The Christian View of Self (p. 91-92)

In his teachings and life on Earth, Jesus demonstrated to us how he contradicts the seven tendencies of individualism.

Jesus wants me to call God Abba/Father
Jesus’ greatest wish is that my relationship to God Abba/Father be like his own. I am most myself when I am in my relationship with God. I am not isolated or cut off from others.

Jesus knows that God is part of my deepest identity, and wants my relationship with God to be like his own.

My relationship with Abba/ Father is my freedom
Freedom is not a possession. Freedom is not a gift we can give ourselves. There are so many obstacles to freedom that God sent his only son to unbind us.

Freedom is a gift. God and the saving action of Jesus set us free from the obstacles to freedom (sin).

The earth is good and is a gift from God
I am not the master of the earth. Earth belongs to God. I must respect the earth as a gift and my relationship with earth should be one of thanksgiving, praise and stewardship.

The earth belongs to God, and must be respected as a gift.

Other people are important
The world does not revolve around me. Whomever seeks their own life loses it.

My life must not be centered around myself.

Before Abba/ Father, all are equal
All are in the love of God. That is the basis of the goodness of all creatures, their basis of equality.

God loves everyone equally

Five Greek Words for Love (p. 114-115)

Intimacy: The close bond that exists between human beings, whether as friends or associates. The bond is intimate because it touches our innermost being. Intimacy connects us with each other and our common humanity through our social, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and physical dimensions.

Love involves varying degrees of intimacy appropriate for various types of relationships.  The Greeks used different words to characterize several types of important relationships experienced in our lives.

HETAIREIA

This is a love based upon companionship and a sharing of common issues but without emotional closeness.

EROS
This is love in a sexual sense. It is a passionate, romantic love, pleasurable, spontaneous, even instinctive.

STORGE
This is family love: the love children have for their parents and parents for their children.

PHILIA
This is the love of friendship: the warm and tender affection felt between two friends.

AGAPE
This is the love of charity. It is a love that involves sacrifice. This is the love that Jesus referred to when he said, “Love one another as I have loved you.” This is the highest form of love. It can even be given to enemies.

Seven Tendencies of Individualism (p. 88-89)

The culture we live in impacts/affects the way we view ourselves (our identity) without our awareness. The following beliefs are commonly held by many people in Western cultures when it comes to identifying who they are. While it is unlikely that anyone holds all of these tendencies exactly as they are stated, it is likely that you recognize yourself and/or others in several of them. These beliefs place too much value on the individual and not enough value on a concern for the common good. For that reason, the traits of individualism conflict with the way Jesus desires us to live our lives and relate to others.

I am free - I am responsible for myself. The only authority I accept is the one that protects my freedom.

I have rights - Rights protect my freedom and dignity.

I am equal - I have the same claim to freedom and rights as everyone else. Government must protect the people and the people must have a say in decisions that affect them (i.e. government).

Only reason binds me - Things have to be proven to me or I may not accept them. Observation and experience “empirical knowledge” are essential in the search for truth.

I am isolated from everything - I treat the world as an object. I see everything from my own perspective, and in an attempt to maintain objectivity, I try to minimize the influence of relationships and feelings.

I am master of the Earth - The Earth is just another object to be used and exploited by me for my benefit and happiness. In the same way, I am master over my own body.

I am godless - In a world where everything is centred on me, God has no place except at the limits of my life when I need him most (i.e. sickness, death, natural disaster). God is squeezed out of a culture that operates out of self-interest.

Nietzsche's Madman (p. 95)

Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place, and cried incessantly: "I seek God! I seek God!"---As many of those who did not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. Has he got lost? asked one. Did he lose his way like a child? asked another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? emigrated?---Thus they yelled and laughed.
The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. "Whither is God?" he cried; "I will tell you. We have killed him---you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.

"How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whoever is born after us---for the sake of this deed he will belong to a higher history than all history hitherto."

Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners; and they, too, were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern on the ground, and it broke into pieces and went out. "I have come too early," he said then; "my time is not yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering; it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time; the light of the stars requires time; deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than most distant stars---and yet they have done it themselves.

It has been related further that on the same day the madman forced his way into several churches and there struck up his requiem aeternam deo. Led out and called to account, he is said always to have replied nothing but: "What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?"

[Source: Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science (1882, 1887) para. 125; Walter Kaufmann ed. (New York: Vintage, 1974), pp.181-82.]

Rene Descartes: "I think therefore I am"