My conversations with young adults convinces me that
contrary to the expectations of secular thinkers, the postmodern generations
tends to yearn for spirituality. They desire to embrace mystery, an expression
of awe that is both alive and ancient, meaning that transcends space and time,
and a sense of the divine. It is a good yearning, an expression of bearing
God’s likeness in their very being.
I am struck by the fact that this postmodern yearning
parallels an emphasis in the fundamentalist Christian group in which I was
raised. Though I never heard them acknowledge it, this group had been shaped by
a movement known as Pietism. Pietism
was a movement of spiritual renewal that began in Lutheran churches in 17th
century Germany. It said that true religion was more than mere belief, liturgy,
and duty, and would properly express itself in a growing personal relationship
with God as Father in the heart of the believer. Spiritual disciplines like
prayer and Scripture reading would warm the affections for God, allow the
Christian to hear his voice and love his presence. Given the dead orthodoxy of
the church at the time, Pietism was a needed corrective.
Over time, however, the pietistic emphasis in my
fundamentalist background took on some accretions that still plague evangelical
Protestants today. The first is a tendency to downplay belief, liturgy, and
duty as if they are somehow problematic in themselves. Not true—all three are
to be vibrant and lovely expressions of faith according to the Scriptures. The
second is the conviction that if a believer is not filled with warm affections,
and sense of God’s presence something must be wrong. Slowly personal experience
and feelings become a standard by which to measure spirituality. That, of
course, leads to a growing feeling of guilt that only complicates matters
further. In taking this step, a good emphasis had morphed into a legalism that
is utterly destructive of grace.
Spiritual dryness, if
that is [God’s] will at the moment, is as much to be loved and obeyed as
spiritual fervor… It takes repeated aridity… to bring home to us that our own
so precious feelings contribute nothing to our salvation; that, in fact, they
generally stand in the way of our perfection. Spiritual dryness can finally
lead us, after much pouting, actually to give thanks that it is not because we
see God that we have joy. It is because he sees us.
Source: Gale D.
Webbe in The Night and Nothing
.
.
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