Secularism as Christian Psy Op?
Paul's Critique of the Law
A common argument against rabbinic Judaism’s emphasis on law is that “The law can’t make us good.” Whether articulated by Christians, Buddhists, and/or secular/ liberal Jews, the idea is that if you are obeying the law because God commands it, you’re doing it for external reasons. The beginning of wisdom is not “fear of the Lord,” as Proverbs expounds, but something else. Deleuze would call it “the plane of immanence.” 19th century Reform Jews, following Kant, would call it “autonomy.” Followers of Paul would call it “grace.” Meditators would call it “satori” (Enlightenment).
It’s not that the law doesn’t matter, but it no longer holds pride of place. As in Kohlberg’s tripartite psychological scheme, the law is for the conventional, while the wise and mature are “post-conventional.”
It is counter-cultural to believe that law itself might be insightful, not just because of secularism, but because the religious ground on which secularism is based follows the Christian critique of Judaism. To say we are all secular is to say we are all Christian. If I were being polemical, I would say that liberal Judaism is formally Christian, but with Jesus gutted from the picture. More specifically, it is Protestant. Catholic crosses place a bloody Jesus front and center while Protestant crosses display no Passion. In 19th century Europe, around the same time as the birth of Reform Judaism (which sought to reduce Judaism to “ethical monotheism”), Liberal Christianity sought to demote Jesus from his messiah status to an example of ethical teaching and being. The gap thus closed—intellectually—between Jews and Christians, provided both rejected any emphasis on Law as “Phariseeism” (a slur and stereotype as old as the Gospels).
But the biggest conflict between Judaism and Christianity, in my view, was not about the metaphysics of Jesus, but about the “so-what” of Jesus being the son of God. The so-what is that if Jesus is the messiah, the Law no longer matters. Christianity won that culture war and thus could discard the Jesus part. Put bluntly, secularism is a Christian psy op.
In subsequent posts I will give my best defense of the Law and the Pharisaic project. I will argue not just that the law is or can be spiritual and philosophical, but, more crucially, that there is more to life than the pursuit of spirituality, insight, and enlightenment. If you’d like to follow along, please support this project by becoming a paying subscriber.
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