Searching for God # 24

 In the last post in this space, reflections on how to resist the evil of retribution by force.

More about this demonic force that has invaded the North American culture and mind-set and seems to have the anima mundi by the throat.

In Greek mythology, the goddess of revenge and retribution was Nemesis. Before we dig a little deeper into the story of Nemesis and Narcissus, it might be helpful if we were to review how the Greeks considered, valued and reckoned with that fateful word, character.

In her renowned work from 1930, The Greek Way to Western Civilization, Edith Hamiliton writes:

To us a man’s character is that which is imprinted on him; it distinguishes each one from the rest. To the Greeks it was a man’s share in qualities all men partake of; it united each one to the rest. We are interested in people’s special characteristics, the things in this of that person which are different from the general. The Greeks, on the contrary, thought what was important in a man were precisely the qualities he shared with all mankind….The distinction if a vital one. Our way is to consider each separate thing alone by itself; the Greeks always saw things as part of a whole, and this habit of mind is stamped upon everything they did. It is the underlying cause of the difference between their art and ours. (Hamilton, op. cit., p.221)

And a little further on Ms Hamilton writes:

The characters in a Greek play are not like the characters in any other drama. The Greek tragedians’ way of drawing a human being belongs to them alone of all playwrights. They saw people simplified, because, just as in the case of their temples, they saw them as part of a whole. (p. 222)

This perspective is one that applies to a wholistic view of the universe, and the common traits shared by most ‘men’ (males dominated the writing and arts fields). without the implicit linking of the individual and those common traits to any political philosophy, as identifying factors. Individualism, from our perspective, is a highly politicized term, separating individualism from something considered in some quarters to be quite offensive, if not actually dangerous, socialism.

‘Historically, individualism gained prominence in the 19^th century, influenced by thinkers like John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The concept has evolved, encompassing diverse interpretations and connections to other philosophies like existentialism and classical liberalism. Ket figures like Alexis de Tocqueville have noted the dual nature of individualism, acknowledging its potential to both empower and alienate individuals within society. (Dwivedi, Amitabh Vikram, PhD, on ebscom.com, 2024)

From springer.com in a piece entitled, The Christian Roots of Individualism,  by Maureen P. Heath, An Overview, we read:

The modern West has made the focus on individuality, individual freedom,  and self-identity central to its self-definition, and these concepts have been crucially shaped by Christianity…. Applying a biological metaphor and Richard Dawkins’ definition of a meme, this work argues the advent of individualism was not a sudden innovation of the Renaissance or the Enlightenment, but a long evolution with characteristic traits….The central argument is that Christianity, with its characteristic inwardness, was fundamental in the development of a sense of self as it affirmed the importance of the everyday man and everyday life.

Separating individuals from nature, for example, was only one of the precepts that aided in this evolution. And then, we recall Gregory Baum’s notion of the privatizing of sin. From his Religion and Alienation, we read:

What people who stress the conversion to Jesus as their personal savior fail to see is that the evil in society has a twofold root, in the sinful hearts of men and in institutionalizes injustices, and that this evil can only be overcome by a movement that includes social change. The stress of Jesus as personal savior is always linked, therefore, to the defense of the political status quo. The individualistic religion of traditional evangelical and fundamentalist Christians legitimates the individualism of our economic system, and while they present their message as non-political, it has significant political consequences. (Baum, op. cit., p. 209)

Just on this page, we have noted the initial ‘common positive traits’ that were the focus of the Greeks, the evolution of the individual over time and the privatizing of sin based on the inherent evil of the individual, to the sustaining of the political status quo. Not only is such a development remarkable, when considered in such relief (artistically), such development points to another aspect of the human condition. The tension between the individual and the social is one that has been with us for centuries, and is unlikely to disappear any time soon.

In his work, The Kingdom of God is Within You, Leo Tolstoy, writes, from his perspective of the long view of society:

It is true that the organization of society remains in its principal features just as much an organization base on violence as it was one thousand years ago, and even in some respects, especially in the preparation for war and in war itself, it appears still more brutal. (Tolstoy, op. cit. p. 266)

And here is where the issue is joined. Note the violence of the society, as pointed to by Tolstoy, in which we all share, as compared with the privatizing of sin (Baum), from which we are all silently and implicitly cleared of accountability and responsibility of and for other individuals. We are also clearly not either accountable or responsible for the social evil of collective violence, as depicted by a privatizing of sin. And while a ‘critical theology’ as Baum notes, In critical theology it becomes imperative to deprivatize and despiritualize the notion of salvation….According to biblical teaching, Jesus is not the savior of souls. Jesus in announced as the savior of the world, as bringer of a new age and servant of God’s kingdom. When his message convicts people of sin and demands their conversion, this must be understood in terms of the inseparable dialectics of personal-and-social. (Baum op. cit. p. 209)

Interestingly, we gain insight into the enmeshment of what Tolstoy calls Christian humanity, a society that calls itself Christian, but is still evolving toward its fulfilment.

The position of Christian humanity with its prisons galleys gibbets, its factories and accumulation of capital, its taxes, churches, gin-palaces, licensed brothels, its even-increasing armament and its millions of brutalized men, ready like chained dogs, to attack anyone against whom their master incites them would be terrible indeed it is were the product of violence, but it is pre-eminently the product of public opinion. And what has been established by public opinion can be destroyed by public opinion-and, indeed, is being destroyed by public opinion.

For Tolstoy it is the abuse of power, in all of its various iterations, by all of the individuals and agencies, armies, and governments, including courts and the servants of those people and institutions that are dependent on the need for control. That need demands the elimination of dissent, enemies, and all risks to their power (including personal careers, institutional edifices, bureaucracies, military platoons, and the whole military establishment). It also demands the means by which those powers are sustained in power such as taxes, and rules and regulations imposed for the purpose of continuing to hold onto that power, and certainly not in the interest of the people those people and institutions are designed to serve.

Not is it time to insert a trumpet call of warning to those thousands of Gen Z young men who have been thronging en masse to various bodies of water for mass baptisms, in what is being dubbed a ‘come to Jesus moment’.

From cbsnews.com, September 30, 2025, in a piece by Lisa Ling, Analisa Novak, Shannon Luibrand, entitled,  ‘U.S. sees surge in baptisms as more Gen Z men embrace faith after pandemic: ‘They’re coming in by the thousands’…

On a warm Sunday afternoon, thousands of people converged on a private cove in Southern California for a spiritual rebirth, part of what organizers call the world’s largest synchronized water baptism. The event, Baptize America, drew participation from more than 650 churches nationwide, with around 30,000 people baptized. The gathering represents a broader trend: A worldwide surge in adults becoming baptized into the Christian faith, particularly among an unlikely demographic: Gen Z men.

As a headline, for many, this story may bring about chants of “Hallelujah!” that finally these thousands are ‘seeing the light’ and being converted to a salvation in Jesus. And, as time moves on, it will be important to follow these men into their personal and social circles in order to document the embodiment of their commitment to resisting evil by force, no matter where they encounter that evil.

Mascara religion, (that term will infuriate many) has been a characteristic of triumphal evangelicalism for decades if not centuries….and as Tolstoy reminds us, the abuse of power for the sake of keeping those in power, essentially maintaining the establishment’s status quo continues.

However, rather than a mass ‘baptism,’ Tolstoy, suggests a different social change image:

The social change from a public opinion that holds tight to the essential need for violence, to what Tolstoy points to in the Sermon on the Mount, will take a different path that that of a Cecil B. DeMille Hollywood epic:

Only let the mist, which veils from men’s eyes the true meaning of certain acts of violence, pass away, and the Christian public opinion which is springing up would overpower the extinct public opinion which permitted and justified acts of violence. People need only come to be as much ashamed to do deeds of violence, to assist in them or to profit from them, as they now are of being, or being reputed a swindler, a thief, a coward, or a beggar. And already this change is beginning to take place. We do not notice it just as we do not notice the movement of the earth, because we are moved together with everything around us. (Tolstoy, TKOGIWY, pps.265-266)

Written in 1894, Tolstoy’s long view of history, and the evolution from a social state of mind, dependent on violence to protect and preserve those in power, to what he calls a Christian mind-set, where instead, resistance to evil by force becomes the norm, offers a perspective of gradual and steady, and thereby dependable and reliable and sustainable change.

Is the earth really moving?