The Church of England’s Nietzschean Proposal

First Things ^ | 7/17/17 | Carl R. Trueman

[marshmallow]

In a world of change and flux, it is reassuring to know that some things remain the same. Take, for example, the motion passed by the Church of England General Synod, calling for a liturgy to help transgender people celebrate their transitions. This motion is consistent with liberal Protestantism’s age-old calling, that of baptizing the moral norms du jour of the respectable chattering classes, presumably in hopes of enhancing the appeal of religion to its cultured despisers. Transgenderism was bound for liturgical acceptance.

By now, experience should have taught even the moderately self-aware that, where religion is concerned, cultural relevance is a cruel mistress, always promising the Church a place at her table but never quite delivering. Alas, self-awareness has never been the strong suit of those liberal Protestants who have perfected the art of always being belatedly in support of whatever nonsense the sexual revolution is now declaring a self-evident truth that only a hate-filled bigot would deny. And so we have this liturgical proposal which, as with all liturgies, tells us a lot about the General Synod’s understanding of its church’s purpose. It points toward a view of the Church as offering a religious idiom for the therapeutic concerns of modern Western society. So far, so conventional.

But the proposal is actually far more sinister than the usual capitulation to the latest sexual hobby-horse. What is missing in this doubtless well-intentioned move is any reflection upon the deeper philosophical implications of transgenderism. To treat it as yet one more legitimate human choice, which can be included in the pantheon of human freedoms, is to miss the real issue. Transgenderism challenges traditional notions of human personhood at the deepest level. For that reason, it is perhaps appropriate to recognize transgenderism in a liturgy: A liturgy reveals a church’s deepest......

[Jan_Sobieski]

In a world of change and flux, it is reassuring to know that some things remain the same. Take, for example, the motion passed by the Church of England General Synod, calling for a liturgy to help transgender people celebrate their transitions. This motion is consistent with liberal Protestantism’s age-old calling, that of baptizing the moral norms du jour of the respectable chattering classes, presumably in hopes of enhancing the appeal of religion to its cultured despisers.

Classic!

[Lee N. Field]

Carl Trueman is always worth reading. And listening to.

[Jeff Chandler]

The Church of England General Synod are behaving like Jesuits.

[Jumper]

It is Jesus’s fault, or at least those who have ascended to hold his position on earth. Had people just remained faithful to, simply, God would you find wiggle room? No one ever, ever asks the question, “What would God do” for it is clear; however, “asking what would Jesus do gets you a new religion if it can still be called that.

[Wuli]

“celebrating” what neither G-d nor nature produced but instead what is a result an obsession arising within a mental problem of identity dysphoria.

Empathy yes, sympathy yes, celebration, no.

[beckett]

Like so many others, Prof. Trueman appears to have a very shaky understanding of Nietzsche. He invokes Nietzsche’s name but offers no citations of Nietzsche’s work to back up the argument. Nietzsche was an atheist, and a perspectivist (small “r” relativist, but not at all in the postmodern sense), and he did coin the term ubermensch. But none of those things should be taken to suggest that, if he were alive, he would endorse transgenderism, or the silliness of the Church of England.

The ubermensch should be understood as an exercise in self-overcoming, not, as in the Nazi distortion, as a will to political power. Nietzsche despised large organizations, and he deeply distrusted the state.