Self-Awareness

Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field 

and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. 

And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 

(Gen 2:19)

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

Transcendence is a basic human quality that has recently come under attack. Transcendence starts, not with our understanding of God, but our understanding of ourselves. Self-awareness is the ability to distinguish the self from surroundings, starting with our mothers and extending to our fathers, siblings, and everyone else. As a father myself, I was always happy to hold my kids, but found it off-putting when they grew old enough to recognize that I was not their mother and would look at mom and cry when I held them. Imagine how God, our Father, must feel when we squirm in his presence and focus on other things.

Confusing the Self

The human mind naturally transcends the body. The human being is one of the few animals that when confronted with their own image in a mirror recognizes that the image is of themselves. A healthy self-image is necessary for normal relations with others and with God. An important problem arises when the boundary between the self and others is fuzzed or the self is extended to include others or other things.

The attack on transcendence arises because after self-awareness, the question arises as how we will relate to the things not contained in the self. For the deconstructionist working hard to deconstruct all power-structures, the power of the self to distinguish itself from others is the beginning of hegemony and, as such, it comes under suspicion. By refusing to recognize legitimate sources of authority, such as God, and undermining the  authority of the family, church, and society, deconstructionism is a clearly demonic philosophy offering no hope to those afflicted by its influence. The deconstructionist is more comfortable with unnatural co-dependencies and narcissism where hegemony is harder because the boundary between the self and others is fuzzed.

The case of the narcissist is one example of a fuzzed boundary between self and others. It either projects the self onto others or rejects any image other than the self. Robert Graves (1972, 115) gives this account of the myth of Narcissus:

“The Goddess Aphrodite [goddess of love] punished Narcissus for being so obstinate [refusing the love of women]. She let him see his own reflection in a pool, as he lay down on the verge to drink, and fall violently in love with it. Whenever he tried to kiss himself, he only got his face wet and spoilt the reflexion. Yet he could not bear to leave the pool. At last, in grief and disappointment, he killed himself.”

The story of Narcissus is perhaps the extreme example of someone who loved the wrong things. If we cannot distinguish self from others, the prospects of a normal love life are nipped in the bud.

Healthy spiritual boundaries begin with distinguishing the self from others and classifying the others as not-self. In the creation account, God makes a number of separations: “And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.” (Gen 1:3-4) Creating light and declaring it to be good and separating it from darkness begins the process of establishing boundaries—distinguishing the self from other things. Adam’s naming of the animals continues this process (Gen 2:19). When God creates Eve and introduces her to Adam, Adam neither confuses her with himself nor with animals. Instead, he falls in love (Gen 2:23).

The Autonomous Self

Why the excursion into psychology? Three reasons stand out. First, an autonomous self is a prerequisite and a product of faith. It is a prerequisite because a person cannot give themselves away to a spouse or to God if they are not in control of themselves. The chains of Satan—addiction, trauma, abuse, fear, fascination with power or the occult, co-dependency, and other psychiatric illnesses—all work to undermine the autonomous self and limit self-control.

Second, an autonomous self is a requirement for freedom in a larger context. Democracy requires that voters make up their own minds independently of one another—if they do not, then an election is nothing more than a census of interest groups. The same logic applies to demand theory in economics—unless consumers operate independently of one another, there is no competition among suppliers and prices are indeterminant. Addiction likewise works to undermine the autonomy of the mind over the body rendering one a slave to an addictive substance.

Third, an autonomous self is a product of faith in the sense that autonomy is always at least partially aspirational. Listen to the words of the skeptical father of an epileptic son requesting that Jesus heal him:

“And Jesus said to him, If you can! All things are possible for one who believes. Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:23-24)

If faith were easy, we would all have perfect faith, but none of us do. The journey of faith begins with acknowledging that our own knowledge is limited.

Attacks on the Autonomous Self

The creation account includes one of the first attacks on the autonomous self. In speaking with Eve, Satan tries to twist God’s word and create doubt in Eve’s mind: “He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?” (Gen 3:1) By creating doubt in her mind, Satan is acting like the first deconstructionist to undermine God’s authority and Eve’s faith in God’s goodness. Doubt and confusion undermine autonomy by engendering fear and uncertainty, and with it, a heightened propensity to sin under the guise of a false autonomy. 

Eve does not sin on her own, but only under the influence of Satan. Satan tempts her with false autonomy leading her to believe that she is autonomous when she, in fact, traded a loving God for Satan, who hates human beings and glories in their destruction. As Jesus says: “The thief [Satan] comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” (John 10:10) Only a good and loving God offers his children the security to make real choices and live under his protection. 

Sin’s attractiveness is why Christ—the son of God—needed to die on the cross to redeem us from sin and Satan’s pernicious control. The curse of death imposed by God for sin is a divine curse. Only a divine sacrifice can undo a divine curse.

Self-Awareness

Also see:

The Face of God in the Parables
The Who Question
Preface to a Life in Tension
Other ways to engage online:



Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net
Publisher site: http://www.T2Pneuma.com

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