Expressive Individualism Essay

by

Rhys Siegel-Hinson

A Term Paper

Presented to Dr. Natalie Magnusson

Rochester University

As a Requirement in

Course THL5863-SM01B

Rochester, Michigan

2023
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To Be Human

The question of what it means to be human has plagued the minds of scholars,

theologians, and philosophers since the beginning of time. René Descartes, the French

Philosopher and scientist, was one such man afflicted with the need to define his humanness.

Working off the prior personal identity work undertaken by Agustine and Plato, Descartes

established that he was, first and foremost, a thinking thing. The fact that humankind can think,

thought the philosopher, proves that they are, even if their presumed consciousness is being

deceived by any number of outside factors. This understanding of humanness effectively

disregarded the importance of embodiment; after all, if our very existence hinged on our

capability of thought, what relevance does our body have in the grand picture of creation?

Descartes relegated humanity to a “cognitive machine defined, above all, by thought and rational

operations… a broadly ‘rationalist’ or ‘intellectualist’ picture of the human person.”1 This

method of thinking would come to be referred to as Cartesian anthropology, consigning the

moral creation of God to mere brains on sticks.

Unfortunately, this understanding of creation would catch on among many of

the philosophically influential, widely affecting the perception of the human person in modernity.

It would also give way to an umbrella of similar understandings - the buffered self, dualistic

(mind/body split), and expressive individualism, to name a few. Each of these modern

conceptions of inwardness is shaped by one or more of these four understandings:

self-sufficiency and self-determination as catalysts to human identity, identity grasped in

self-referential terms, the belief of the inner self as the authentic self, and authentic personhood

based on self-autonomy and self-legislation.2

1
Smith, James K A. 2011. Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation, 41. Grand
Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic.
2
Green, Joel B. 2014. Why Salvation?, 6. Abingdon.
 3

The buffered self was one of the first alternative identities to arise from the

transition to this new, modern way of thinking. In the past, belief in God was essentially a

prerequisite for the people of the age. What’s more, this interpretation of existence gave way to a

mindset of enchantment; humankind was involved in a world in which God was an active

participant. They were free to act and be acted upon by any number of outside spiritual forces

beyond their understanding. With the introduction and further acceptance of Cartesian

anthropology, the belief in miracles, evil, God, etc., became one of many options, and no longer

a prerequisite to the human experience. Humankind had become disenchanted. Accompanying

this catastrophic disenchanted worldview was the buffered self. The buffered self is the belief

that contrary to the premodern understanding that humans were vulnerable to this plethora of

spiritual forces, we are now perceived as bound and insulated against any powers and

principalities that might hold sway over our humanness. The buffered person is, for all intents

and purposes, autonomous; resistant to the incorporeal agencies once understood as a necessary

aspect of being by those in the premodern age.3

The second of these philosophies stemming from the umbrella of Cartesian

anthropology is the dualistic self. The dualistic self, as understood by James K. A. Smith, is a

continuation of the aforementioned mind/body split. If we as Christians erroneously establish our

belief system and “right ideas” at the center of our worldview, we will thereby reap the

consequences of this reductionistic understanding. Namely, the assumed distinction and

differentiation between our souls and our bodies. In response to this Smith posits, “But what if

our bodies are essential to our identities? Weren’t we created as embodied creatures? What if the

3
Magnusson, Natalie. n.d. “Week 1 - the Modern Self.” Vimeo.com. Accessed November 21, 2023.
https://vimeo.com/876096422/05ff5fa02d?share=copy.
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core of our identity is located more in the body than the mind?”4 This reality of embodiment is

sacrificed, or at least significantly minimized, by those with a dualistic understanding of

personhood.

Finally, expressive individualism must be considered under the Cartesian

umbrella. This concept deeply plays into one of Green’s prerequisites to inwardness, the belief in

one’s inner self as their most authentic self. Namely, expressive individualism results when one

establishes oneself as their own sole moral authority. It builds upon the subordination of the body

exemplified by the dualistic split, fully disregarding community and extended relationships as

methods of personhood. O. Carter Snead expounds upon this when he explains that the “inner

voice is morally authoritative and defines the route forward to realizing the authentic self… the

expressive individual self is a ‘self-originating source of valid claims.’”5 To be human by this

standard, then, is to bind flourishing to the ideals and sentiments of the inward self.

The Influence of Modernity - Society and Politics

These modern interpretations of self have had severe consequences on both

society and the political sphere. Societally, the modern perception of the inward self has deeply

affected the way that those who operate outside of that definition are treated. If the dualistic

understanding of humanity presupposes that the mind is valued above the self, then those who

are deemed to be ‘unable to contribute’ are left discarded; they are no longer relevant to the

progression of the modern goal. A victim of this mindset in recent years has been the elderly. Far

from esteeming our elders, as Christians are implored to do in Scripture, a dualistic society

4
Smith, James K A. 2011. Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation, 31. Grand
Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic.
5
Snead, O. Carter. 2020. “The Anthropology of Expressive Individualism.” Church Life Journal. December
1, 2020. https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/the-anthropology-of-expressive-individualism/.
 5

interprets natural cognitive decline as a signal of weakness. Some have even offered the removal

of voting rights from senior citizens under the premise that one’s input is less-than if they are

unlikely to live to experience the consequence of their judgment on policy.6 Ultimately, many

elderly are ‘othered’ due to their inability to conform to the “right ideas” of a dualistic society.

In much the same vein, those with intellectual disabilities have historically been

victimized by the mind/body split. If one were to assume the reductionist perspective in which

the bodies are entirely relegated to regrettable containers for the mind (that which is worthless if

not capable of establishing a systematic methodology of “worldview-thinking” and “belief

system”),7 those with cognitive impairments are perceived as the least worthwhile members of

society. One need only look at the elevated homelessness levels in those with mental disorders to

note how the dualistic approach (and the umbrella of Cartesian anthropology as a whole) affects

us today.8

This line of thought proceeds onto the political front as well; abortion has

steadily become a politicized topic and focal point of both Liberal and Conservative platforming.

A clear catalyst and argument for abortion is the idea of personal autonomy. It could be argued

that the buffered self and its dialogue on autonomy might hold some influence here, but O.

Carter Snead argues that the idea of expressive individualism is more to blame for the

popularized acceptance of abortion. He says, “Because this account of human identity and

flourishing omits the lived reality of human embodiment, with all the consequent gifts and

challenges of dependence, vulnerability, and natural limits, it is not a suitable normative

6
Poama, A., & Volacu, A. 2023. Too old to vote? A democratic analysis of age-weighted voting. European
Journal of Political Theory, 22(4), 565-586. https://doi.org/10.1177/14748851211062604
7
Smith, James K A. 2011. Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation. Grand
Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic.
8
Fazel S, Geddes JR, Kushel M. The health of homeless people in high-income countries: descriptive
epidemiology, health consequences, and clinical and policy recommendations. Lancet. 2014 Oct
25;384(9953):1529-40. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61132-6. PMID: 25390578; PMCID: PMC4520328.
 6

foundation for the law and policy in this field.”9 That is to say that expressive individualism

ignores the reality of human dependence and embodiment, and the interconnectedness stemming

from the two; human beings are necessarily reliant creatures, and a denial of this facet of

creation’s reality does a disservice to those who are most vulnerable. Unfortunately, the unborn

remain a continued victim of this assumed personhood based on self-autonomy and

self-legislation, yet another example of how this view of what it means to be human affects

creation in the present day.

The Influence of Modernity - Ministry Life

The philosophical perspective of modernity has not just affected the way that

we interact in the social and political spheres, but in religious spheres as well. The Christians of

the current age must remain cognizant that many, if not most, of the West no longer subscribe to

the idea of the enchanted self. What does living in a disenchanted age look like from this point of

view? For one, it is occasionally considered impolite to simply pray for another person. In a time

where religion was an accepted fact as opposed to one option out of many, any amount of prayer

would be accepted as helping fight against unknown malevolent forces. Nowadays, prayer very

well may be taken as an offense by someone operating under the notion of the buffered self, an

offense to their alternate belief or lack thereof. Conversely, these problems run much deeper than

one taking offense at a religious gesture - the buffered self places barriers against prayer,

miracles, good and evil, etc. In a society plagued by disenchantment, ministry demands and

necessitates a pursuit of apologetics that was, at one point, wholly unneeded. Many would-be

believers are shielded from faith by the skeptical posture instilled in them by modernity.

9
Snead, O. Carter. 2020. “The Anthropology of Expressive Individualism.” Church Life Journal. December
1, 2020. https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/the-anthropology-of-expressive-individualism/.
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Finally, Cartesian anthropology has undercut the model of goodness. If, based

on Descartes’ model of thinking, true authority resides within each individual person, the result

is doom for the community of Christendom. If the individual plays the metaphorical role of

judge, jury, and executioner - the divorce of two believers, for example, is acceptable in all

instances. In this reality, the phrase “as long as I’m happy, I’m living my true self” becomes the

call to action, or slogan, of those who take up the mantle of self-governance. If the self can be

mastered through reason, what good is the body of Christ at all? If the model of human

flourishing is the end goal, goodness has less to do with Godly morality and inclusion than it has

to do with whatever “being a good person” is in the general imagination.

A world influenced by modernist anthropology is a den of narcissism. This is

not some disparate and alternate reality to our own that can be avoided through various methods

of counter-philosophy. At the risk of appearing cynical - this assumed perspective of what it

means to be human does not just influence the secular realm, but all ministry life, including

worship, pastoral care, and especially evangelism.

Bibliography:

Fazel S, Geddes JR, Kushel M. The health of homeless people in high-income countries:

descriptive epidemiology, health consequences, and clinical and policy

recommendations. Lancet. 2014 Oct 25;384(9953):1529-40. doi:

10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61132-6. PMID: 25390578; PMCID: PMC4520328.

Green, Joel B. 2014. Why Salvation?. Abingdon.

21, 2023. https://vimeo.com/876096422/05ff5fa02d?share=copy.

Poama, A., & Volacu, A. 2023. Too old to vote? A democratic analysis of age-weighted
voting. European Journal of Political Theory, 22(4), 565-586.
https://doi.org/10.1177/14748851211062604
Smith, James K A. 2011. Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural

Formation. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic.

Snead, O. Carter. 2020. “The Anthropology of Expressive Individualism.” Church Life