{"id":335,"date":"2005-05-17T09:16:00","date_gmt":"2005-05-17T14:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2005\/05\/17\/protestants-individualism-and-emergent-concerns-with-the-great-traditions\/"},"modified":"2005-05-17T09:16:00","modified_gmt":"2005-05-17T14:16:00","slug":"protestants-individualism-and-emergent-concerns-with-the-great-traditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2005\/05\/17\/protestants-individualism-and-emergent-concerns-with-the-great-traditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Protestants, Individualism, and Emergent concerns with the Great Traditions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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Robert Bellah is not the only social historian who has observed that Protestantism and individualism are related \u2014 and some have contended that the former gave rise to the latter, making America a \u201cProtestant nation.\u201d Andrew Delbanco\u2019s The Real American Dream<\/span> would be one such example.<\/p>\n

Perhaps so \u2014 maybe individualism is a Protestant thing. After all, what Protestants value the most is that Martin Luther withstood the pressures of Roman leadership by standing for (what he thought was) biblical theology. It is that \u201cwhat he thought\u201d that fosters a sense of individualism. Luther had to stand alone, with just a few friends. Standing alone, standing for one\u2019s principles, fighting for one\u2019s faith, however one wants to put it, is what individualism is about. And we do such things according to \u201cwhat we think\u201d is best.<\/p>\n

Now it just so happens that Individualism doesn\u2019t satisfy. The further the retreat into the individualistic self the less of a self that is found. The only way to live out the life God wants for us is to do so in the context of community.<\/p>\n

If the above analysis is at all right, the Emergent interest in the Great Traditions is a public statement that Individualism stops right here. That is, it is an embodied act of a group of post-Evangelicals who want to be \u201cconnected\u201d with the \u201ccommunion of the saints\u201d and not pretend that the Church didn\u2019t begin until the Reformation (or later, if some are to be believed). The community for many Emergents is the \u201ccommunion of the saints\u201d rather than just some small Protestant denomination.<\/p>\n

The embodiment of the great traditions, which is what Robert Webber so clearly wrote about in his The Younger Evangelicals<\/span> and his many other writings, is a public statement that post-Evangelicals want to be part of the entire communion of the saints.<\/p>\n

I support the effort, but wish to point out one major issue.<\/p>\n

It is this: particular embodiments, from reciting the Nicene Creed to hanging icons, are not the same as connecting to the Great Traditions. It is a rather pick and choose mentality that needs some further thinking. There are three Great Traditions \u2014 the Eastern Orthodox, the Roman Catholic, and the Protestant. One can\u2019t really \u201cconnect\u201d with the Orthodox by hanging up an icon or with the Roman Catholic by reverencing Mary or with the Protestant by putting the pulpit in the middle of the room.<\/p>\n

The particularities of life mean that in choosing one we don\u2019t choose the other. One of the great features of the Protestant Church is that individual churches can take on local colors and shapes. When we accrete some of these other Great Traditions, we do as Protestants who happen to think that the Church is bigger than us and we want to express our faith in the \u201ccommunion of the saints.\u201d But we remain Protestants.<\/p>\n

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Robert Bellah is not the only social historian who has observed that Protestantism and individualism are related \u2014 and some have contended that the former gave rise to the latter, making America a \u201cProtestant nation.\u201d Andrew Delbanco\u2019s The Real American Dream would be one such example. Perhaps so \u2014 maybe individualism is a Protestant thing. 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