority and expect everyone else to honor that.

Now here’s the problem: human beings make terrible, awful gods.  Unmoored from the unconscious ideas that we are created by another, and that we don’t assign ourselves purpose, we are simply horrible at attempting to be divine.

Think about the characteristics of God and how we, as tiny wannabe gods, are now attempting to claim them.

• Ability to create life?  Sure – test tube babies, cloning.
• Omniscience?  Yup. We have the Oracle. Knowledge continues to pile up, and our ability to access it keeps accelerating.  The technocrats insist that man’s mastery of technology is the pathway to true enlightenment and ascendance.
• Omnipresence? The world is growing smaller and smaller. Cameras are everywhere.  We can be anywhere in the world in a matter of hours.  Or we can just visit virtually from the comfort of our homes.
• Omnipotence, meaning all-powerful?  Well, this is an interesting divine characteristic.

What we see now in culture are daily attempts to assert power and control over others.  CRT and intersectionality are currently in the news – they address the power associated with certain groups.  The political landscape?  Power grab after power grab. And we see attempts at omnipotence at a personal level.

According to one source, narcissists now make up almost 15% of the population. A narcissist is someone who manipulates and controls others for power, in the workplace, in the home, and in the church.

• The arbiter of Truth?  Yup – science.  Science is all that matters – it’s the ultimate source of reality and truth.  Until we don’t like what science tells us, of course – and then we simply redefine the rules. That’s what gods do.

Don’t like your gender?  Change it.  Don’t like your sexuality?  Change it.  Don’t like your spouse or your family?  Change it.  It’s your right – as a god.  Gods have the power to change reality to their liking.

If this sounds a lot like the Garden of Eden, it is.  Adam and Eve wanted to be like God.  Here’s where it’s different. It’s not that we want to be like God.  It’s that He never existed, and so we assume His qualities on a personal level.

Fish Who Don’t Know They’re Wet

We are fish who don’t know we’re wet.  If you watch the news or follow stories on the Internet, start looking at it through the unconscious idea that we are all tiny gods.  If you’ve ever wondered, “Why in the world would somebody do that?” you now have an answer.

Post-modernism has not only created a world that insists there is no real truth. It has created a world of millions of wannabe gods all vying for power and position, with deadly consequences.

And it’s one thing to look out there at culture and see how this plays out.  It’s another to look at the Christian church.  And another to look into our hearts (our soil) to see if these dark ideas have taken hold of us.

Has the Christian community unconsciously embraced ideas of identity grounded in post-modernism?  Have they seeped into our churches, our teachings, our philosophy?

Those are courageously curious questions – and we’re going to look at them in our final episode of Season 2.

[1] https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/richmullins/ifistand.html

[2] Willard, D. (2002). Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ (p. 100). NavPress.

[3] Sunshine, G. (2009). Why You Think the Way You Do: The Story of Western Worldviews from Rome to Home (p. 29). Zondervan.

[4] Sunshine, G. (2009). Why You Think the Way You Do (p. 92). Zondervan.

[5] Trueman, C. (2022). Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution (p. 20). Crossway.