“Intellectually-speaking, memetic Christianity, with a dose of well-managed, private Nietzschean hedonism might well be the most sensible philosophical framework on which to build a lasting society, to preserve the dignity of the human person, and provide sufficient psychological solace for people’s ‘God-shaped hole.'”
My colleague Dave Benson, of The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, introduced Stephen McAlpine’s thoughts on memetic Christianity, with his quotations from the longer online article. Memetic Christianity is the condition of a person imitating Spirituality, particularly Christian Spirituality. The challenge is that the way the church insider thinks, as the person thinks it is the problem of cultural Christians outside of the Church, and not faithful members in the congregations. Read the quotations and hear the voice of the author and the sympathetic reader:
Memetic Christianity, in other words, succeeds in combatting the excesses of what it sees as “woke” ideology: the “cultural Marxism” that (in its proponents’ view) demands a complete dismantling of social institutions. (One would do well to remember, here, that the Biblical Jesus had little compunctions about the dismantling of conventional institutions — he was perfectly willing, for example, to overturn moneylenders’ tables in the Temple, despite it being an established social practice). But it does so by giving up the heart of its own doctrine: the emphasis on particularity, on a Jesus that is not abstract or hypothetical but rather a literal incarnation of God in physical space and historical time. What we are left with, rather, is not an antidote to the “religion of modernity” but rather the religion of modernity itself: the divinization of the self, and its ability to shape and reshape reality in the image of its own will. It is a worship of culture qua culture, of civilization qua civilization, of man as creator, as tool-maker, and memes the most powerful tool of all.
I do not know what I would do, or think, if I did not believe in the literal truth of Christianity. Intellectually-speaking, memetic Christianity, with a dose of well-managed, private Nietzschean hedonism might well be the most sensible philosophical framework on which to build a lasting society, to preserve the dignity of the human person, and provide sufficient psychological solace for people’s “God-shaped hole.” And there are times, when my own faith wavers, that the affirmation of faith — the decision to believe even when I struggle to believe; the belief that it is right and good to believe in this, sustains me in times of doubt. But to treat Christianity as merely a useful memetic force to resist modern decline is only to hasten it: to preach a gospel predicated on a Word synonymous not with divine creative reality but human fictive speculation. To turn the ten commandments into Twelve Simple Rules is to cede what Christianity has, and Remixed religion doesn’t: the chance that it might be actually true.
If it’s not, after all, then what’s the point? If we are to reduce Christianity to the status of noble lie or useful meme, if we are to decide that those of us clever or educated enough to see the tragic, nihilistic truth of human meaninglessness ought, thanks to something between the call for social cohesion and a no-longer-justifiable sense of vestigial moral urgency, to affirm something untrue, then why not take this logic to its ultimate conclusion? Human culture — human language, human story, human creativity — exists to be shaped by the memetically-powerful, and to shape the sheeple in turn. There are two kinds of people in the world: creative magicians, and those foolish enough to succumb to their superior’s ideas. Only the strong — not warriors, in this disembodied age of ours, but rather storytellers — can have, or claim, authority. It’s a consistent set of dogmas, to be sure. But it isn’t Christianity.
The analysis of Stephen McAlpine, and Dave’s concern to “preserve and reclaim society, with a renewed confidence that Christianity has something to offer a culture arguably in decline”, is not half wrong, which means that the other half is incorrect. It is the part that says, “I do not know what I would do, or think, if I did not believe in the literal truth of Christianity.” I cannot feel anything than sorrow for such a person who is so confused. It rejects not merely all non-Christian ideologies, but Christianity itself, in the most part. Such a scholar must of have missed the memo on literalism; it is not redeemable, and it goes to the core beliefs in cultural Christianity. That memo was written in the last mid-century, no, wait, in the early twentieth century, no, wait, the late nineteenth century, no, wait, the early nineteenth century, no wait, the eighteenth century, no, wait, the seventeenth century, no wait, the sixteenth century; oh, hell, it goes all the way back to the creation of time. This is what my Professor Ian Gillman taught me, 40 years, in the course of Christian Thought at The University of Queensland. Damn, those Professors and Universities, must be the devil’s literal playground.
Enough of the humour, let’s get serious. I have explained the critical-thinking answer to such literalism, in my doctorate of 1995, which is enjoying a comeback in the Age of Trumpism as an Exposé. So, from my doctorate are quotations on thinking about congregational thinking today:
From Preamble:
This thesis argues that there has been a cultural shift in Queensland Protestantism from a British Protestant culture to an American Protestant culture. This can be seen in popular theology in Queensland Protestant church life, communication media used by Queensland Protestant churches, the interchange between theological centres in Queensland and the United States, the impact of American influence in church youth programmes, evangelism, Christian education, and the Queensland political culture. This thesis raises questions about the cultural appropriateness of this Americanization of Protestant religion, and argues that there is little evidence to show American influence has consolidated the traditional Protestant churches as part of the institutional structure of civil society. Instead, it has created a number of shallow and short-lived enthusiasms, and a number of major new congregations, whose one attempt to influence civil society through the National Party, produced a style of government unacceptable to Queenslanders and perhaps subverted their rights.
From Chapter 1:
United States chaplain, Major J.J. Dixon, preached at St. John’s Cathedral in Brisbane for the occasion. It was reported that Dixon told the congregation that the American flag “stood for justice for the world”.[1]
[1]”Nations’ Day Observed Quietly Here”. Courier Mail. 15-6-1942. p. 3.
Yet it was not enough to prevent such influences from shaping the Southern Baptist Convention:
Among Baptists in the South, however, the message and spirit which Graves represented had an immense and pervasive influence. A century after the Landmark testimonies began to be widely propagated, both local practices and collective polices of the Southern Baptist Convention still exhibited signs of their influence: the closing of the Lord’s Supper to all but Baptist (often even to those of other Baptist congregations), and a general willingness not only to refuse fellowship with other denominations but to deny them the name of Christian.[1]
[1] Sydney E.Ahlstrom. A Religious History of the American People. New Haven. London. Yale University Press. 1972. p. 721.
From Chapter 2:
American fundamentalism appears in Queensland Protestantism through several different means. Firstly, by American fundamentalists directly establishing small Australian fundamentalist church groups through the missionary endeavour of American fundamentalist churches, such as Church of Christ (Non-Denominational) with 18 Queensland churches, Independent Baptist churches with approximately 25 Queensland churches (an unofficial magazine for many Independent Baptist Churches, The Biblical Fundamentalist, is published in Queensland), the Christian and Missionary Alliance with two Queensland churches, and Faith Evangelical Lutheran Parish with congregations in Brisbane and Maryborough.[1]
[1] Robert Humphreys and Rowland Ward. Religious Bodies in Australia. Melbourne. The Authors. 1988. pp. 33, 82-83, 88-89, 131.
From Chapter 3:
One non-American source has been Paul Yonggi Cho, senior pastor of the Full Gospel Church in Seoul, Korea. In spite of his Korean background, his American-published book, The Fourth Dimension, expressed the same type of belief in a faith which overcomes health and financial problems as that of Peale, Schuller, and Carothers.[1] Cho claimed he used this faith to build the largest single church congregation in the world.
[1]Paul Yonggi Cho. The Fourth Dimension. Plainfield, New Jersey. Logos International. 1979.
From Chapter 4:
Although most Queensland Protestant youth would move into the Christian rock scene, the American fundamentalist attitude towards rock music meant that the use of Christian rock music, especially in church services, would divide local congregations.
From Chapter 5:
Theological training expresses the intellectual life of the churches. In some denominations, the theological college exists as an intellectual haven surrounded by an anti-intellectual climate of congregational life.
The Uniting Church is a case in point. Uniting Church members have been hesitant to openly talk about the tensions between many local church congregations which affirm a popular theology, and the church bureaucracy and Trinity Theological College which has generally been involved with academic theology.[1]
[1]Lindley talked about going to Fuller because of the perceived theological inadequacy of Trinity Theological College. Interview with Bruce Lindley. Pasadena, California. 2-1-1992.
From Chapter 11:
An insight into Butler’s political approach came when she attacked the address of New Zealand Baptist Dr S.L. Edgar to the 1983 Queensland Baptist Union Assembly. Edgar’s message was a call for a balance between Freedom and Authority, Denomination and Ecumenicalism, Tradition and Change, The Priesthood of All Believers and Congregational Government, Ministry by All and Leadership by One, Evangelism and Justice, Local Church and the Baptist Union.[1] Butler saw this as “fence-sitting”, and stated:
Apparently the new virtue is not in standing up for what is right, but in not taking sides !
I can’t accept this as a virtue, for I believe that if a Christian does not have the intestinal fortitude to make a decision to be one side or the other, he is, in fact, siding with the majority, usually the unsavoury collective [sic] of homosexuals, abortionists, feminists, Communists, Humanists and others, gaining so much influence (through default of the Christians) in our schools and in our nation.[2]
[1]Dr. S.L. Edgar. “Ministry: Keeping the Balance”. Queensland Baptist. November 1983. p. 7. & December 1983. p. 7.
[2]Letter to the Editor. Jackie Butler. “Balance Upset”. Queensland Baptist. February 1984. p. 6.
From Chapter 12:
American fundamentalism has had a very important influence on the Baptist Union of Queensland; as evidenced in the Gill and Moore affairs, in which American fundamentalist beliefs about the Bible were given precedence over sound academic theology. Another influence of American fundamentalism is the Creation Science Foundation, strongly supported by the Baptist and Presbyterian churches. American Neo-Evangelicalism has had an even wider influence, especially through Billy Graham and the Fuller Theological Seminary which introduced Queensland Protestants to various patterns of Neo-Evangelical belief. The influence of American pentecostalism can be seen in the growth and diversification of Queensland Pentecostal churches. An older generation of churches within the Assemblies of God, International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, Apostolic Church, National Revival Crusade, Latter Rain churches, and the Full Gospel Church expanded. American neo-pentecostalism can be seen in the establishment of Garden City Christian Church and other newer Assemblies of God churches, Christian Outreach Centre, Christian Life Centre, He Lives ministry, and the Queensland Branch of the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International. Their combined congregational size is further extended as the influence of the American Charismatic movement is evident in church groups belonging to traditional denominations, such as the Uniting Church Renewal Ministries, and Gateway Baptist Church. The increasing power of these churches, which are driven by agendas within American popular theology, means that religious reflection on Australian life is diminished, and academic theological understanding is resisted.
The evidence is clear that literalism is cultural Christianity and literalism does not work for Christian spirituality.
Featured Image: Guy Sleeping on the Church Bench While in the Church Service. ID 118139442 | Church © Phakorn Kasikij | Dreamstime.com; and Rome, Italy – October 31, 2024: Homeless Jesus the bronze sculpture by Timothy Schmalz depicting Jesus as a homeless person, sleeping on a park bench installed in Rome in the Trastevere district. ID 345998791 | Sleep Church © Bumbleedee | Dreamstime.com
Neville Buch
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