Personhood and the Pursuit of Freedom
I was introduced to the philosophy of Personalism as a Master’s candidate at Hood Theological Seminary, in a course entitled “The Theology of Martin Luther King, Jr.” Prior to taking the class, I had already developed a substantial admiration for King’s synthesis of religious devotion and political activism, which were rooted in his Christian faith and Constitutional sensibility. The course explored the spiritual and intellectual evolution of this preacher who altered our national history. King’s religion and politics were initially shaped by the prophetic black church and the historically African-American, Morehouse College. King’s graduate studies at Crozer Theological Seminary and Boston University reinforced King’s blossoming desire for social change. King encountered the philosophy of personalism, which fortified his conceptual and rhetorical ability to challenge the forces of racism and segregation. I believe Personalism can also inform and inspire today’s post-colonial conversations and movements.
The Personalists, a distinguished group of theologians and philosophers primarily based at Boston University during the first half of the twentieth century were far ahead of their time in regards to their understanding of God, human dignity and equality. They believed that “personality,” more accurately identified today as personhood, was the key to all reality [1]. Bordon Parker Bowne, a foundational Personalist said we live in “A world of persons with a Supreme Person at the head...” [2]. The basic traits of personhood, according to the influential Albert Knudson, can be summarized as “conscious unity, identity and free activity” [3]. Edgar Brightman, one of King’s Personalist mentors, stated “A person is an agent, not a thing; a whole...” [4]. A person is also “a purposer - an embodied purpose or system of purposes” [5]. Consciousness, individuality and the freedom of agency is God’s desire for every human being, regardless of ethnic, religious, socio-economic and gender distinctions.
As Americans who often pride ourselves on our constitutional ideals of self-identity and freedom, these tenets of Personalism may seem intuitive or even obvious. Our history has demonstrated however, that these ethical ideals that are consistent with the highest moral teachings of the world’s religions, have been anything but “common sense” values. Like other religions, Christianity has sacred texts, theological traditions and social practices which have both confirmed and contradicted essential virtues, such as love, justice and freedom. On matters of slavery and segregation; abolition and civil rights, Christians were polarized on these issues and appealed to the same Bible to support their contrasting positions. The same book that proclaims that “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” (Galatians 3:28), also instructs “Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord,” (Colossians 3:22).
We have settled the moral and legal dilemmas of slavery and segregation, but some debates were never resolved. Questions of personhood and human dignity are as relevant today as they were in our nation’s past. The humanity of immigrants (documented and undocumented), same-gender loving persons, Muslims, and the underprivileged is currently questioned through words, actions and policies. Once again Christians stand at odds when it comes to determining the meaning of equality and freedom in our context. Author, Karen Armstrong says we have a choice to make at this “crossroads of history.” She explains, “We can either emphasize the exclusive and chauvinist elements that are found in all our traditions, religious or secular or those that teach us to celebrate the profound interdependence and unanimity of the human race” [6]. The labels of Christian, Jew, Muslim, or Hindu are insufficient descriptors. We must now define what kind of [fill in the blank] we seek to be.
One of the most important perspectives that King adopted from Personalism was the notion that God is a rational being who created the universe with a moral logic and direction [7]. The natural flow of Creation is towards increasing dimensions of love and its outpourings of equality and freedom. The degree to which a person or society participates in any form of dehumanization such as prejudice, discrimination and exploitation is the extent to which that individual is swimming against the cosmic current and that system is striving against the grain of divine will. If it seems that hate, violence and oppression are still normative, it means there is much progress yet to be made in the pursuit of freedom.
Ralph Tyler Flewelling wrote almost seventy years ago that “We cannot, in the present state of world-wide enlightenment, go back to embrace the ancient slaveries; we can only go forward or perish in a general holocaust.” [8]. The ultimate or ideal world must be founded upon “the personalistic and Christian principle of the intrinsic worth of the individual which is the basis of all true democracy,” [9]. Personalist ethics can be found in the democratic ideals of the United States that are informed by both the Bible and the Enlightenment, and can be found in other faith and philosophical traditions. While no human system will ever achieve absolute equality and freedom, democracy has made it possible for personhood to evolve over time in a way that is not possible under an authoritarian government.
Personhood allows us to be “aware of ends, ideals, conceptions of a possible future, and of its power to apply freedom to purposive control of the future” [10]. The freedom of personhood is “the power to choose from among the given possibilities” [11]. Our embodied purpose is to participate in God’s perpetual creation project. Our individual and collective purpose is to form a world where all members of the human family experience the freedom to choose the most fulfilling and meaningful life the universe has to offer.
On the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination, then Senator Barack Obama commented on King’s perspective of the moral universe and the agency that we all have in the expansion of freedom and justice. He remarked that "Dr. King once said that the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. It bends towards justice, but here is the thing: it does not bend on its own. It bends because each of us in our own ways put our hand on that arc and we bend it in the direction of justice..." [12]. The God of history has created the universe with a certain pattern. It’s a pattern that interweaves the threads of love, peace, justice and freedom. Once we become conscious of the pattern, all we have to do is follow it.
Our souls at their best yearn for the same world that God desires, but the degree to which these ideals are realized in our moment on the cosmic timeline, is dependent upon the role that each of of us plays in attaining our own personhood and everyone elses. Jacqueline Novogratz, founder of the Acumen Fund (a global anti-poverty venture), says that “in a world where everything is connected, the most important thing we can do is treat our fellows with dignity” [13]. As long as countless persons are oppressed spiritually, socially and economically, the post-colonial world we dream of remains a shadow of our moral imagination. Let us begin the transformation of our individual freedom into global personhood.
_____________________________________________
[1] Albert C. Knudson, The Philosophy of Personalism (New York: The Abingdon Press, 1927), 237; Edgar S. Brightman, “Personalism as a Metaphysical Principle,” Personalism in Theology (Boston: Boston University Press, 1943), 42.
[2] Bordon P. Bowne, Personalism (Boston/New York: Houghton, Miflin and Company, 1908), 277-8.
[3] Knudson, 87.
[4] Brightman, 58.
[5] Brightman, 59.
[6] Karen Armstrong, “Empathy,” What Matters Now (http://sethgodin.com/sg/free_stuff.asp, 2009).
[7] Rufus Burrow, Jr. God and Human Dignity: The Personalism, Theology and Ethics of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Notre Dame IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006), 103-4.
[8] Ralph Tyler Flewelling, “Personalism and the Trend of History,” Personalism in Theology (Boston: Boston University Press, 1943), 177.
[9] Flewelling, 186.
[10] Brightman, 59.
[11] Brightman, 58.
[12] Barack Obama (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABdDSxI6eSY) April 4, 2008.
[13] Jacqueline Novogratz, “Dignity,” What Matters Now (http://sethgodin.com/sg/free_stuff.asp, 2009).
The Personalists, a distinguished group of theologians and philosophers primarily based at Boston University during the first half of the twentieth century were far ahead of their time in regards to their understanding of God, human dignity and equality. They believed that “personality,” more accurately identified today as personhood, was the key to all reality [1]. Bordon Parker Bowne, a foundational Personalist said we live in “A world of persons with a Supreme Person at the head...” [2]. The basic traits of personhood, according to the influential Albert Knudson, can be summarized as “conscious unity, identity and free activity” [3]. Edgar Brightman, one of King’s Personalist mentors, stated “A person is an agent, not a thing; a whole...” [4]. A person is also “a purposer - an embodied purpose or system of purposes” [5]. Consciousness, individuality and the freedom of agency is God’s desire for every human being, regardless of ethnic, religious, socio-economic and gender distinctions.
As Americans who often pride ourselves on our constitutional ideals of self-identity and freedom, these tenets of Personalism may seem intuitive or even obvious. Our history has demonstrated however, that these ethical ideals that are consistent with the highest moral teachings of the world’s religions, have been anything but “common sense” values. Like other religions, Christianity has sacred texts, theological traditions and social practices which have both confirmed and contradicted essential virtues, such as love, justice and freedom. On matters of slavery and segregation; abolition and civil rights, Christians were polarized on these issues and appealed to the same Bible to support their contrasting positions. The same book that proclaims that “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” (Galatians 3:28), also instructs “Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord,” (Colossians 3:22).
We have settled the moral and legal dilemmas of slavery and segregation, but some debates were never resolved. Questions of personhood and human dignity are as relevant today as they were in our nation’s past. The humanity of immigrants (documented and undocumented), same-gender loving persons, Muslims, and the underprivileged is currently questioned through words, actions and policies. Once again Christians stand at odds when it comes to determining the meaning of equality and freedom in our context. Author, Karen Armstrong says we have a choice to make at this “crossroads of history.” She explains, “We can either emphasize the exclusive and chauvinist elements that are found in all our traditions, religious or secular or those that teach us to celebrate the profound interdependence and unanimity of the human race” [6]. The labels of Christian, Jew, Muslim, or Hindu are insufficient descriptors. We must now define what kind of [fill in the blank] we seek to be.
One of the most important perspectives that King adopted from Personalism was the notion that God is a rational being who created the universe with a moral logic and direction [7]. The natural flow of Creation is towards increasing dimensions of love and its outpourings of equality and freedom. The degree to which a person or society participates in any form of dehumanization such as prejudice, discrimination and exploitation is the extent to which that individual is swimming against the cosmic current and that system is striving against the grain of divine will. If it seems that hate, violence and oppression are still normative, it means there is much progress yet to be made in the pursuit of freedom.
Ralph Tyler Flewelling wrote almost seventy years ago that “We cannot, in the present state of world-wide enlightenment, go back to embrace the ancient slaveries; we can only go forward or perish in a general holocaust.” [8]. The ultimate or ideal world must be founded upon “the personalistic and Christian principle of the intrinsic worth of the individual which is the basis of all true democracy,” [9]. Personalist ethics can be found in the democratic ideals of the United States that are informed by both the Bible and the Enlightenment, and can be found in other faith and philosophical traditions. While no human system will ever achieve absolute equality and freedom, democracy has made it possible for personhood to evolve over time in a way that is not possible under an authoritarian government.
Personhood allows us to be “aware of ends, ideals, conceptions of a possible future, and of its power to apply freedom to purposive control of the future” [10]. The freedom of personhood is “the power to choose from among the given possibilities” [11]. Our embodied purpose is to participate in God’s perpetual creation project. Our individual and collective purpose is to form a world where all members of the human family experience the freedom to choose the most fulfilling and meaningful life the universe has to offer.
On the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination, then Senator Barack Obama commented on King’s perspective of the moral universe and the agency that we all have in the expansion of freedom and justice. He remarked that "Dr. King once said that the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. It bends towards justice, but here is the thing: it does not bend on its own. It bends because each of us in our own ways put our hand on that arc and we bend it in the direction of justice..." [12]. The God of history has created the universe with a certain pattern. It’s a pattern that interweaves the threads of love, peace, justice and freedom. Once we become conscious of the pattern, all we have to do is follow it.
Our souls at their best yearn for the same world that God desires, but the degree to which these ideals are realized in our moment on the cosmic timeline, is dependent upon the role that each of of us plays in attaining our own personhood and everyone elses. Jacqueline Novogratz, founder of the Acumen Fund (a global anti-poverty venture), says that “in a world where everything is connected, the most important thing we can do is treat our fellows with dignity” [13]. As long as countless persons are oppressed spiritually, socially and economically, the post-colonial world we dream of remains a shadow of our moral imagination. Let us begin the transformation of our individual freedom into global personhood.
_____________________________________________
[1] Albert C. Knudson, The Philosophy of Personalism (New York: The Abingdon Press, 1927), 237; Edgar S. Brightman, “Personalism as a Metaphysical Principle,” Personalism in Theology (Boston: Boston University Press, 1943), 42.
[2] Bordon P. Bowne, Personalism (Boston/New York: Houghton, Miflin and Company, 1908), 277-8.
[3] Knudson, 87.
[4] Brightman, 58.
[5] Brightman, 59.
[6] Karen Armstrong, “Empathy,” What Matters Now (http://sethgodin.com/sg/free_stuff.asp, 2009).
[7] Rufus Burrow, Jr. God and Human Dignity: The Personalism, Theology and Ethics of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Notre Dame IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006), 103-4.
[8] Ralph Tyler Flewelling, “Personalism and the Trend of History,” Personalism in Theology (Boston: Boston University Press, 1943), 177.
[9] Flewelling, 186.
[10] Brightman, 59.
[11] Brightman, 58.
[12] Barack Obama (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABdDSxI6eSY) April 4, 2008.
[13] Jacqueline Novogratz, “Dignity,” What Matters Now (http://sethgodin.com/sg/free_stuff.asp, 2009).
posted by R.G. @ 3:25 PM
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