Blog 3.0
This is my third attempt at a post-worthy blog. To say I feel demoralized is an understatement. My personal anxiety over the weekly blogs is nearly crippling, and this week’s experience expanded the boundaries of suffering. Attempt number one was based on the video “Introduction to the Idea of God” which I watched as an orientation to Jordan B. Peterson.[1] From that content, alongside some attempts at AI summaries of Maps of Meaning, I searched the index for theology, dug into a big section on Narrative, wrote 1,000 words on the Enuma Elis and Genesis, and tried to find YHWH in the Enuma. The seed of the idea was good, but it only gestated and was ultimately stillborn.
Number two was an outline of the narratives I tell myself as I increasingly struggle to post. Narrative “A” makes meaning via the mental map of the past, which says I am not good enough or smart enough and should not be here. I am the undisciplined hero who has not learned to properly organize herself; now it is too late. Using that map necessarily entails carrying a great deal of shame and is extremely painful. In a healthier attempt to regulate my emotions, I switch to the slightly more supportive Narrative “B.”[2] In this narrative, I blame the circumstances beyond my control that crowd my mental stage. I detest that story because one of my deepest values is responsibility and “doing what I say I will do.” So, here I am with Blog 3.0, mapping a portion of Peterson’s work to an aspect of my work to help illuminate more effective evangelistic preaching.
Throughout Maps of Meaning, Peterson repeatedly returns to the ways that humans make sense between chaos and order. Described in terms of myth, there are three primary domains: the unknown, the known, and the eternal knower, which can be a “who” or the process that mediates between these two domains.[3] I am projecting this meta-myth onto a micro-story. (Now, if I were Peterson, I would go on a few pages describing how this micro-story is really a macro-story because it plays out across time and culture and in countless institutional settings. As a micro-story story that accurately depicts the reality of human experience, it is true and, therefore, a perfectly valid representative of the meta-myth.)
The Story
A frightened but desperate soul walks into a church. This man is experiencing chaos resulting from his own actions and the actions of others, which have affected him deeply. Attempting to bring order to his life, he takes the desperate action of entering unexplored territory. What for him is “unexplored” territory is the “home” territory of all the other people present. They are familiar with the rituals; they know the language, they know how to act. Many, possibly most, of the people have been so deeply enculturated they no longer fully comprehend why they do what they do.[4] The man has unwittingly placed himself in the position of eternal knower, trying to mediate the chaos of his life by going on a quest into the unknown. How will the story end?
Do the assembled people remember the Eternal Knower they have come to worship? Do they recognize his face in the hurting man who has gathered his last vestige of courage, hoping to find hope? Do they identify as eternal knowers whose lives now make sense because of the One who went before? Has their culture sufficiently matured in response to the One so that they imitate his ways and enfold the stranger?
Alternately, is their gathering a mere cultural representation of the Eternal Knower, all form, no heart? Established cultures tend toward the stable and receive strangers who don’t know the norms as unpredictable and threatening. Does the stranger threaten this church to such a degree that their anxiety causes them to close ranks and turn backs in self-protection?[5] Even though he cannot articulate it, the desperate man knows all these dynamics. His everyday life also has its own culture with norms and an in-group. “Every society provides protection from the unknown.”[6]
I believe that every version of the meta-myth, whether micro story or macro story, contains the same three domains of known, unknown, and eternal knower because they all represent the ultimate narrative that culminates with “the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:13) As a preacher it is easy to tell the story in a way that comforts and enfolds and creates in-group by the way I use language. Choosing words and phrases that have meaning only when attached to the collective experience of the normally gathered group appeals to them alone. They may be particularly soothed by words with shadowy meanings that are no longer fully understood.
Another option is to purposefully challenge the hearers to remain in the tension between chaos and order. This happens when the words of scripture are brought to life in connection with their actual lives. It is also helpful when they are frequently reconnected to their own early attempts at interacting with the unknown and adapting it to themselves. By staying uncomfortable, Jesus’ followers remain nimble enough to adapt to the stranger among them repeatedly.
If this blog’s only value is a fresh connection with what it feels like to be lost and desperate to be found, I am satisfied.
[1] Jordan Peterson, “Introduction to the Idea of God,” Biblical Series, YouTube video, May 20, 2017, Jordan B. Peterson, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-wWBGo6a2w.
[2] Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief (Routledge: New York and London, 1999), 21.
[3] Maps of Meaning, 20.
[4] Maps of Meaning, 21.
[5] Maps of Meaning, 249.
[6] Ibid.
About the Author
Julie O'Hara
18 responses to “Blog 3.0”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Julie, thanks for persevering, stepping into the chaos and writing. Despite your anxiety over the weekly blogs, which I share in some way, you always manage to write something worth reading.
A preacher once recently confessed his own trepidation in preaching, fearing that he had nothing to offer. Yet, his messages powerfully and profoundly impacted those of us who were listening. It seems that when we wrestle like this we can maintain humility and dependence on God.
In your blog you wrote about 2 potential approaches to preaching, one that comforts and one that challenges.
How do you encourage yourself as a preacher, or perhaps others, to move to option B in preaching?
Hi Graham,
Thank you for your encouragement. In response to your question, here is one very practical thing I do. It may seem out of left field, but I hope it resonates. Within the institution of my denomination, as with institutions typically, we have developed a vast vocabulary of acronyms. I remain connected to outsiders by, refusing to use acronyms, even in my personal journals and challenging others to avoid them as well. Acronyms are always insider language. I challenge other pastors, I challenge workshop presenters, I challenge our regional director, and I always put it in the context of training ourselves to think of the person in the room who doesn’t know what we’re talking about. While this is not gospel related in the sense of being connected to the Bible, it does create a habit of mind which I hope will help us become more conscientious presenters of the good news. I might have thought this was a pedantic exercise, except for the following; I recall two times when I was certain that everyone in the room would understand me and I consciously used an acronym. Both times someone asked me what it meant. If that is so, how often does this occur among people who aren’t even giving acronyms a second thought?
Hi Julie, thank you for articulating what I have been experiencing much for at least the last several weeks. It is a strange experience to be on point in one environment and feel off kilter in another. However, I do sense that this too is part of the growth. Peterson wasn’t easy but the beauty of these posts is reading how different people selected different ways of relating to it. I particularly liked your connection to the meta-myth with the known, unknown and eternal knower. In the context of your work life, do you have “go to” ways to navigate chaos or the unknown with others?
Hi Diane,
Thank you for encouraging me. I’m not alone! I wholeheartedly agree with you about the dissonance between one realm of life and another and that it is part of the growing process. I actually found our reading this week absolutely thrilling. I completely love reading the cohort’s blogs. Are you familiar at all with Strengths Finder? Three of my top five strengths are intellect, input, and learner. Basically this means I gather all kinds of information and data and facts and they swirl around in my mind like a giant soup. The struggle is to bring something forth.
To your question, the most important thing I have learned is to stop telling and start asking. We read Tom Camacho’s Mining for Gold at the beginning of this program. In retrospect, I see it met me at a very important time and my capacities for understanding and for leadership have skyrocketed as I practice keeping my mouth shut in that way, somehow I am better at walking with others through chaos, whether it is their personal chaos or our communal chaos.
Julie,
Wonderful post, I concur with Graham and Diane’s comments. It took me hours to figure out what I was writing for this post too. There is part of me that wants to sit down and really try to digest everything Peterson says in this book, but I am at a spot in life where I cannot mentally do that. I appreciate your reminder that each of our churches represent a different culture. I teach all about culture, but sometimes we forget what it is like to be an outsider. Last Sunday I helped with an ordination ceremony at a sister church in Cleveland. It is a multi-ethnic church led by a Black pastor, Keon Abner. They are growing to the point that on Easter Sunday they will start having two services every Sunday going forward. Keon has asked the congregation to complete a survey indicating which service they will primarily attend. His intent is to ensure that each service remains multi-ethnic. He does not want the overall culture of the church to change. While each service will ultimately develop its own mini culture I appreciate that Keon’s intent is to ensure that everyone feels welcome regardless of which service the attend.
I have a question. As you reflect back over your life and the various churches you have been in, even as a visitor, is there any particular ritual the church did that you found strange? Specifically, something that would accentuate one’s feeling of not belonging to that church’s culture.
Hi Jeff,
A lot of churches do a form of “passing the peace”, my old Pastor used to call it the “shake and hug.” Rather than make newcomers feel welcome. I think it emphasizes their strangeness. #1, they don’t know why it’s happening. #2 they may be introverted. #3 a forced and ritualistic smile handshake and greeting is no substitute whatsoever for actually talking to someone. Left to go on too long, this portion of the order of service leaves people gravitating to those they know and the outsiders standing awkwardly alone.
And then basically the entire Roman Catholic mass. Even after having my kids in Catholic school for 14 years, I still don’t have all the things memorized. For Ash Wednesday, I attended mass and was reminded about how strange it must be for people to attend any church and not understand the “why” or context of the various service elements, let alone went to stand, sit or kneel.
I feel I need to clarify that I don’t think passing the peace or Mass are “bad” in anyway – just that they are service elements which may highlight a guest’s sense of otherness.
Thanks for straddling the world of the known and unknown, and serving yourself as a bridge between them in this post in a way that shows incredible courage and humility. Don’t let the ‘imposter syndrome’ have more real estate in your brain than is appropriate…
Any comment on how Peterson also applies gender to these dimensions? (Great Father, Great Mother)?
Hi Joel,
If I am still a mystery to myself, does that make me a Great Mother? Ha ha ha. Seriously, though, I understand those archetypes through an historical lens. I have wondered if the mystery of the womb and it’s deep embedding in our psyche contributes to the pain that some women experience when they are unable to become pregnant and give birth. There were moments in the reading where I felt myself questioning whether or not Dr. Peterson is a touch misogynistic. I wish I had a page number to reference. But I did not let that stand in my way because I don’t have proof and recognized. I may have been filtering through a cultural woke-ist kind of lens.
Julie,
You state how I felt with this weeks blog. It was a tough one to read and write. I kept trying for days and struggled to even comprehend the book as a metanarrative. How might last week’s reading on Bias inform the way we might preach or speak to an audience, given that there are some in the room who will not understand all the nuances?
Hi Adam,
I’m not sure if I should be coming at this from the preachers bias or the listeners bias? If we know a bit about the kinds of bias in the congregation, we can present the text in a surprising way that might help them think differently.
Hey Julie! A plus for the perserverance. We all feel it. Out of all you were able to digest, what was the hardest/ easiest thing to wrap your brain around?
Hi Daren,
I will take that A+ for perseverance! I actually drafted a “can I pass if I don’t do this blog” email! In the video that I watched, Petersen was talking about the logos and making a connection to consciousness. Somewhere along the way I picked up a similar thread in the text. I wanted to understand that more but wasnt’ able to give it the necessary attention.
Julie, you paint a powerful picture of someone walking into a church, carrying chaos, and looking for hope. How do you think churches can better reflect Jesus—the Eternal Knower—in how they welcome and respond to people like that? And how can preaching help the church stay open, humble, and ready to receive the stranger with compassion yet without compromise?
Hi Chad,
My favorite Bible passage is Luke 19:1-10. Jesus SEES Zaccheus up in the tree and calls to him. I think that can be the attitude of the church. The man was up in the tree, totally aware of his sin, but wanted to get a look at Jesus. If someone in a metaphorical tree of chaos comes into our churches, let’s be sure to SEE them and so confer dignity upon their humanity. They already know they’re a sinner, and as we make space for them to belong within our midst the Holy Spirit will convict and good preaching can call for response. It will probably take more time than in Zaccheus’ story!
Hi, Julie, thank you for what you have shared. I have experienced what that individual went through. It does not bother me much. I thought to myself, maybe I should have gone there by myself. However, it was Sunday, and we were looking for a place for worship. Going back to what you mention about the ‘known and the unknown,’ I believe that is the case. We have ventured into a space of unknown. Thank you.
Julie, you don’t need to answer. But after your comment on my post I was curious about yours. Let me say that I especially appreciate this insight:
“purposefully challenge the hearers to remain in the tension between chaos and order. This happens when the words of scripture are brought to life in connection with their actual lives. It is also helpful when they are frequently reconnected to their own early attempts at interacting with the unknown and adapting it to themselves. By staying uncomfortable, Jesus’ followers remain nimble enough to adapt to the stranger among them repeatedly.”
I also enjoyed reading the other comments on this post. There are many ways in which we can learn. I think the struggle – going into the chaotic parts – has been proven by your post and their replies! 🙂
If it’s useful to you, ChatGPT and I co-developed a visual aid and some reflective coaching questions. In your copious free time (ha!) you might find it useful. If you do have a chance to glance at it, let me know if you have any way to make it better. It’s OK if you don’t.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zETHvOcqsdYkavXqV9q9IwdOZ_RkJQ1puHMXO2ioC2k/edit?usp=sharing
Hi Debbie,
This is so powerful, thank you for sharing.
Julie