Disenchantment, Deconstruction, and Disentanglement (3/3)
I took Amazon’s advice while running on the elliptical the other day. I often watch something on Prime to pass the mindless-calorie-burning time, and the curated list of recommended movies based on my viewing history included “Infinite” starring Mark Wahlberg. It’s not good, in case you’re curious. But there was an element that works well to illustrate this post.
While most people in the film only get one life, the infinites reincarnate keeping memories of their past lives intact. But overtime this group has split into two. They are the “believers” and the “nihilists.” The believers want to better humanity, and the nihilists want to end it.
When it comes to deconstruction, I think we’re often stuck with these same categories. There are believers and nihilists. Nihilism, if you don’t know, is a view often associated with atheism. It’s a philosophy that recognizes there is no ultimate meaning or purpose in the world. But are these our only two options?
Life is far more complicated than these binary categories, isn’t it? It’s not helpful for those who are re-thinking their beliefs at a deep level to feel like their options are (a) just more of the same, or (b) a complete departure from faith. It’s either believe or become a nihilist. Or is it? What if there is another way?
For the Christian experiencing this kind of soul angst, are their options really this bleak? Is it Jesus or nothing? I wrote a book by that title once upon a time. When I wrote that book, I would imagine many thought what I meant by “Jesus” was something like a very twenty-first century version of him cloaked in a rigid Calvinism, an aptitude for culture war, and aspirations of political involvement.
Instead of “Jesus” or nothing, what if it’s Jesus minus a whole lot of stuff that’s been added on? Instead of deconstructing in a way that embraces nothing, leaving Jesus behind, what if it’s possible, nay, necessary, to disentangle a bunch of American fundamentalism away from a simple faith in a Jewish carpenter who claimed to be God. What if instead of trying to re-stack all the stuff that’s been added to Christianity, you were able to find a way to start afresh with the simple truths about Jesus.
If you’re reading this and feel stuck between two options, I hope you might reconsider. Christianity is an ancient faith centered around a remarkable historical individual, who, if he was he claimed to be, is worthy of the investment of your life. I’ve heard he rose from the dead too, validating his claim to be God. As Tim Keller once said, it’s intellectually irresponsible to ignore Jesus. There’s too much evidence for his life and influence and he’s made too big of a difference in the world.
Jesus is not a prop for a modern day political rally. He’s probably not into gimmicky, shallow, easy answers. And he’s surely as disgusted by much of the religious junk today as you are. What I’m trying to say is, maybe you don’t need to avoid Jesus on this journey to make sense of what matters most. Perhaps your faith can experience a resurrection too. I’ve heard he’s good at that.