Review: God, Freedom and Human Dignity: Embracing a God-Centered Identity in a Me-Centered Culture

October 21, 2013October 21, 2013 / rtrube54 / Leave a comment

God, Freedom and Human Dignity: Embracing a God-Centered Identity in a Me-Centered Culture by Ron Highfield
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book makes an important contention regarding the questions of human freedom and dignity: our efforts to source our dignity and freedom within ourselves, far from enhancing our dignity and freedom, will invariably undercut our identity. Likewise, far from diminishing our dignity, to love and trust the Triune, self-giving God leads to the fullest expression of our humanness, imaging God in the very ways this occurred in the incarnation of the son, whose deity is in no ways diminished by his humanity, nor his humanity in any sense diminished by his deity.

As you can tell from this summary, there is much careful thought and argument to be found in this book. The first part of the book explores the “me-centered” self and how this arose in western thought. In relation to God, this self alternates between Promethean defiance, sullen subservience, or indifference. God is a rival in a zero-sum game whose omnipotence is to be feared and competed with, and whose omnipresence creates in one a source of dread. Yet the challenge of such a self is emptiness and aloneness–any being is in fact a threat to its supremacy.

Much of the second half of the book dispels misconceptions about God that lays the groundwork for a God-centered self. For example, Highfield notes that God doesn’t have power but IS power and thus to grant us power doesn’t diminish God but only enhances us. Perhaps the high point for me was the discussion of the self-giving love of the triune God for each other and the fact that we are loved as greatly in Christ as Christ is himself by the Father.

This is a rich book worthy of being read slowly and reflected upon. I’ve chosen to simply outline some of the main contours of the writer’s argument because to fully do it justice would require a much longer or review. Instead, I would simply commend reading the book itself!

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Know Thyself?

October 19, 2013October 19, 2013 / rtrube54 / 3 Comments

Sometimes I think that of all the things we try to understand in the world, the understanding of ourselves may be as challenging as anything. Why did I respond in that way to him? Why do I find it so hard to get motivated to work on that assignment? What do I want to be when I grow up? As I approach the end of my sixth decade, I’ve come to conclude that, at least in this life, I’ll never be done with asking these questions.

I’ve been reading Ron Highfield’s God, Freedom and Human Dignity: Embracing a God-Centered Identity in a Me-Centered Culture. In the section I read today, Highfield talked about three levels of knowing. The first is the sensual level, where we learn about ourselves by our responses to sensory experiences–for example, I really like Buckeye Blitz ice cream. What we learn about our likes and dislikes and how we respond to various things can show us quite a bit but he argues can also become boring. The second level he proposes is the interpersonal. We learn quite a bit about ourselves as we relate to other human beings, who help us clarify things about our own identities in relationship to what we see of them. Yet the challenge here is that every person is finite and different from us. He contends for a third level of knowing, which is knowing ourselves in relationship to God.

The contention of this book is that the being of God does not threaten or diminish our sense of our dignity and identity. Many fear that the idea of God’s power or presence diminishes our sense of self-hood. All this, Highfield argues, is based in a “competitive” view of God–kind of like a zero sum game where everything granted to God is a loss to us. Instead, Highfield proposes an eternally self-giving God who gives us existence not because of his need for us but his love for us, to exalt us with him. And, when it comes to self-knowledge, we most deeply find ourselves in the one who is our source, who knows us more deeply than ourselves, who loves us, and who has drawn us to himself in Christ.

This reminds me of the opening to Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion where he writes:

“Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”

Calvin thought these two inextricably bound together, and it seems this author is proposing something similar. One of the things I’m wondering, and it is a serious question, is what an atheist account of self-understanding would look like–would it consist only of Highfield’s first two levels, or is there something else that would be added?

Current Reads

October 13, 2013 / rtrube54 / Leave a comment

For a time, the GoodReads widget on my blog kept you informed of what was on my “currently reading” shelf. For the past week or so that has not been working and none of the bulletin boards I’ve consulted have shown me how to fix this.

So I thought I might give you a quick update of what I’m reading that you can look forward (or not!) to seeing me review in the not-too-distant future. I actually have a number of books going at present because of groups I’m in and other projects as well as what I’m reading just for the interest of it. I will include Amazon links so you can see more info about each of these books.

1. John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University. This is a collection of a lecture series and other occasional talks in which Newman lays out his vision for a Catholic university and university education in general. Dense reading with at least one interesting idea in each lecture so far–and some things with which I’d take great exception, particularly what I think is an elitist view of the university. Our Dead Theologians group stopped reading after the first set of lectures–I hope to get around to re-reading the second set (last time over 20 years ago) sometime soon.

2. Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow. I’m reading this on my Kindle and nearly through it. Alexander is an Ohio State law professor who makes the case that The War on Drugs, policing patterns, sentencing guidelines, and post-incarceration stigmas contribute to creating a permanent underclass of blacks and Latinos. A challenging book.

3. James Wilhoit and Evan Howard, Discovering Lectio Divina. This is a good introductio with much practical help into this ancient practice of reflectively reading scripture.

4. James Bryan Smith, The Good and Beautiful God. Smith contends that many of us have distorted images of God that distort our relationship with God, ourselves, others, and the world. Through chapters exploring the character of God and “soul-training” exercises, he helps us see the source of goodness, truth, and beauty.

5. Hugo Young, This Blessed Plot. Just started in on this one so will be with it for awhile. Young explores the post World War II history of Great Britain and its policy toward Europe through the lives of those who helped shape that from the time of Churchill to Tony Blair.

6. Ron Highfield, God, Freedom, and Human Dignity. This is a distillation of the work of Alasdair MacIntyre and Charles Taylor looking at how we derive our sense of identity–do we source this in ourselves feeling our freedom and dignity threatened by God, or do we source this in God, understanding that we find our freedom and dignity through Him?

7. C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory. Our Dead Theologians group decide to pick this up as easier reading than Newman. One of the essays I’ve most appreciated in this collection is “Learning in Wartime” in which Lewis answers the question of why should one devote oneself to higher learning when their are so many other “great matters” at hand–a perennial question faced by the graduate students I work with.

So those are the books scattered about my house that I am currently reading. I look forward to sharing reviews of many of them in the near future. So, what are you reading that you think I might be interested in?