Spellbound: Breaking Spells
Cause breaking up is hard to do...
There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold, and she’s buying a Stairway to Heaven/When she gets there she knows, that if the stores are all closed, with a word she can get what she came for.
Previously in this Column…
In previous posts (here, here, and here) I have suggested that even in a highly modernized, highly technological world, people can and do live spellbound lives.
The spells which bind people are not imposed by an evil witch or a pugnacious pixie; they consist of a number of rarely articulated beliefs about life. These beliefs, when placed beside one another, may be mutually contradictory. But the eclectic, pastiche nature of these working beliefs is itself part of the spell: We make what is real. If need be, we can square the circle and make 2+2=5.
These often unarticulated beliefs make up what Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor calls our “social imaginary.” The social imaginary is not the product of one individual. It has a breadth of persepctive which has been shaped by over three centuries of philosophers, authors, poets, teachers, and social scientists. As such it exercises a huge influence on Western culture by quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) establishing rules and boundaries of what is real, true, or even possible.
Another phrase Charles Taylor uses to describe the social imaginary is what he calls the “immanent frame.” By this he means that the working beliefs common to our present time are devoid of God or any other transcendent reality which exists over against the human psyche. It tends toward an a-theistic view of life; not necessarily in a militant way, but in a fashion which author Craig Gay calls “Practical Atheism.” This is a mindset in which God is irrelevant to the basic tasks of modern life. We have our homses, our smarphones, our tablets, our remotes, our computers, our cars, our casinos, and our cash; these are priceless. For what little else there is, there is God.
Our present social imaginary is a platform consisting of many different planks, and individuals exercise some choice in how they “bundle” their working beliefs. Nevertheless, there are dominant “planks” which will be regularly prominent: The Freedom Story and the Choice Story. Together (like Father and Son?) they rule the galaxy of expressive individualism.
There are many facets to modern life which also contribute to the social imaginary (These are outlined in detail by Craig Gay in his book The Way of The Modern World): our worldly political assumptions and aspirations; the promises of technology and science; and the enormity of our economic power and wealth. All three of these facets of life are based on certain assumptions, make their own set of promises, and invite our unexamined loyalty.
In many ways, the social imaginary is a religious understanding of life. It invites our commitment or buy-in. It establishes norms for behavior, especially in the public sphere. To be sure, it promises autonomy at the individual level. You want to do CrossFit and The Mass? No problem. You do you. Within a general narrative which keeps God at bay.
In the previous posts, I also drew attention to the theological nature of what this social imaginary represents. It is an article of the Christian faith that God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, has embedded the evidence of his identity in all that is made - from rocks to trees, from skies to seas. Most significantly, it is within the human race that God has placed his “image and likeness.” One aspect of that image is the knowledge that there is God, the knowledge of our own answerability to God, and the outlines of moral reality.
This knowledge, however, is suppressed. It is shoved downward and held beneath the surface, much like a body which you don’t want washing up on the shore. Our present social imaginary has enough plausibility (that is, it seems or feels adequate enough) to keep a God-inhabited world at a safe distance. Furthermore, there are now what Joseph Minich calls “Bulwarks of Unbelief” - institutions and entities which have, at least in our own imagining, taken over whatever attributes previously were proper to God. We have governmental entities and bureaucracies, consumer markets, the academy, digital access and more, none of which require the services of God.
All things considered, there is quite a lot in our present time with which we can be, if not fully happy, at least distracted. The spell is good enough to hold. Until it isn’t.
Reality Pushes Back
It was C.S. Lewis who, in his autobiography Surprised by Joy, confided to the reader,
In reading Chesterton, as in reading MacDonald, I did not know what I was letting myself in for. A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful about his reading. There are traps everywhere - “Bibles laid open, millions of surprises”, as Herbert says, “fine nets and stratagems.” God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous.
Lewis limited his warning to the field of literature. But he could have easily extended his caution to the entire world. From macro to micro; from earth’s circumference to earth’s smallest creatures. The problem for any spell which purports to sustain a narrative about life is that it collides with reality. There comes a moment of truth when our attempts to define and create reality bump into the real thing.
A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. (Ecclesiastes 1:4)
The Early Church Father Jerome, in his writings on Ecclesiastes, laments, “What is more vain than this vanity: that the earth, which was made for humans, stays - but humans themselves - the lords of the earth, suddenly dissolve into dust?”
The Bible reminds us of the massive reality which stares us in the face: a world not of our choosing; a world which neither consults us or waits for us. We are on the receiving end of life, from birth to death. And so for generations on end, one after another, people will live out the course of their lives, their times and seasons, and then they are gone. None of us, either individually or collectively, causes the earth to start or stop. None of us drives the earth around the sun or moves it out of its orbit.
This is a world which will have the last word. And the last word is death. Death is the stake in the heart of a host of aspirations which occupy our social imaginary - expressive individualism, transgenderism, and transhumanism, to name just a few. It’s coming to us all.
And not just at death. Many in our day have observed how the grand human dream of power and freedom to do whatever we desire will leave behind considerable collateral damage. Stephen McAlpine notes in his book, Being the Bad Guys, that
“the voices of those who have left that rainbow narrative behind, or who have been bruised or hurt by it, are not welcome in the conversation. Those who do leave find themselves ostracized and scorned on social media as traitors.”
A world created and sustained by God is one wave which promises to flood over human pretensions of power, control, freedom, and choice. Even though our present “social imaginary” is in many ways the reigning narrative of our time, it is not thereby invulnerable. Many will learn the hard way that when created realities are attacked, it is reality that prevails. Reality pushes back.
This is how spells are broken. It’s a break up which is hard to do, or at least to undergo. And this is an occasion, not for our crowing (“Told you so…”), but for our compassion. Our social location and engagement with people like this has received a prescription from the Apostle Paul.
To speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy to all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
Paul’s point is clear. We Christians, of all people, ought to appreciate the spell which binds and blinds people; for we have been there. As Paul offers a candid exposition of his life, he fully intends that his story may benefit others:
I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus…But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. (1 Timothty 1:13-16)
Spellbound? Paul had been there and done that. Breaking the spell disrupted his entire world. But according to his words, nothing better could have happened. God had his man. God sent his man. And we can trust the God who with patience waits to bring deliverance from the spells of this present age.
Outstanding article!