Now Everybody Hug and Pretend You Like Each Other

I have finally finished reading MacIntyre's After Virtue, and gosh darn it, I'm pretty proud of myself. I think I mentioned the book on the podcast and did not recommend it for the layperson, or even the unambitious undergraduate student. It is not an easy read. Actually, I am afraid that someone within those two categories will read it and find it very easy and I will feel stupid. So don't read it. It is too hard. It is beyond us all! Run in fear from the dreaded After Virtue.

For some information about MacIntyre's project, see my previous posts. There is to much going on for me to encapsulate in one snide blogpost, so I will pull out one aspect of the book that led me to think. As a community we need to be clear about our values, ideals, and identity.

Again, one of MacIntyre's major points of complaint is of individualism; the individual comes before the society. Thus there is not a sense of a common task or shared goals of a community, rather it is of individuals. "What is best for me?" comes before "What is best for the community?" This will lead to conflict within a community among individuals, or so claims MacIntyre. I tend to agree, because often what is best for me is that you not have that big piece of chocolate cake. Instead I should have it.

If only we had a sense of direction as a group of people, a community.

Might one suggest that the Church could have a sense of direction, a goal, a purpose? Maybe those writings in that Bible thingy and the ideas of that Jesus guy can give us a sense of direction and purpose. Maybe we can say, in light of our understanding of the Gospel as understood through Jesus Christ, what is best for our church community. Ah but it is not as easy as we would think for we in churches would have to actually talk to each other and come to some kind of agreement of our sense of identity and shared values in response to Christ. We would have to agree on things like baptism, mission, preaching, social witness, etc. Yes, we would have a sense of our identity as a community and might be better positioned to grapple with different issues. Yes, as a community we may have a sense of purpose, but what about my own personal, individual needs?