Secularization makes me think more critically about my current project
The current of secularization continues to exert a force drawing the American church off course. I am working on a project capturing the parable of the prodigal son in six pieces, and it was alarming to find that American ideals even blanket Jesus’ parables.
But first, alterations to religious belief and practice through the surrounding culture are nothing new. A most interesting example is Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his emphasis of the "Golden Rule” as something innate in every child, only to be corrupted from improper nurture. Fostering the proper form of self-love, which is the natural state, is achieved through social experiences and the development of empathy. It is a central part of Rousseau’s philosophy on natural education, which is expounded in Emile.
While there is a long list of attempts to extrapolate and unravel Jesus’ teachings in The Sermon on the Mount, Rousseau endures still. His influence on literature, entertainment, education, child-rearing and politics seem to just add up, but at the heart of the issue is a total rejection of Original Sin.
The parable of the prodigal son has undergone cultural transformation as well. In Christless Christianity, Michael Horton goes to great lengths to highlight the secularizing trend in the American church. In helping the reader to grasp the cultural influence on preaching, Horton identifies Marsha Witten and her analysis of 47 sermons on the prodigal son delivered from 1986 to 1988 under various pastors from two denominations: the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Southern Baptist Convention.
It is “the transformed self” that is the overarching emphasis in these sermons. Whereas an orthodox Christian understanding “identified self-love as the root of original sin,” the cultural emphasis on pragmatism and humanistic psychology is expressed in revivalist tendencies to make it as “motivation for conversion.” Horton summarizes Witten’s sociological emphasis, “With rising confidence in human ability more generally and an emphasis on Arminian doctrines of free will, sin became transformed into notions of sin as mistakes in behavior, amenable to correction by appropriate moral education.”
In light of the assimilation of Scripture with American ideals, it is not so far-fetched to imagine a son who is basically good. The problem is that he doesn’t understand himself or the world around, and he thinks a life of self-fulfillment and joy can be found away on his own. Falling into hardship brings him to a state of realization of his error. He just didn’t know until the hardship nudged him along. Thankfully the father is there to welcome him home.
In the context of secularization, religion is just another form of therapy. Transcendence is traded for pragmatism, and spirituality is overshadowed by psychology. As a result, Scripture is obscured.
But doctrinal fidelity shines a light on Scripture. “For the Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost.” It is God’s mercy to the lost which is the central emphasis of the trio of parables in Luke 15. And it is the doctrine of Original Sin that illuminates God’s gracious action in rescuing lost sinners.
Therefore, I have carefully planned out my six pieces. The second picture is officially titled, The Mirth of the Prodigal Son. I intentionally made it to be amusing, even showing a smile on the prodigal’s face, emphasizing his lostness. I didn’t want to overemphasize his lost state, for any self-realization gained from the destitution he arrives in amongst the swine does not negate the lost state or make him more commendable to the father’s good graces. It is only when the father receives the lost son is he found.
For another glimpse on what’s ahead, the fourth picture will be a transitional one. Instead of depicting the son making the journey home, I will rightly make the father central by showing him searching and waiting for the lost son.
