This reading was a tough one for me to understand completely so hopefully I got the right idea. Webster defines subjectivism as "a theory that limits knowledge to subjective experience". To me this means that when we argue with one another we justify differences of opinion by saying, "well, you're a Christian (or fill in the blank) so that's why you think that". We are all born and raised in traditions or beliefs and that's why subjectivism works. It's not a good thing do to, but it works. I really liked one of the things Lewis mentioned; "Real moral advances, in fine, are made from within the existing moral tradition and in the spirit of that tradition and can be understood only in the light of that tradition. The outsider who has rejected the tradition cannot judge them". Those of us who don't know or understand the sacrificial killings in sub-Saharan Africa have no right to judge those people. Some of them may have been raised in the culture and know of nothing else. Now that is an extreme example but this also applies on a smaller scale. Luke 6:42 is a good reminder of how we should act: "How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye". Now, Luke is clearly not talking about sawdust here... He's talking about judging others and their faults without even seeing your own. All of us have sinned and fallen short (Rom 3:23). Not one of us is less of a sinner than the other. This being said, we are called to treat everyone with great respect and love. Only after doing so can subjectivism cease to kill.
Another quote I liked was, "If water stands too long it stinks". This may seem like a strange quote to appreciate but I think of it as a challenge to Christians. When we become stagnant in our walk with God we can begin to smell too. It's important that we don't become content with where we are with Him. It difficult to be continually moving forward as a God follower but no one ever said being a Christian was easy.
I agree with not judging other people's traditions and interpretations of the moral law. What is completely wrong for us is completely right for another culture. As you said, Jesus commanded us specifically to not judge others' problems before addressing our own, and I think as Americans and Christians we tend to have that problem too often.
ReplyDeleteI'm not entirely sure that I agree with your analysis of subjectivism. It seems to me that justifying sacrificial murder on the basis of cultural conditioning is, in itself, an example of subjectivism. Lewis' point in the essay is that judgments of right and wrong should be objective; and while our interpretations are necessarily conditioned by our cultural backgrounds, there are a finite number of interpretations of the same thing. For me, saying that sacrificial murder is acceptable on the basis of culture is equivalent to saying that the Holocaust is acceptable because of Nazi belief. The Moral Law condemns murder; therefore, although a specific culture may not view it as evil, God does view it as sin (culpable evil).
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