Pavlov 2

Virusdoc.net: Discussion on Church-bells

http://WWW.virusdoc.net/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/69

Okay, I'm trying a trackback for the first time. We'll see if this works. Erik asked the following in his post:

What I seem to believe (without having really considered it), is that the proper religious experience is a product of matching one's personal preference/personality with a "worship style" and "teaching style" that motivate you, that move you, in a manner that makes you feel like you have encountered the Divine.

This sounds so mechanistic, so behaviourist: is church really nothing more than a bunch of dogs, lining up to hear the right bell tone, so that their inner mouths can salivate with anticipation for the flavor of immortality? And if I don't feel "led" or "moved" by the service I'm attending, does this mean that they are just ringing Pavlov's bell at the wrong frequency? Or in the wrong meter? Or in the wrong type of acoustic environment?

Here's an approximation of the reply I was going to send to Erik yesterday (before my broswer ate it.):

The wine and the bread, incense, stained glass, musical settings, lighting: one way to think of the physical world that surrounds us during worship is as media. If we can agree that God is mediated to us through the bread and the wine (or better put, that God mediates himself to us through the bread and wine), and that God mediates himself to us through, say, the Incarnation, what do we say, then, about a moving piece of music? What about the "sunlight shafts piercing through leaded glass" ? What about the Starbucks latte that is ordered in the church's coffee house that lets us pay attention during the service? What do we say, then, about the donuts, about the carpet color, about whatever else surrounds us?

So we can think of media as that necessary scrim between (holy) God and (unholy) man. UV protection, if you will. But it gets interesting, since man was created to have a role in the mediation:

Someone went to the store and bought that wine. Someone bought the bread (or baked it). Someone composed the music. If we agreed earlier that God mediates himself through the eucharist, but the physical objects are culturative objects placed there, "ordered" by man, man is also mediating simultaneously. Creating media. And helping with that scrim.

Erik then asked:

If it's really that instinctual, that neurologic, wouldn't chemical modulators of the brain be a more efficient means of expressing this search? A nice Merlot or biotech's latest prescription offering?

Seen through the above lens, a rephrasing of Erik's question might be rendered: "If mediation between God and man is required (I'd say it is), and if media is that which can be perceived with the existing senses, what qualifies as media? Something that numbs the senses? Something that manipulates me? Something that turns me into a passive spectator or a mindless automaton? What if the medium is one that is misused by man? What does that say about God, assuming He is on the other side co-mediating my experience with these men and women called ministers, laity, congregants?"

I would maintain that the second any medium is employed that is incongruent to God's character (as, uh, mediated to us through the scriptures), one can safely assume that God was not a co-mediator in that exchange.

That doesn't rule out a grey area in-between: it actually gets more complicated from there: e.g.: Let's say you have a good old-fashioned Southern Baptist Altar Call. You're sitting in church, and the church pianist is softly playing "Just as I am" for the 9th verse. Congregant A was genuinely moved by the sermon and this music helped the individual -- the melody might have conjured up a safe memory of the past or the major chord might have brought a wave of peace to the person. Congregant B is sitting one pew back and receives the same notes, the same melody, and percieves it as a manipulation of the emotions. The person may have almost been at a point to draw closer to God, but the melody unleashed a wave of cynicism and pushed the person further away. Believes the pianist and the pastor are conspiring to force a decision. If those two congregants simultaneously had such differing experiences, what can we say about God and man?

If God is drawing person A and is not drawing person B with the same media, we either conclude he is cruel, or we conclude that he has ways & means & timing that are beyond us. He is God; we are not. It can be distilled down to a matter of faith.

If the pianist and pastor were in cahoots to manipulate, we believe from scripture that God oftenworks despite men and their bad intentions, to proclaim His Gospel.

Christ told a parable of the seed (Luke chapter 8) to emphasize the receiver's role.

Anyway, I guess my best guess is that Merlot might be used of God to soften a heart. To clear a head. Drunkenness wouldn't be used of God because it is against his character. If scripture speaks out against the role of chemicals, we can assume a biochemical mediation would be beyond God's character...

We are creaturely. We are sheep that must be dealt with by sticks and carrots (wait, that's a burro. anyway)...

I don't know if any of this helped my friend, or not...

Comments

[erik]

it looks like you pasted the trackback URL into the body of your post. On your "New Entry" form there should be a form cell for a trackback URL. Paste it there instead and try rebuilding. I'll ping you from my site just to make sure there's no physical incompatibility--but since these are both MT powered I can't imagine that would be the case.

[erik]

p- as i read this, with zach drowsing in my arms, a thought struck me: the vagaries of god's drawing and leading most make sense if we assume that god is always drawing all people at all times through all the media of this universe. surrounded by the constant, silent, resistible din of this drawing, we all learn to ignore it more or less. i think this is a beautiful and scripturally consistent image.

i guess i just want to be sure that when i seek the environments that i think enable me to hear and respond to this ever-present whisper that it is indeed the Whisperer that i encounter, and not some confluence of random neurons in my mind that flood endorphins when Be Thou My Vision is played in an echoing cathedral. How can we ever be sure that we seek God, and not some idol of "numinous" experience?