Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance, and A Better Theology
In high school I read "Self-Reliance," an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Here are a few sentences that I highlighted some 45 years ago:
To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,--that is genius.
Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist.
Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution; the only wrong what is against it.
My life is not an apology, but a life.
We must go alone. Isolation must precede true society. I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.
I must be myself. . . . I will not hide my tastes or aversions. I will so trust that what is deep is holy, that I will do strongly before the sun and moon whatever inly rejoices me and the heart appoints. If you are noble, I will love you; if you are not, I will not hurt you and myself by hypocritical attentions.
Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.
These thoughts shaped my life for years, battling against what I knew of God's word and my proper Episcopalian faith. Then, challenged by a friend, I read a book by Anglican theologian Alister E McGrath, A Passion for Truth. This is some of what I highlighted in his book:
To allow our ideas and values to become controlled by anything or anyone other than the self-revelation of God in Scripture is to adopt an ideology, rather than a theology; it is to become controlled by ideas and values whose origins lie outside the Christian tradition--and potentially to become enslaved to them.
A theology which is grounded in values, whether radical or conservative, drawn solely from the secular world becomes powerless to criticize that world.
It is significant that it was theologians such as Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who provided the most serious and thoughtful opposition to the culture wars waged by the Third Reich.
I came to the realization that my theology had been highjacked by declaring my independence from the God I knew in Scripture. Instead, the idea that God loves us, is an invitation to be dependent upon him. Secular cultures assert the way to get ahead in life is through being independent, believing our own truth, thinking that peace comes not from the triumph of the Cross of Christ but though the triumph of our own principles. McGrath's book redirected me back to the Bible and a better theology.
After Martin Luther died on 17 February 1546, his friends found a piece of paper in his house with these words written on it: "We are beggars. This is true." Luther understood that we Christians are spiritual beggars, completely dependent upon God and the generosity he gives us. He gives us faith, hope, love, and eternal life through the Cross; and we receive them. John writes in his First Letter, "We love because he first loved us. Or as the Apostle Paul says, "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us." Paul Zahl calls this "one way love." God does not react to our love. He loves us first. And that is what makes us totally dependent upon him--the God who loves perfectly and unconditionally in Jesus.
A better theology of sacrificial love puts us in a right relationship with God, where we are blessedly dependent upon him.
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