Over at Crossway, Brian Rosner has a great article on our world’s current preoccupation with the “be true to yourself” mantra. He provides several contemporary examples that showcase how prevalent and pervasive this sort of outlook on life is. Of course, it’s not hard to see this expressive individualism all around us. You come into contact with it everyday. In fact, you may have said it yourself.
In the article, Rosner provides a helpful definition of the worldview that backs this sort of advice. He then offers the beginnings of a critique of its foundational principles. He’s also written a book (that I haven’t yet read) that seems promising if it’s anything like this article.
What is expressive individualism anyway?
Rosner says that there are seven central tenets of expressive individualism:
The best way to find yourself is to look inward.
The highest goal in life is happiness.
All moral judgements are merely expressions of feeling or personal preference.
Forms of external authority are to be rejected.
The world will improve dramatically as the scope of individual freedom grows.
Everyone’s quest for self-expression should be celebrated.
Certain aspects of a person’s identity—such as their gender, ethnicity, or sexuality—are of paramount importance.
I’m considering doing a series of blogs that examine each of these tenets in light of Scripture so be on the look out for that. But for now, I want to focus on 3 questions that Rosner posits at the end of his article and provide a pointer to how the hopelessness that people feel in our world today is precisely a result of their pursuit of expressive individualism.
Does expressive individualism actually work?
Here are three questions to think on (which I have rephrased from the article):
Is “be true to yourself” really workable? Does it hold up under the pressures of life? Does it really match reality in a way that it can bear the weight of the ups and downs of daily decisions?
Is “be true to yourself” truly helpful? Does it produce positive and helpul results? Does it provide good results for the person living it out? Does it actually make the world a “better place”?
Is “be true to yourself” practically sensible? Is it really the most natural way to live or merely a modern and peculiar “innovation”? Is it common sense or merely masquerading as such?
I’m sure you can guess at my answers to those questions but merely asking them has the benefit of stirring critical engagement with advice that we hear so often that it takes on the status of a self-evident truth. But perhaps it’s neither self-evident nor truth. Rosner himself encourages us to rethink the mantra. He says, “The consequences for individuals and society of implementing an idea as foundational as the way we form our identities will take decades to uncover and assess. We’ve been on this path for at least twenty years now. In my view, it’s time to step back and conduct an audit.” Indeed, an audit of epic proportions and one that is over due.
When the cure is the problem
The unfortunate reality is that the cure of our ills is ultimately its cause. Expressive individualism is the cause of our hopelessness not the solution to it. If indeed the highest goal in life is happiness (as this worldview asserts) then “be true to yourself” becomes self-defeating. It does not grant what it promises because it cannot grant what it promises. According to the Apostle Paul, hopelessness is a product of godlessness. Ephesians 2:11-12 tells us that before we come to know Christ in faith we have “no hope and without God in the world.” Again, apart from God there can be no hope and no happiness. You cannot have those things if you are cut off from their Source. If you start with the wrong foundation you can only get the wrong results. This is a basic truth that the world is unwilling to believe. The answer to the world’s hopelessness has nothing to do with the expression of our “true selves” but everything to do with us finding God by faith in Christ.
The good news is that Christ is the actual cure for what what ills us. He solves the problem that expressive individualism seeks to solve but ultimately causes. How? Listen to this:
“But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace…” (Ephesians 2:13–14a, NASB 95)
And again:
“And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:17–22, NASB 95)
I spoke about all of this recently at Lakewood Baptist Church. Listen to more at the video below.
You can also find the entirety of this sermon by clicking HERE or watching below.
