The Altars of Individualism.

And I’m back to you live from the Carey Memorial Library here at Denver Seminary with another installment of, “Watch Nick Explicate Something And Be Ignored For His Trouble!!!” 

*ahem*

Alright.  Enough of that.  Maybe this will be the magical time I say things in such a way that people will forget where I’m coming from for long enough to hear what I’m saying.  (Or perhaps dogs will learn to fly.)

*ahem*

No, seriously, I’m done with that.  I want to come to you today with a couple more hypotheses, and see what you think of them.  Of course, as is the case with so many things, this is only a product of my study and pondering on human existence.

I think it was Nietzsche who talked about the idea that people have a religious piece that is innate in them, and that the ways in which that piece are expressed differ widely depending on culture and context.  In fact, in that same vein, Nietzsche also suggested that the contemporary religious expression of his time had, in fact, “killed God.”  While I certainly am not a wide supporter of Nietzsche’s canon of work, I think he points out something that is very, very useful for the subject I want to discuss today.  I’ve argued before that people have an ingrained set of characteristics that come as part of the Imago Dei (image of God) stamped upon us.  I’ve argued that man’s creativity, moral compass, etc, are innate.  Today, I want to argue that something else is:  service and worship.

We talk about service in a vast number of frames of reference.  I’m not concerned about those frames of reference for the moment as I am how we talk about it.  A slightly contrived (though very thorough) way of talking about the way we provide service comes in the linguistic structure:  “In service of (the) ________.”  You can fill the blank with conceivably any noun, common or proper.  You can be in the service of your country, your mother, your god/s, your ego, social justice.  The list is nearly infinite. 

Worship is much the same.  We don’t often think about worship outside the religious context, but really, worship is a much larger phenomena than just the liturgical setting.  The reveling in the presence of something, the extolling of something, this experience is hardly confined to liturgical settings.  We don’t commonly talk about people with predispositions towards directing their time and energy in one direction as worshipping it, but I’m not sure that’s not what we mean.  If we compare the definition of worship to the way we talk about the way people choose what they will devote their attention and praise to, we can find out much about their value structure, and what they serve.

I say all that to say this:  I think everyone serves someone or something.  Everyone has their altar.  It just depends on what the altar is to, and what kinds of sacrifices it requires.

(continued, next entry)