THE SHADOW PROBLEM
Extract from Chapter One of "Primitive Materialism"
It is not uncommon to hear Christianity blamed for every war that has ever taken place. Christianity has been associated with a good deal of what is worst in human history: bigotry, the Inquisition, persecution of heresy, persecution of heathens, persecution of diversity, wars of religion, authoritarianism and absolutism. There is a genuine anger about religion.
“Look at the cultural efflorescence,” one might reply, “the bloom, associated with Christianity. What of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven? There is hardly a work of art – all the arts – that is not infused with Christianity.” So, it behoves us to act with caution in respect of the religion-that-may-be-passing-away, for the hero has been always associated with belief in God. Ever it is the role of the hero to recognise the spiritual-in-life, and to fight for it, to give his life for it, if needs be.
‘If there is a God and future life, there is truth and good, and man’s highest happiness consists in striving to attain them. We must live, we must love, and we must believe that we live not only today on this scrap of earth, but have lived and shall live forever, there, in the Whole,’ said Pierre, and he pointed to the sky.[1]
Tolstoy’s hero, Pierre Bezukhov, expresses in these words a universal religious attitude. The tone remains Christian – the high ideal of striving for “truth and good” has something Christian about it. Can one detach such beautiful high sentiments from the negative aspects of Christianity as a historical movement? For, as an observation, there is a problem with Christianity, and getting to the bottom of that problem is part of the window onto the soul.
Symptoms of the recurring problem are brought to our attention on a very regular basis. An account of one woman’s experience as a child at an orphanage describes the sexual, physical and mental abuse she suffered at the home. The children were beaten, punished, locked in a dark room, made to eat their own vomit and had their mouths rinsed out with carbolic soap. She was first sexually abused at the home by a priest when she was eight. Instead of defending her, the nuns who had walked in on the scene of abuse blamed her, calling her a “whore”, and broke her arm. There were years of systematic abuse including being hit on the head with a wooden crucifix. After she started secondary school this changed to psychological abuse and attempts to crush her spirit.
One possible response to such reports is that they are exceptions, but the case is too familiar for there to be any doubt that it is highly symptomatic of the shadow problem of Christianity. The ostensibly charitable religion of love seems ready to convert itself in the person of its exemplary practitioners into cold, hard, bullying conduct; the ostensive denial of all physical desire seems ready to convert itself into sexual exploitation, perversion and sadism, all under the mask of piety, self-discipline and self-knowledge.
We trace in the activity of the priest a pattern of behaviour that begins with the repression of the “flesh”, a repression that succeeds only in constellating an ungovernable, perhaps unconscious, motive to perverse sexual gratification by means of exploitation of the trust placed in him by society for the protection of unfortunate. We trace in the sadism of the nun a pattern of behaviour that begins with the repression of sexual desire, a repression that cannot find outlet in sexual gratification, and hence by transference converts into an obsessional neurosis with a compulsive urge to persecute those entrusted by society to her custody. We trace in both behaviours an ideological background that involves the projection of evil, in the form of original sin, onto the victim, and hence seeks to make the victim into the moral author of the crimes committed. We see abuse in all its forms: sexual, physical, emotional and psychological.
[1] Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, Book V, Chapter 12.
“Look at the cultural efflorescence,” one might reply, “the bloom, associated with Christianity. What of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven? There is hardly a work of art – all the arts – that is not infused with Christianity.” So, it behoves us to act with caution in respect of the religion-that-may-be-passing-away, for the hero has been always associated with belief in God. Ever it is the role of the hero to recognise the spiritual-in-life, and to fight for it, to give his life for it, if needs be.
‘If there is a God and future life, there is truth and good, and man’s highest happiness consists in striving to attain them. We must live, we must love, and we must believe that we live not only today on this scrap of earth, but have lived and shall live forever, there, in the Whole,’ said Pierre, and he pointed to the sky.[1]
Tolstoy’s hero, Pierre Bezukhov, expresses in these words a universal religious attitude. The tone remains Christian – the high ideal of striving for “truth and good” has something Christian about it. Can one detach such beautiful high sentiments from the negative aspects of Christianity as a historical movement? For, as an observation, there is a problem with Christianity, and getting to the bottom of that problem is part of the window onto the soul.
Symptoms of the recurring problem are brought to our attention on a very regular basis. An account of one woman’s experience as a child at an orphanage describes the sexual, physical and mental abuse she suffered at the home. The children were beaten, punished, locked in a dark room, made to eat their own vomit and had their mouths rinsed out with carbolic soap. She was first sexually abused at the home by a priest when she was eight. Instead of defending her, the nuns who had walked in on the scene of abuse blamed her, calling her a “whore”, and broke her arm. There were years of systematic abuse including being hit on the head with a wooden crucifix. After she started secondary school this changed to psychological abuse and attempts to crush her spirit.
One possible response to such reports is that they are exceptions, but the case is too familiar for there to be any doubt that it is highly symptomatic of the shadow problem of Christianity. The ostensibly charitable religion of love seems ready to convert itself in the person of its exemplary practitioners into cold, hard, bullying conduct; the ostensive denial of all physical desire seems ready to convert itself into sexual exploitation, perversion and sadism, all under the mask of piety, self-discipline and self-knowledge.
We trace in the activity of the priest a pattern of behaviour that begins with the repression of the “flesh”, a repression that succeeds only in constellating an ungovernable, perhaps unconscious, motive to perverse sexual gratification by means of exploitation of the trust placed in him by society for the protection of unfortunate. We trace in the sadism of the nun a pattern of behaviour that begins with the repression of sexual desire, a repression that cannot find outlet in sexual gratification, and hence by transference converts into an obsessional neurosis with a compulsive urge to persecute those entrusted by society to her custody. We trace in both behaviours an ideological background that involves the projection of evil, in the form of original sin, onto the victim, and hence seeks to make the victim into the moral author of the crimes committed. We see abuse in all its forms: sexual, physical, emotional and psychological.
[1] Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, Book V, Chapter 12.
Questions
1. Does Christianity have a shadow problem?
Assuming it does...
2. What is the historical origin of this problem?
3. Can Christianity survive it's shadow problem? What modifications in Christian theology need to be made for it to survive?
Assuming it does...
2. What is the historical origin of this problem?
3. Can Christianity survive it's shadow problem? What modifications in Christian theology need to be made for it to survive?