Existentialism and Christianity
January 13th, 2008Today modernity and its foundations in existentialism are the latest front in the continuing struggle against the gospel message as man continues to make himself the measure of all things and attempts to escape meaninglessness. Not only does this influence the atheists and agnostics alike as evident from the aptly named blog Everything is Pointless, but it is also impacting the church, particularly many evangelicals who have adopted decision theology in combination with a focus on self help teachings.
First let me say that the Bible has much to say regarding how we are to live, so I am not opposed to spiritual maturity through practical sermons, discipleship programs, or small groups. However, this focus on the outward fruits of faith combined with the non-scriptural idea that “I choose Christ” or “I participate in or enable my salvation through a decision for Christ” opens the door for a higher view of man and self authentication which is eerily similar to the tenants of existentialism rather than the plain teachings of scripture. Some evangelicals even go so far as to make the “relationship” with Christ so central that it provides their very meaning outside of scripture and allows them to ignore some of its teachings and become a “denomination of one.”
Many Christians justify this through an improper understanding of the doctrine of free will which they would say gives them the ability to choose. Existentialism is all about the will. One of the key tenants of existentialism is that you authenticate yourself or bring meaning to your life by your own actions through an act of the will. Further this act is pure in and of itself without any moral boundaries. So a person who helps an old lady to cross the street authenticates himself by an act of the will. But equally authenticated is the person who runs over the old lady as she crosses the street. Both have equal meaning because meaning is based in existence not in purpose or relationship. Francis Schaeffer’s book Escape from Reason is an excellent treatise on this subject.
In the movie Life is Beautiful a father and son end up in a Nazi concentration camp where the father pretends that it is all a game. This shields the boy from the harsh reality and moral issues at stake in the world around him. So too many attendees of today’s evangelical churches are shielded from the harsh reality of their true spiritual state and blinded to the subtle but steady focus on good works which can become work righteousness.
Luther and Augustine both point us back to scripture when it comes to the concept of free will. The Augsburg Confession actually quotes from Augustine’s Hypognosticon, Book III:
We grant that all people have a free will. It is free as far as it has the judgment of reason. This does not mean that it is able, without God, either to begin or at least to complete anything that has to do with God. It is free only in the works of this life…
Or as stated in Article XVIII:
A person’s will has some freedom to choose civil righteousness and to do things subject to reason. It has no power, without the Holy Spirit, to work the righteousness of God, that is, spiritual righteousness. For “the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:14)…
Although nature is able in a certain way to do the outward work (for it is able to keep the hands from theft and murder), yet it cannot produce the inward motions, such as the fear of God, trust in God…
So rather than “self authentication” a Christian has “Holy Spirit authentication” which provides meaning in life, purpose, and a relationship with God through Christ.
“And this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God –not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8b-9)
For those who accept existentialism, regardless of their self authenticating acts of the will or denial of the truth of scriptures, reality, much like in Life is Beautiful, is happening all around them and one day they will have to face it. For those in the church who motivate through decisions for Christ and self help teachings, both acts of the will, short term changes in behavior or civic righteousness may not bear eternal fruit which can come only through the power of the Holy Spirit working through God’s word.
