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OWNING ONE'S FAITH AND BELIEF

CHAPTER 1

Dissertation by Dr. Bill Spencer

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© 2002 J.S.& A. Pty Ltd.

HETERONOMY AS A FACTOR THAT LOCKS PARISHES INTO AN UNAVOIDABLE AMBIGUITY.

The assumption that undergirds the hypothesis of my dissertation is that the culture of Modern Western democracies is the direct result of the historic interaction of two powerful and ancient mythologies seeking an Hegelian synthesis. The first of these myths is Near Eastern in origin, whereas the second originates out of Europe, particularly England. The Near Eastern mythology centres on the concept of community, whereas the European mythology has as its centre the concept of the individual. In order to survive the effluence of time, myths need to express themselves in a religious or quasi-religious form. The Near Eastern myth finds its expression in Judaism, Islam and in the Catholic and Orthodox forms of Christianity and in secular pseudo religious belief systems such as Communism, all of which are essentially communitarian in form. The European myth was initially borne by the Druid religion, but since the demise of that religion, finds its expression in Protestant forms of Christianity, and in secular pseudo-religious belief systems such as Existentialism and Capitalism, both of which are individualist in form. With the virtual annihilation of the threat of Communism in its European expression, Western Democratic culture is threatened from within by the supremacy of the individualist myth within Capitalism, which at the end of the twentieth century finds its expression in the pseudo-religious form of the Market Economy. The above assumption draws heavily on Joseph Campbell, a well-known lecturer on mythology, who unfortunately doesn't substantiate his beliefs.

Within the European context, dating from a pre-Socratic society, there has been a concurrent and related battle between Heteronomous and Autonomous reasoning which in turn seeks, and from time to time has found its Hegelian synthesis in Theonomy. This thesis endeavours to argue that the twentieth century has witnessed a flourishing of autonomous reasoning, such that modern Western Democratic culture is currently passing through an autonomous stage in the on-going battle between heteronomy and autonomy, and is in danger of settling for a culture dominated by a demonic autarchism as the natural flow-on from an autonomous culture. This autarchism finds its expression in the Market Economy. Autarchism can be seen as a development of autonomy which is, in effect a demonic and unsatisfactory regression within autonomy itself, that has arisen because of a lack of appreciation of the function of mythology and religion within culture, and that the natural progression from an autonomous culture is either a regression to heteronomy, or a synthesis of heteronomy and autonomy, namely theonomy. Western Democratic culture has before it, as it reaches the end of the second millennium, the rare opportunity to grasp and share the experience of a theonomous culture by rejecting autonomous autarchism as a development of an autonomous culture.

The challenge before the Church is to encourage within culture, both the rejection of autonomous autarchism, and a regression into heteronomy in the hope that a theonomous culture might develop in default. The major difficulty the church faces in this task is its own ambiguity. Because the church is a social group immersed in the conflicts of existence, it is subject to an irresistible temptation of becoming heteronomous and to suppress autonomous criticism. Following Tillich, the church should be the community of the New Being, and as such the place where theonomy is actual. From the church, where there should be nothing heteronomous in contrast to autonomous; theonomy should pour out into the whole of cultural life.

However, because this is not so, this thesis argues that the practice of ministry should encourage each parish to be true to the category in which it finds itself, as either heteronomous, autonomous or theonomous. However, autonomous and theonomous parishes should encourage the development of theonomous attitudes and ethics in the Synods and Assemblies of the church. They should also encourage their members as individuals to either, initiate discussion in the wider culture on matters relating to theonomy, or become involved as individuals in institutions involving the welfare of society.

My odyssey of over sixty years, has taken me from small country town, to major cities, from baptism as a child in a Methodist church, through Salvation Army officership, to Congregational Pastor to Uniting Church minister, years spent as a Bank officer to Poultry farmer to Insurance representative to Relationship Counsellor, General Nursing education to Theological Hall, to University and Seminary; all of which, although not in that order, has through tertiary education and experience contributed to the deposit of knowledge from which I draw.

A study that purports to address the practice of ministry, most likely will have arisen out of the identification of a problem within ministry. The problem that this study addresses arose as a result of my endeavour in the early 1980's within the Skipton Street congregation of the Ballarat South Parish of the Uniting Church in Australia, to use premarital counselling as a means to promote numerical church growth. I believed at that time that I had identified an unbridgeable gap between the general level of reasoning used by participants in the counselling, and that which generally prevailed within the Skipton Street Congregation. If this was so, and if one assumed that an important task of ministry was the encouragement of numerical growth within a congregation, then it indeed indicated a serious problem for ministry, .

After extensive struggling with this "problem" over many years, I now question the assumption in the previous sentence regarding the importance of the encouragement of numerical growth. Certainly there is good reason to be concerned with the spiritual growth and faith development of congregational members. Arising out of these years of study, has been a confirmation for me of Paul Tillich's observation of the ambiguity of the church. I am still concerned that the Christian Gospel influence the surrounding culture in which it is preached, but I now am not convinced that it befalls the church, albeit being the "Body of Christ" to be the primary drive within a theonomous culture in this regard. This is because, should the church see its role in this light, the church's very ambiguity becomes its major deficit. I do not wish to denigrate the importance of the church as it endeavours to be the "salt of the earth," or the "yeast" within the ferment of culture, but rather that this task belongs essentially to those who form what Tillich identifies as the "Spiritual Community," both within and outside the sociological structure of the church. Because the Spiritual Community has no organisational structure it escapes the identification of being ambiguous.

Essentially, the foregoing paragraph is dependent on the acceptance of another element of paramount importance in Tillich's theological system - the element which concerns the relationship between religion and culture. This is best expressed, in Tillich's well known statement, "religion is the substance of culture and culture the form of religion." That supposed phenomena of post enlightenment culture, secularity, provides some indication of the truth behind Tillich's understanding of culture as expressed in the above quotation. Tillich maintains, that in the absence of religion, another religious expression or a pseudo religion quickly fills the vacuum. I am not convinced it is secularity that creates the vacuum, for the secular appears to me to be an essential part of both the Hebrew and Christian religions, but rather the problem arises through the prevalence of a demonic autarchy within a given culture. Autarchy can be described as absolute sovereignty or despotism, self government or self-sufficiency. I use it as a composite of all of these interpretations. This autarchy is demonic because it is taken to be the natural expression or extension of autonomy. In this study I intend to show that this is not the case, and that autarchy as expressed in modern culture is an inadequate and subversive substitute for the logically sound concept or category of Tillich's theonomy.

Because of the despotic self-sufficiency of demonic autarchy, the element of religion is excluded for the reason that conscious acknowledgment of a "Higher Power" or authority would destroy its sovereignty and self-sufficiency. However, in subtle ways a pseudo religious form emerges that denies its own religiosity, and presents itself under another category. Its form may be an economic theory, political policy, business strategy or whatever. Its substance still requires that it be based on commitment and trust in a set of beliefs with regard to reality. It would appear that the current emphasis within political theory in Australia today of the all-prevailing importance of the concept of competition in all things political and commercial, could well constitute an essential article of faith of economic theory. The theories or policies appear to depend on the writings of John Locke and John Mills and in their individualism are reliant on a "prior to society" concept of the individual who in turn is a creature of competitive struggle, to such an extent that it is part of his or her being to be essentially competitive. Locke and Mills' concept of the individual draws upon the English and to a lesser extent European myth-mentioned at the beginning of this chapter-of the individual in contrast to the Near Eastern myth of community. The latter myth acknowledges the essential social nature of the human being, without which his or her humanity is diminished. It could be argued that underlying much of the reformation struggle was the battle between these two ancient myths. The Catholic myth of community being derived from Hebrew and Christian Scripture, the Protestant myth of the individual drawing upon ancient Celtic individualism, Aristotelian philosophy and individualistic elements in both Christian and Hebraic Scripture. These ancient mythologies have been kept in balance since the reformation, however in recent time, with the diminishing of the influence of the Christian faith in pluralistic societies, the balance of the communitarian mythology has also diminished.

The use of competition policy by the government of the State of Victoria to authenticate the diminishing of the powers of the Auditor-General, is indicative of the extremes to which adherence to this article of faith can go. In principal, such an exercise is contrary to the Protestant Principle, so dear to Tillich, a principle which emphasises the need for a healthy and positive suspicion of all in authority. Historically, within the Westminster system of Government, the role of the Auditor-General is to be a "watchdog" on the expenditure of public funds by government, and is essentially and rightly based on the suspicion that those in authority are under intense temptation to misuse public funds for political ends. In practice, then, under the cloak of a demonic autarchy, a pseudo religion surreptitiously enters public debate, fraudulently presenting itself as anything but religious, but in effect confirming Tillich's analyses of culture.

Although limited, part of my purpose in this dissertation is to examine the role of the church in an autonomous culture, and in part to make explicit how in contrast to the ambiguity of the church the unambiguous spiritual community may function. I intend to approach this aim through reference to Paul Tillich and his major categories of heteronomy, autonomy and theonomy. For Tillich, these cultural categories are not sequential. However, the problem in ministry that I mentioned above concerns the reaction of people of marriageable age to parishes that exhibit either a heteronomous, autonomous or theonomous culture. It would appear axiomatic, that if it can be shown that such persons can also be described as fitting Tillich's cultural categories, then depending on the dominant categorical expression in the individual's life, so they will be attracted to the corresponding dominant category within a particular parish. I shall also endeavour to show by reference to Tillich's writings, confirmed by reference in particular to Kant, Fitche, Kohlberg, Fowler and others, that Tillich's categories are applicable to the life of the individual, however in this case they are sequential, the exception being in times of intense trauma.

As also mentioned above, there is an ever present tendency to interpret the end of autonomy as an expression of autarchy. In contrast, Tillich's theological system leads to a synthesis of heteronomy and autonomy which he identifies as theonomy. I am indebted to my supervisor, the Rev. Dr. Alexander Yule Jnr for this insight. Following the exposition of, and consideration of other authorities with regard to Tillich's categories of heteronomy, autonomy and theonomy, I will explore the implications of these categories for the personal growth and development of the individual. I shall consider the implications of modern feminism and the Base Christian movement in Latin America, and the clarity that is brought to the overall debate by Bellah et al in their social analysis of American, and by extension Modern Western Democratic societies as a whole. Consideration will then be given to the nature of authority, and in particular that authority which authentically resides within the church. As part of the examination of authority I shall address the changing nature of authority within the Uniting Church in Australia. Reference will be made to content, aims, practice and methodology of a project that had its genesis in the Skipton Street Congregation of the Ballarat South parish, but was finally undertaken in, and after the acceptance of a call to the Alphington-Fairfield parish of the Uniting Church in Australia. The final chapter will address the implications arising out of this dissertation.

Within a system that is all encompassing, a place needs to be found for various phenomena that have developed considerably since Tillich's death, and which challenge the universality of his system. If a place cannot be found in his system for these phenomena, such as the rise of feminism, and base Christian communities, then its universality, at least in Western society must be questioned.

This whole undertaking has been a source of enrichment for myself, and in particular has afforded significant new insights. Some of these have been particularly disturbing. Within the context of the practise of ministry, it would normally be expected that an enhancement of a particular aspect of that practise within the context of the church would ensue from this work. In effect, as previously mentioned, the major insight for myself has been an identification of the persistent ambiguity of the church. I would now contend that the primary expression of Christianity is cultural rather than institutional or sociological. My acceptance of Tillich's assertion that, "religion is the substance of culture and culture the form of religion," represents a significant shift in my thinking, as my immediate denominational allegiance prior to the inauguration of the Uniting Church was Congregational. An essential aspect of early congregationalism was the emphasis on individual worthiness in contrast to cultural Christianity. Early Congregationalism, although inherently autonomous, emphasised that living within a parish did not make one a Christian. I would now assert that in honouring the autonomy of the individual one is committed to affirming the inestimable worth and dignity of the individual apart from his or her behaviour. For the Christian, part of that dignity is in affirming that each individual is part of God's creation and is a child of God, for whom Jesus the Christ died. The cultural implications of Tillich's assertion above are quite complex. Political correctness in Australia requires, amongst acceptance of the various "articles of faith," that one affirm the concept of multiculturalism, and that if the individual does not, somehow, he or she is racist. Much of what is meant by multiculturalism can be encompassed in a concept of multi-ethnicity. Australia has indeed benefited in many ways by the multiethnic composition of her society. However, as we shall later explore in Tillich's understanding of the holy, the concept of perfection is also countered by a concept of dread, of awe and terror; so also the culture that each ethnic group contributes to Australia, each has a dark side as well as one that is enriching and enlightening. In Australia we are fortunate the latter predominates, but we do not serve our ethnic brothers and sisters well by suggesting that they represent only light. It would appear naive to suggest that cultures differing to traditional Australian culture, have only good characteristics and no evil, whereas faults within the Australian and Western societies derive from cultural deficiencies.

In examining Tillich's insistence on the interrelation between religion and culture, it becomes obvious that a pluralistic society that gives equal credence to each expression of faith is at best problematical, at worst so ambiguous as to render religion irrelevant to culture. This is the exact opposite of Tillich's claim. Admittedly Tillich's assertion arises out of Germanic culture and Lutheranism, and may seem to be foreign to English, Australian or American cultural traditions. David Martin in A General Theory of Secularization, acknowledges that certain subsidiary patterns exist in various cultures in contrast to other patterns such as the American, English and Calvinist patterns. Within the Lutheran pattern, maintenance of religious belief is not as effected by the erosion of religious institutions. Nonetheless, if there exists an Australian, English or American culture, then cultural and religious plurality would appear to be an anomaly, and as suggested above, best described as multi-ethnical. One would still be able to affirm the enriching of a culture by its ethnical and religious diversity and sub-cultures, without compromising the mono-culture and its religious substance and form. The alternative appears to be a scientific, (and by implication autonomous) value-free approach to culture, each culture having equal value, and it doesn't matter if the religious substance of one culture may be heteronomous in expression within an essentially autonomous culture. This leads to the ridiculous position of having to affirm, for instance, the cultural practice of some African immigrants who insist on female circumcision, a practice that is anathema to an autonomous society. Both heteronomy and autarchy lead to the establishment of laws that are absolute by nature, leaving no room for the application of ethical judgements that differ according to circumstance.

In recent decades Australian Governments have moved towards the introduction of laws meant to protect the individual from themselves. However, on occasions these laws can cross over cultural norms. A recent instance in the Northern Territory concerns the accumulation in one aboriginal family of fines up to $3000 for infringement by the children in the family of laws regarding the wearing of helmets while riding bicycles. Mandatory regulations require that at least one of the children who is only twelve years old will be sent to jail for 42 days for non-payment of fines. Anyone with an understanding of the ways of outback aboriginal people will be aware of the inappropriateness of mandatory sentences, indeed the very danger to the life of an aboriginal boy confined in a jail cell. Sensitivity to the cultural norms of ethnic groups is essential, but concepts of justice must prevail. A society that does not recognise a predominant religious and ethical base for its culture is in danger of unravelling. Autarchism, particularly in its demonic, and therefore destructive form, is inevitably responsible for this potential disintegration.

From the viewpoint of this thesis, a scientific approach being essentially autonomous, cannot claim to be the ultimate criteria for judgement of a culture, as it is only one category, and one which is transitional at best. The limitations of the autonomous nature of scientific investigation represents another outcome of this thesis for me. As such, empirical research and investigation, can at the most be only claimed to be supportive of the qualitative evidence of theological investigation, and cannot claim an ultimacy in itself. Philosophical and Theological methodology must necessarily transcend empirical research. As methodology based on an autonomous perspective can be shown to have a greater efficacy than that based on heteronomy, theological and philosophical methodology must be founded on a category that transcends both heteronomy and autonomy. Logically, such methodology must be dependent on theonomy. It would appear to me that in considering the nature of theonomous methodology we are at a cutting edge of methodological research. It is certainly beyond the scope of this study. Sufficient to say that some indication of the nature of such methodology is to be found in Ricoeur's second naivete concept and in the study of mythology.

With regard to methodology, it now appears to me that the methodological approach I adopted in the candidature stage of this study was flawed. I had stated that the study will have been successfully completed when the (Alphington-Fairfield) parish develops mission strategies that are:

1. clearly autonomous with regard to the authorities listed under the definition of heteronomous, i.e. conditional authorities. (parents, teachers etc)

2. while being autonomous can nonetheless be shown to be biblically and theologically sound.

3. aimed at involving autonomous reasoning people who are on the fringe of or beyond the immediate influence of the parish.

Implicit to this aim is the conception that regardless of where people responsible for the establishment of the parish's strategies are with regard to Tillich's categories, they can, within a short period of time, i.e. the time frame of the subsequent five seminars of the ensuing project, be brought to the adoption of an autonomous position. I now challenge this assumption. I do claim that this criteria was met, but its success rested more on the probability that the decision-makers were already autonomous in their reasoning prior to the commencement of the project.

Consequent to the above, much that formed part of the project or parish study dimension of this dissertation needs to be discounted as being of little use. I would have been better to concentrate on establishing a theoretical criteria for identifying responses that were indicative of arising from a heteronomous, autonomous or theonomous thinking process and engaged in research in the Skipton Street congregation in contrast to the congregations that comprised the Alphington-Fairfield parish. This identification of the predominant category could then be applied to the success or otherwise of new individuals becoming associated with each congregation. However, I would still have been researching within the assumption that numerical church growth was something of real significance and a legitimate aim of any congregation. In the light of my earlier reference to competition theory, the ambiguity of the church, and the similarity to a business strategy, I now question such an aim. Such strategies now appear to me to present an enormous risk of devaluing the individual, and using the individual as a means to an end, and not the end itself. Such an approach is not consistent with the essential nature of the categories of autonomy and theonomy. The inconsistency of a church growth strategy with autonomy was acknowledged in the strategy underlying the establishment of a community worker within the Alphington-Fairfield parish, but in reality this appointment succumbed to the pressure to produce numerical results.

In hindsight, a more useful result would have eventuated had I based the dissertation-project within the context of the encouragement of a particular parish to embrace Tillich's concept of sanctification as an essential part of its outreach programme. Had I done so, little would have changed with regard to the theoretical nature of this dissertation-project. The church's ambiguity, and the relationship between religion and culture, would have been central, to such a project. Researching the feasibility and the difficulties associated with a project of this nature would have been a useful exercise in the practice of ministry. However, this insight has arisen out of this present dissertation, and to that end I believe it has been a worthwhile project

My intense engagement in relationship and marital counselling over the last two years has yielded a further insight with regard to the movement of the individual from heteronomous reasoning, through autonomous reasoning to theonomous reasoning. I have been impressed by the importance of the development of self-esteem within the individual concerned and I acknowledge my debt to Nathaniel Branden, whose work in the discipline of psychology has affinity with Tillich's categories of heteronomy and autonomy. Unfortunately, Branden does not proceed to a synthesis of these categories. Nonetheless, it now seems to me, that to address the movement from heteronomy to autonomy without also taking cognisance of the close relationship that the individual's sense of self-esteem has to Tillich's categories is to omit an essential factor in the process, and therefore to invite failure. Although Tillich acknowledges the importance of depth psychology with regard to his theological system, I am not aware of him specifically referring to the importance of self-esteem. If this is so, it identifies a serious omission in Tillich's work, however it is not fundamental enough to bring his system down.

It may be that work on the psychological implications were not sufficiently advanced during Tillich's lifetime for it to be reasonable to expect him to include such insights in his work. In similar fashion, although not an issue envisaged at the design stage of this thesis, other than in relation in passing to Carol Gilligan's concern with Kohlberg's theory of moral development, the growth of feminism since Tillich's death does have some bearing on the significance for his categories of heteronomy, autonomy and theonomy. Some feminist theologians are critical of the hubris element in Tillich's system. They speak of the prevalence of humility among women, an attribute they deem to be negative. This aspect of femininity will be addressed later, especially in relation to humility and self-esteem.

Combined then, with knowledge I have attained as a result of this exercise and that knowledge that has come through my more recent intense involvement in marriage and relationship counselling, I now would approach the pre-marital counselling issues quite differently. I continue to consider that there is value in my original approach, however, I would now include other theory bases, such as Branden's exhaustive work on self esteem referred to above, and also on theories associated with birth order, especially with the assistance of a genogram - similar to a family tree, but concentrating on the transmission of values and behaviour etc. The original dichotomy between the level of reasoning of the participants in the pre-marital course at Skipton Street, remain, however I now see that, if there was to be a specific outreach on my part as their pastor to encourage people into the life of the parish, it needed to be consistent with my understanding of the parish's level of reasoning. Such an attitude on my part would need then to acknowledge and accept that the majority of the pre-marital counsellee's would not find a place at Skipton Street. On the other hand, given my assessment of the Alphington-Fairfield parish, such counsellees may well have assimilated, giving the project some legitimacy in these circumstances. I now consider that a parish that was predominantly autonomous in its thinking would be able to accommodate people who generally reason in a heteronomous way better than the reverse. However the inherent ambiguity still remains.

I propose in the first instance to establish by exposition, and later critique Tillich's understanding of what I believe to be his three major cultural categories, and their relevance by extension to the individual person. Certain psychological development theories will be brought to bear upon Tillich's categories, and their relevance to the social analysis of the social scientists who, in recent times, teamed together with Robert Bellah in their examination of the American society which I shall treat as atypical of all Modern Western Democracies. Bellah et. al. also are appreciative of the value of the approach of the Base Christian Communities of Latin America to contemporary American religion. This phenomenon and its relation to theonomy will be examined.

The concept of authority is basic to all of Tillich's categories. The role of authority in various Christian denominations will receive some attention followed by a short enquiry into the authority of the Basis of Union of the Uniting Church, as the definitive document regarding authority within that denomination, and the church's readiness to acquiesce to this authority. The dissertation will conclude with some observations regarding the role of the church in autonomous modern Western democracies when Tillich's categories of Autonomy and Theonomy are taken seriously.