Ch
III Sect II (part B)
Many
people who object to emotion in religion have simply confused the
issue. They are thinking in terms of some sort of empty hysteria. I
am talking about something totally different. Hysteria can of course
be whipped up in a crowd. In an individual “emotion” can be just
a sham – like the man who puts on a big show of how much he loves a
woman but then treats her badly. True emotion must be judged by two
things: what it is based on, and the actions it produces.
Basis
: Is the person stirred to their religious emotion by a deep
knowledge of the great truths about God, or is it something whipped
up out of vague and ignorant ideas?
Actions:
What does their religious emotion produce? Are they joyfully devoting
themselves to prayer and praise, contemplation and study or are they
content to neglect these religious activities? Do we see them
struggling to increase their self control, and continually improving
their behaviour and way of life in accordance with the scriptures?
Does their religious emotion have the effect that they diligently
fulfil their duty to their families, their employer and their
community? Anything that does not produce these is fake.
This
- the evidence of its fruit - is the only real test of true
religious emotion. As Jesus said of love: “If
anyone loves me they will obey my teaching”
Now
back to the objector who points out that religious emotion can go up
and down over time, and also be shown more by some people than
others. That is all true – but it is no ground for an objection to
religious emotion per sec.
Look
at it this way: giving money to charity is a good thing, right? We
would laugh at an objector who said: “No, you can't say that! Some
people can afford to give heaps, others can only afford to give a
little, so until you can specify how much each should give you can't
say giving to charity is a good thing” Similarly we should laugh
at an objector who says that because people feel religious emotion
more or less strongly at different times, and some people more
strongly than others we cannot say that religious emotion is a good
thing.
I
have another thing to say about the importance of religious emotion:
we need it! The Christian life calls for total commitment and
vigorous and continual resolution, self denial and activity. But we
are surrounded by distractions, and the temptations and false glamour
of this world. If we give in to the objector and throw out our
religious emotions as “against Reason” we are fighting these with
one hand tied behind our back.
Take
an example. Suppose you are a parent and your child has convinced
their school to let them represent it in a big competition by
boasting that they can win it. Suppose you know that if they work
really hard they have the potential to win, but you also know they
are not good at knuckling down and doing the hard yards. How would
you encourage them – remember it means praise, honour and all the
rest if they win: humiliations galore if they fail. Wouldn't you try
to get them really fired up to do their best. That's right you would
engage their emotions, not just rely on a cold intellectual appeal.
Well if that works in ordinary things why deny it in religious
pursuit? As Jesus said “The people of this
world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the
people of the light”
So
it is completely reasonable that when God has given us emotions to
help us we should use that help. It is now a simple task to show that
Jesus is the proper object of these emotions.
The
emotions we are talking about are these: Love, gratitude, joy, hope,
trust.
If
these had no objective basis they would be sham, but each one does
have a solid and reason-based foundation in Jesus our Saviour.
Love:
We love him because he first loved us
Gratitude:
that for us and for our salvation he “who
being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God
something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very
nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in
appearance as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death,
even death on a cross...”
Joy:
that “to us is born a saviour...” by
whom God “has rescued us from the dominion of
darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom
we have received redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
Hope:
What can compare to “Christ in you, the hope
of glory”
Trust:
Can there be a trust to be preferred to the reliance on “Jesus
Christ who is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
…............................
Sorry,
no posts for the next two weeks …
I
will be away on holidays
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