The Cheap Gospel of the West

I find in my anecdotal observations of Western Society and Culture that liberal enlightenment philosophy has worked itself out to a significant degree in common Christian Theology. I have been asking myself for a few years why there is so much emphasis on salvation through the distribution of material goods. Liberation Theology and Word Faith theology are naked purveyors of materialism. Social Justice theory and Comfort-and-Happiness-Suburban-Christian belief systems depend on what we have in the house and available to us in service. In both of these examples the not-having or the having of material goods is the focus.

If I were to matriculate with this subject in mind, my thesis would be such:

With its focus on the workings of the material world, the Enlightenment of the West sought to de-mythologize culture. With its focus on anti-supernaturalism, materialism grew in stature and was under-girded by man's increasing ability to manipulate his environment. With the growth of industry and agriculture, man no longer needed a provider. With the increase in knowledge of the human body, man no longer needed a healer. With the growth in abilities to manipulate the elements, man no longer needed a creator. With the assumption that soon the evils of the world would be solved as knowledge increased, man no longer needed a savior.

...Or something like that with less antagonistic rhetoric.

Here is the rub, I agree with the good that has come out of the Enlightenment. Capitalism has become the greatest engine at reducing poverty and famine the world has ever seen. The advances in health care are amazing and my parents would be long dead without them. The human capacity to understand our creation has gone a long way to sustaining the a world population of 7 billion. However, we will never solve the evils of this world. Each of these advances has been perverted and used for evil and no matter how hard we try to manipulate the systems of exchange and control, the reality remains that somewhere someone will abuse another person for gain...regardless of their station in life. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said it best when locked in the Soviet gulag, "It was lying on that bed of straw in that small cell that I discovered the line between good and evil runs through everyone's heart." (paraphrased).

Back to the material gospel, as much as the conservative and liberal wings of the Church say they do not agree, both have bought into the material gospel. The Social Justice crowd cannot speak of anything but the distribution of materials. Their bitterness and anger is evident in their writings and their speeches. They use the the prophetic tradition to teach the hatred of certain classes of people. Wait, there's more! The self-reliant crowd in the Church is to quick to point out how materially well-off they are, so they should not be bothered with the pleas of the poor because our Western Democracies give opportunity to those who are willing to work. A good life is measured by how much material you can provide for your family.

I think that there is an anti-supernatural bias living below the surface of our congregations. "Man's Effort" has become the focus of the the West and the Church has bought into it. Of course we will hear of God's work in someone's life, but I cannot help but question what that really means. In J.I. Packer's words the Gospel means, "God saving people." If we really believe that then we must see salvation as primarily spiritual and the biggest gift of salvation is not the material goodies of a plush western life. No the biggest gift is the Holy Spirit of God for the Jew and the Gentile, the slave and free, the male and female, the rich and poor.

Salvation is clearly a supernatural event, the gifting of the Holy Spirit. This is the line of demarcation. Instead of fussing over who has what bobble, Christian's should be wondering how we translate this supernatural event into the natural world in which we live. In the polite society of the chattering classes or in a group where the biggest toy wins, that is the truly hard part because the door has been slammed shut on the supernatural. How do we move away from the rubric of materialism that our societies base themselves upon and seek God's Kingdom when we make our decisions? How does the Church regain her composure away from the material and help believers understand the Holy Spirit?