beyond self

“Discussions about manhood in Western culture cannot avoid the figure of Jesus. He is the most frequently used mirror in which generations of Western men–philosophers from Augustine to Tillich, evangelists from Paul to Billy Graham, novelists from Renan to Kazantzakis–have seen their own faces reflected. Like the ink blots used in the psychological Rorschach test, Jesus is a historical X on which men project their own self-understanding. Every generation discovers a different Jesus–the magical savior, the wonder worker, the mystic, the political rebel, the labor organizer, the capitalist, the communist, the greatest salesman who ever lived, the protofeminist, the ecologist. As Albert Schweitzer said, men serching for the historical Jesus look into a deep, dark well, see a reflection of themselves, and call it ‘Lord’.” (Sam Keen, Fire in the Belly–on being a man, p. 102)

It is a vicious cycle. We seek for a hero, someone greater than ourselves. We wish for a leader to follow, an example, a role model to recreate ourselves in the image of. Yet the most followed-after leader of Western man, Jesus, is recreated in the image of ourselves, the particular bent of our denomination, the specific spin of our politial party. No matter what group of people we go to and ask, “who is this Jesus?”, we’ll hear about a Jesus fashioned after our individual or group preferences, values, beliefs, and politics. See the cycle? We begin by following someone greater than ourselves and end up stuck with ourselves.

Sam Keen takes the contradiction or paradox one step further:

“Without debating the question of the person of Jesus or getting our feet mired in ecclesiastical matters or denominational issues, we may liberate a single insight about manhood that continues to be as revolutionary as it was two millennia ago. A man finds fulfillment only when he turns aside from willfulness and surrenders to something beyond self.”

“The question Christianity, as well as every religious tradition, puts to men and women yesterday and today is: Do I find my fulfillment in asserting my will to power over myself and others, or in surrendering to myself and others in a spirit of empathy and compassion? And if I can only be myself by surrendering, to what, to whom do I surrender?”