A Moral vs Therapeutic World
Relativism marks our day, with its rejection of absolute truth. Francis Schaeffer in Escape from Reason, traced the trajectory of Western thought, specifically as man turned inward in two distinct ways. First, man turned away from God and to himself by declaring human reason, or rationality, as the foundation of knowledge. This was the dogma of the Enlightenment—that human reason was the universal standard of truth. Not surprisingly, human reason could not support such a weight because humans cannot agree on what is actually reasonable and rational.
Enlightenment thinking led to a second inward turn. If human reason determines truth but humans cannot agree on what is reasonable then it follows that each person constructs his own understanding of reality. We can thank Immanuel Kant for this reasoning, and thus truth became subjective. Truth is now relativistic as it is determined by the individual. This second turn inward ends up denying universal truth and replacing it with each person’s interpretation of the truth. Truth is constructed by groups or individuals as they interact with the world. Consequently, the self became the absolute standard. By making the individual the arbiter of truth, modern man has the power to redefine all of reality. As God is replaced with man, people began to view life through the lens of an extreme relativism. You can have your truth and I can have my truth, even if they’re contradictory.
Without a proper foundation for truth, morality is reduced to personal preference. As society works out the logic for such erroneous thinking we’ve arrived at a spot where right and wrong are primarily judged by what makes us “feel good.” Or, as David Wells observes, we no longer live in a moral world, but in a therapeutic one. Therapy, that is feeling better about one’s self, is the goal. What is good and right, is whatever makes someone feel good. Conversely, to offend or hurt someone’s feelings is the cardinal sin. The problem is, the more we search for feeling good the less good we tend to feel.
The tyranny of the therapeutic hovers over the problems both in culture and in the church. Tone and affirmation are the standard of right and wrong instead of content and accuracy. We are often more upset if a Christian says the right thing in the “wrong way” than if a false teacher uses his forked silver tongue to spit out heresy. In this way, many within the church appear to fear the idol of the day more than the God of the universe. Jesus himself said, “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me” (Matt. 11:6).
The Therapeutic Religion in Culture
In society, the tyranny of the therapeutic rules with an iron fist. Many claim it is harmful to not affirm the delusions of transgendersim. It is detrimental to tell LGBTQ individuals their behavior is wrong. Why? Because such words hurt their feelings and attack their constructed view of reality. To point to the immutable truths of reality is no excuse because reality bends to the dictates of the therapeutic. To question this is sacrilegious as it is an affront to the highest laws of the therapeutic religion.
Christianity must oppose such thinking. We believe the Creator God is there and that he has spoken. We believe there is a universal moral code that everyone, no matter their feelings, must keep. Christianity puts forward a moral view of the world because it has a universal standard for both truth and morality—God himself. This puts Christianity on a collision course with our modern, therapeutic world. The therapeutic religion asserts that our feelings determine what is true while Christianity asserts that the truth must determine our feelings.
The Therapeutic Religion's Influence on the Church
Yet, the lies of the therapeutic religion run deep and impact the church in a myriad of ways. If we hope to speak prophetically to our day, then we must get our own house in order first. The therapeutic view of life is impacting the church in at least five ways.
Many Christians care more about personal experience than truth and substance. Churches aim at bringing people in, not by the faithfulness of their teaching, but by offering light shows, entertainment, and a non-threatening experience. Moreover, it is no coincidence that movements within the church that stoke emotionalism and experientialism are growing in popularity. In a lot of ways, such movements are just mirrors of our modern therapeutic desires. The foundation of Christianity is not experience, but truth. While we must have a personal encounter with God, such an encounter must include the truth of who he is. Without such truth, there is no way to experience the God who is there. Humans can manufacture lots of experiences that will draw crowds, but these are mere trifles in comparison to the power of God. To counteract the experientialism of our day, Christians need to stress substance over feelings, by focusing on God and not ourselves.
As we rely on experience over truth, many Christians fall into the trap of seeing feelings as the source of truth. With no truth, morality goes out of the window and is replaced with subjectivism. Is it any wonder so many Christian leaders and churches are embracing new doctrines concerning sexual morality? Such Christians follow the example of the world by determining morality according to subjective feelings and cultural trends, instead of the immutable character of God.
In a therapeutic world, as feelings become ultimate and truth takes a backseat, the church starts minimizing doctrines that offend. This is natural as feelings trump truth in a therapeutic world. Some Christian leaders now argue for things like pronoun hospitality, using someone’s preferred pronoun even when it’s not true, precisely because they value feelings over truth. In a moral world, truth is always more important than feelings. This doesn’t give us the right to be jerks, but Christians must know that truth liberates. Truth frees those enslaved by their subjective feelings and experiences. Feelings cannot determine truth, but the truth should inform how and what we feel.
Similarly, in the therapeutic worldview, our primary problems in life are external. If life is about me feeling good, then things like society, institutions, and even biology are the culprits that cause my bad feelings. The solution is that the world must conform to my feelings. But again, in a moral world, our primary problem is internal. We are sinners, and this sin is our responsibility as individuals. We stand before God naked, ashamed, and guilty. In a moral world, we need a moral solution. In a moral world, we need a savior. Thus Christ came to die for our sins. Therapeutic preaching treats God as a way to cope with life, to feel better, to improve our self-perception, and to overcome our victimhood. As these two different worldviews identify different core problems, they inevitably preach different gospels.
In a therapeutic world, we lose the ability to disagree with others and still love one another. We now view disagreement as a personal attack. When we make truth personally constructed, then disagreement becomes an attack on a person’s identity. In such a world, there is no way to overcome our differences. This, of course, silences all debate and any mutual pursuit of truth. Conversely, in a moral world, reasoned debate is encouraged because the truth matters, not just for me, but also for my neighbor. So we approach each other as equals by seeking the truth together through reasoned debate and dialogue. In other words, truth is worth being uncomfortable over and if my beliefs do not align with reality, it is my beliefs that must change, not reality.
Conclusion
The Bible identifies this world as a moral one, and it addresses us as moral agents under the law of God. As such, all attempts to make life to be about therapy come from our failed attempts to deal with our real moral guilt. As guilty people, we intrinsically don’t feel so good. We know our guilt, and it haunts us. We want to be free of that guilt and therefore we seek to assuage these bad feelings through therapy. But our core problem remains we are guilty sinners before a holy God.
Instead of going to God through Christ, we try to massage away our bad feelings by turning inward. It does not work and never will. This is why, as we press into our feelings more and more, we often go away feeling worse and worse. The therapeutic religion leaves us both guilty and enslaved to our feelings. Moreover, it doesn’t even help us to feel any better. Feelings are an impotent god. The church must realize this tension point, for if we acquiesce to the therapeutic view of life, we will neuter the gospel and leave this world without any hope.
Levi SecordJanuary 4, 2024