1. Olympian
worldview and biblical point of view
We live
in an intensely Olympian society and culture. Because of this, we all grow up
with an intensely Olympian personality with its comprehensively Olympian way of
thinking. As we experience each moment of the day, we habitually interpret its
meaning in a typically Olympian way. Furthermore, our intensely Olympian
society rewards us in big but mostly little ways for doing so. It also punishes
us in little but sometimes big ways if we don’t.
This
applies to our reading of the Bible. We bring our habitual Olympian ways of
thinking, our whole Olympian worldview, to it.
The Bible,
however, witnesses to Jesus Christ and his very different way of thinking. If
we stick to our Olympian worldview while reading the Bible, this will have
curious consequences. We will read passages that we can’t understand, or that
contradict what we know, or that, worst of all, challenge the meaning of our
whole Olympian personality, culture, and society.
We risk
this last kind of challenge whenever we allow Jesus to question our very
Olympian ways through the biblical passage we are reading.
There are
many different theories of personality. The theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl
Jung were popular for a time. Their concepts, like the unconscious or
introversion, are still used. Today even seminary professors make use of the
Jungian-based Myers-Briggs identification of personality types. We can
interpret biblical passages in terms of such psychological theories. Or we can
allow Jesus to question them through those same biblical passages.
2. Biblical
story: Jesus liberates a demoniac
They [Jesus and his disciples] came to the other side of
the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when he had stepped out of the
boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. He
lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a
chain; for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the
chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke to pieces; and no one had
the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains
he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from
a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; and he shouted at the top of his
voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure
you by God, do not torment me.” For he [Jesus] had said to
him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” Then Jesus asked him, “What is
your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” He begged him
earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now there on the hillside a
great herd of swine was feeding; and the unclean spirits begged him, “Send us
into the swine; let us enter them.” So he gave them permission. And the unclean
spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two
thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and was drowned in the sea.
The swineherds ran off and
told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was
that had happened. They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there,
clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they
were afraid (Mark 5:1-15, New Revised
Standard Version).
Today’s
biblical passage from Mark concerns a man in whom a large number of demons
(“unclean spirits”) dwell. Our Olympian theories of personality, whether
Freudian, Jungian, or Myers-Briggsian, don’t speak explicitly in terms of God
and Satan, angels and demons, or Christian and Olympian personalities.
Consequently if we stick with them, we will be tempted to ignore today’s
passage or to interpret it in a metaphorical rather than a literal way.
Let us,
however, see if we can allow Jesus to question our understanding of God and
Satan, angels and demons, and Christian and Olympian personalities through this
passage. Let us see if we can begin to develop an understanding of reality that
is consistent with a literal understanding of this passage.
If we are
able to do this, we will affirm that the Bible is our normative witness to the
one true god of freedom. We will affirm our understanding of the Bible as the
standard by which we measure the truth of our understanding of reality and the
words we use to express that understanding.
Any
understanding of reality which we develop on the basis of this or any passage
must ultimately be consistent with the whole biblical witness to Jesus Christ.
When we affirm with Jesus that he is the Son of Man, we agree with him that he
was and remains the one perfect, representative, truly human being. We affirm
that he was and is what we will someday be with his gracious help.
Every
human being has two personalities: an Olympian one and a Christian one. We
ourselves and others define our personality in terms of our habitual responses
to circumstances. Each personality, Olympian and Christian, is the sum of its
habits.
3. The
development of habits and personality
Habits
follow certain set stages of development. This process of development applies
to the formation of any habit whether Olympian or Christian.
The first
stage in the development of a habit is that of initiation.
Each habit starts with a suggestion followed by a single act
and then a series of initial acts.
From a
biblical point of view, an evil suggestion is a temptation. A single act
affirming it, whether in thought, word, or deed, is a sin.
Jesus didn’t
have an Olympian personality. In the age to come, when we are like him, we
won’t either. He never developed the Olympian habits needed to form an Olympian
personality because he never affirmed an evil suggestion. Satan, his enemy and
ours, tempted him but he never affirmed Satan’s evil suggestions. He never made
them a part of his personality.
The
second stage in the development of a habit is that of inclination.
Continuing a series of initial acts inclines us to act that same way almost without
thinking.
This
inclination to act in a certain way leads to habituation or
the formation of a fully developed habit. When a way of acting reaches this
stage, we no longer think about how to act but simply respond to circumstances
in the same useful and increasingly skilled way.
We
mentioned that temptation is an evil suggestion and that the affirmation of it
is a sin. Thomas Aquinas defined the habitual affirmation of evil suggestions,
or the habit of sinning in a particular way, as vice. In contrast, he defined
virtue as the habit of acting in a good way.
The
fourth stage in the development of a habit is mastery. This
is the development of a habit with great depth. Such depth allows us to act
spontaneously, to improvise, in a skillful way. Such habits are also so deep
that we cannot easily rid ourselves of them even if we want to.
The final
stage in the development of a habit is identification. This
is when our habitual way of acting has increased in significance to the point
that it is strongly integrated into the other major habits which form our
personality. To rid ourselves of the habit, we must radically alter our
personality.
4.
Consequences of developing Olympian habits: addictions and possession
If we
increase the variety and strength of our Olympian habits and personality, then
we increase the clarity of our witness to the six Olympian gods of politics,
war, technology, sex, money, and consumption. If we increase the variety and
strength of our Christian habits and personality, then we witness better to the
truth, freedom, love, and vitality of Jesus Christ.
Increasing
the variety and strength of our Olympian habits and personality, however, has
destructive consequences. It is always destructive to our relationships with
Jesus, other human beings, and the rest of creation. It is also destructive to
the integrity and vitality of our own Christian personality.
We
mentioned earlier that the fourth stage in the development of a habit is
mastery. A habit developed to such a level allows us to skillfully improvise.
Such a habit, however, is also so deep we cannot will an end to it.
Usually
we don’t want to. Sometimes we do but can’t. When we can’t, such habits are
called addictions. Olympian habits developed this deeply tie us to the gods in
increasingly inescapable ways. An addiction to sexual stimulation inescapably
ties us to Venus goddess of sex; to food or alcohol or drugs, to Bacchus god of
consumption; to gambling (whether with cards or derivatives), to Pluto god of
money; to politics, to Jupiter god of politics; to television, video games, or
texting, to Vulcan god of technology; to physical violence and destruction, to
Mars.
We are
possessed by one or more of the gods when we have developed one or more
Olympian habits so completely that we identify with them. One expression of our
devotion to the gods is delirium: emotional intensity and stubborn
irrationality. As our Olympian habits deepen, this delirium grows. When our
Olympian habits reach this fifth stage of identification, we may either wholly
justify the destruction of others or wholly self-destruct.
Copyright © 2013 by Steven Farsaci.
All rights reserved. Fair use encouraged.
All rights reserved. Fair use encouraged.
