Mirror, mirror on the wall…
Reading Elliott’s Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction and events of this week have left me in a melancholic state. I had a sense of sadness hearing the creatures who do not seem to know their Creator draw from every concept imaginable to define life on this planet. As I write this blog I have just been made aware of a mass shooting in my community, named the safest city in the country, which left thirteen people dead and 21 people hospitalized. It is two days after the midterm elections in the United States and my Twitter feed looks like another type of war zone as the divide pulling this nation apart grows ever more widely. Our denomination’s disaster relief ministry has been called upon more this year than ever before. As I watch the news now, in the midst of this tragedy, I long for a social theory based on the goodness in mankind. What is in the human being that brings out the best that they would sacrifice themselves to save another in the mist of such a heinous crime? What unites a community to come together to help those they have never met before? It seems our best human attributes are sometimes revealed in the face of the worst calamity.
In considering the mirror and image concepts in regard to social theory it seems personal identity is regularly linked to social well-being. How we view ourselves has a direct impact on how we relate to the other.[1] How humans relate in the world is directly linked to the image they see in the mirror. Most of us, at some point, find ourselves looking in the reflecting glass and asking, “Who am I?” The idea of mirroring was described by J. Lacan as a stage of an infant between six and eighteen months in which the child is gawkish physiologically and psychologically fragmented, and finds a version of self. He builds upon Freud’s thought that the ego is formed in self-love and the metaphoric mirror casts this vision in a child. In Lacan’s 1949 writing he uses the primal word imago in this mirroring discussion.[2] I could not help but make a connection with the Imago Dei, “ So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.[3]
Though troubled by Freud and Lacan’s descriptions, the language was familiar and took me to scripture:
11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.[4]
Human beings look into a dimly lit mirror yet even there we find glimpses of our true self and how that self relates to others. When one recognizes who we see in the mirror is the likeness of our Creator, who is Love, it sets within us an identity that responds to tragedy with passion and care. When one sees the image of God in the mirror it is then reflected onto others. When one can begin to understand how fully one is known in love it changes how we are in the world with our fellow human beings.
When asked what is the greatest commandment, Jesus replied that all of the law and prophets are summed up in this: love God with our all and our neighbors as ourselves. As I consider the reading of this week and the events on the news the complexity is overwhelming. I must fix my gaze on the simplicity of Jesus’ message. We humans love ourselves through understanding we are made in God’s image and we love him because he first loved us. From that place of identity in Him, being grounded in love, we are able to love one another and live together.
Elliott brings many theories together as people are trying to make sense of our world and our being in it. His conclusions are somewhat dire on one hand but pique interest regarding “fresh challenges” on the other. “Undeniably, the global challenges we face demand global solutions, and ones that are both future-regarding and geared to the actual needs and desires of others.[5]
Mirror, mirror on the wall…please show us the greatest One of all that we may see others in His image and live in the love for ourselves and one another that only comes from God.
Disclaimer: This post is as disjointed as my mind today. Thank you for your prayers.
[1] Anthony Elliot, Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2014), 118.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Genesis 1:27 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
[4] I Corinthians 13:11-13 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
[5] Elliott, 377.
About the Author
Tammy Dunahoo
Tammy is a lover of God, her husband, children and grandchildren. She is the V.P. of U.S. Operations/General Supervisor of The Foursquare Church.7 responses to “Mirror, mirror on the wall…”
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Tammy,
Elliott’s complex theories pale in comparison to the real complexities of the human beings all around us. You remind me once again why we need a smart, kind, compassionate Triune God. The writer of Ecclesiastes learned that we must have someone above and beyond our limitations to understand and process our complexities. May you continue to model wisdom, grace, and peace as you lead where God has planted you. Blessings on you and may you know the power of his presence today, H
Tammy – I am praying for you and your community. You were one of the first in my mind when I heard the news. I appreciated so much how you didn’t shy away from engaging social theory when your social structures are currently reeling. I also appreciated your take on social theory because, as you so aptly put, our job is to respond in love. I am praying that you can reflect that love in many ways in the coming days and weeks.
Tammy – I was grateful to hear from you this week. I am praying for you and your community as well.
Your post was honest and wise. I too long for a social theory ‘based on the goodness of mankind’ that comes from Imago Dei. Some of my SLP includes reading on the atonement theories and how God views us – are we good? Are we worms? I need to dig deeper and am grateful for your example.
Much love and peace to you.
Tammy, I’m praying too for you and your community. I happen to be visiting in the US even as this horrific event took place and the midterm elections and the divisions they’re creating in society. We indeed long for a social theory that inspires love rather than evil in society. I love the way you bring imagery of reflecting ourselves in the mirror and seeing the image of God, imago dei. This is powerful, that only upon our recognition of self as created in the image of God, Are we able to project that image to others and love them because God is love. Thank you for sharing this, it’s important to know that so much good will be done in our society and evil will be suppressed as Christians help men and women recognize their imago dei identity, by sharing the truth of the Gospel with them.
Ditto with the others Tammy as I’m sending prayers up for you and all those in that community. I absolutely love this section, “We, humans, love ourselves through understanding we are made in God’s image and we love him because he first loved us. From that place of identity in Him, being grounded in love, we are able to love one another and live together”. I have said (and probably heard somewhere) we love God first and our neighbor as self…meaning we can’t love the other rightly if we don’t love our right first. Loving yourself (rightly) can only happen if you love God first and allow God to love you. Again, well said and sending prayers from Florida.
Tammy, you hit the nail on the head with your post. Social Theories pale when it comes to explaining situations like this. Living incarnate is the only answer for the world today. Praying for you and your community.
It’s been a tough week in the US. Shootings, midterm elections and the massive destruction of a city in California. Though I’m a long way off my thoughts are with the people affected. Jethro Tull’s very old album ‘Aqualung’ has a song with the words “In the beginning man created God. I his own image he created him’. It was terribly cynical, not about God, but about the people of God. God is judgemental, violent, punishing, but forgiving in the right circumstances. I know of course that our God cannot be described so easily in those terms, but some Christians do. When thinking about social theories, and reading about them, I wondered how coherent a Christian theory of society would be? Could all Christians in the USA agree on a way to be America if they were given the chance? I can only imagine what would happen in NZ if that occurred. What do you think?