RADICAL INDIVIDUALISM, THE SOCIETY OF JESUS, AND THE AMERICAN LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGE *BART TARMAN* Chaplain Westmont College Before considering the issues involved in individualism, the society of Jesus, and the task of the American Christian liberal arts college, let us first ponder a scripture as we find it in the newest modern translation of the Bible; The Managerial and Therapeutic Translation: Go therefore, and maximize your own potential. Do not bother with Judea, Samaria, or the ends of the earth. They must take responsibility for their own growth. And lo, you are with yourself always, unto the close of your own life. Matthew 28:19 It is a long journey from the words of Jesus to the ethos of corporation, the therapist, and the manager. Christ called people to God and to one another. He called them into a Kingdom of relationships. In the world of the manager and the therapist the words of Jesus seem odd. The campus of a Christian liberal arts college seems wedged between the words of Jesus and the voice of our own culture. By which are we influenced the most? What is our task as we navigate between the call of God and the enticements of our culture? The Pervasive Nature of American Individualism The pilgrimage from John Winthrop (1588-1699) who: decried what he called `natural liberty,' which is the freedom to do whatever one wants, evil as well as good. [And who said] True freedom is a liberty to that only which is good, just and honest. (p. 26) to the following conclusion found in Habits of the Heart, ...the people to whom we talked...are limited to a language of radical individual autonomy...they cannot think about themselves or others except as arbitrary centers of volition. (p. 81) is certainly an incredible journey. How could we have come so far? Three factors are cited as crucial: the corporation, the manager, and the therapist. The movement away from an agrarian and town-centered lifestyle to an urbanized and industrial climate is seen by the authors as a key to our current sociological status. The bureaucratic organization of the business corporation has been the dominant force in this century. Within the corporation, the crucial character has been the professional manager. (p. 45) The corporation, created to meet the demands of national markets, as opposed to local markets, has become the key relational link in our current patterns of relating through work. The manager is the key player on the team and his/her role is to "persuade, inspire, manipulate, cajole, and intimidate those he manages so that his organization measures up to criteria of effectiveness...[and improves] it position in the marketplace." (p. 45) In this situation "human resources" (what used to be referred to as persons) are seen as a means to an end. They are divided up into separate professional sectors and organized in such a fashion so as to produce, market, and sell a product to a large national market. Since there is nothing intrinsically rewarding about such an activity and since these "human resources" are so distant from the final outcome anyway, work has lost its sense of call, and consequently its own reward. Rewards become extrinsic rather than intrinsic. This means that meaning in life must be sought out in different circles and with different means. This is where the therapist comes in. The therapist is there to help us "fine tune" our lives so that even if we do not find intrinsic meaning from our work, perhaps we may find it (with the help of the therapist) in other places. Actually, it is not just the role of therapist which influences us, but therapeutic language and concepts which have become so pervasive in the American middle class also mold our thoughts on life. Like the manager, the therapist is a specialist, in mobilizing resources for effective action, only here the resources are largely internal...between them, the manager and the therapist largely define the outlines of the twentieth century American culture. (p. 47) The language and culture of therapy has at its center the interests of the individual as the individual defines them. It seems loosely based on a general utilitarian view when it comes to ethics, and a strongly existential view when it comes to philosophy. The happiness of the isolated self is of paramount importance. It is an understanding of life generally hostile to older ideas of moral order. Its center is the autonomous individual presumed able to choose the roles he will play and the commitments he will make, not on the basis of higher truths, but according to the criterion of life-effectiveness as the individual judges it. (p. 47) Right and wrong are dislodged from any objective sense and only find relevance in terms of an individual's improved quality of life. Here we find the self-defined individual let loose in a universe without personal objective meaning. Individual happiness rules supreme. Even relationships are seen as instrumental. There seems to be no intrinsic value in the other person or in the relationship, except as it impacts the potential of the individual in question to experience all that he/she can experience of happiness. The corporation, the manager, and the therapist seem to be in collusion to elevate isolated individualistic thinking to the heights of glory. The Society of Jesus By contrast, God's call in human history has always been to relationship and community. First, we must never forget that God himself is in constant community as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is not surprising, then, that His creation (made in His image) should be found to have an intrinsic need for community. The call of Abraham was a promise for a community: "I will make you a great nation and I will bless you." Likewise, Jeremiah prophecied from the center of God's heart for community when he wrote: "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel...I will be their God and they will be my people." (Jer. 31:33). Not amazingly, we find in the Revelation a completed picture of the society of Jesus gathered around the throne to worship, serve, and enjoy God forever. God can't seem to shake the ideas of relationship and community. Perhaps the best picture is of the Messiah choosing twelve (a number symbolic of the whole of God's people...as in twelve tribes) "in order that they might be with Him." Here is a clear picture parable. The full society is gathered together around the person of Christ in order to be with Him. Being with Him meant being with one another. Being with Him and with one another was an exercise in learning about the Kingdom of God...a Kingdom made up of right relationships. Right relationships with God. Right relationships with all people. This society of Jesus was meant to flesh out the loving will of God "on earth as it is in heaven." They were to model the relationships, values, and priorities of Heaven. This could not and cannot be accomplished without a radical commitment to Jesus, to each other, and to the task of His Kingdom. Many things had to be left behind...and time had to be invested. The American Liberal Arts College In the American liberal arts college we live pressed between the book ends of our cultural norms and the biblical imperatives. The cultural norms call us to radical individualism. The biblical imperative beckons us toward relationships and community. It is very easy to confuse the two, and to even teach the cultural norms as the biblical imperatives. Many seem to do so when they teach radical individualism as the will of God. However, most of us as faculty are far from teaching such doctrines intentionally. But the question remains, do we in our every day lives stand outside the society of Jesus and follow him alone? Upon examination, we may be forced to admit that we as faculty tend to live radically individualistic lives of faith. The paucity of committed, intentional Kingdom relationships is obvious not only in our culture, but on our Christian faculties as well. Like the modern corporation, we have specialized, segmented, isolated, and compartmentalized ourselves in such a way as to make a society of Jesus almost an impossibility. Jesus called twelve to Himself, to one another, and to the task of His Kingdom. Yet our lives all too often reflect not the call of Christ to Himself, to His disciples, and to the task of His Kingdom, but rather a call to an academic form of careerism which consumes most of our waking moments. Jesus and the disciples spent the better part of three years together...twenty-four hours a day. We, on the other hand, have a hard time squeezing in a one-hour "fellowship" meeting or "koinonia" group once a week. Perhaps the greatest contribution we could make as faculty to encourage our students toward a life of community would be to quit living lives as radical individualists.