We Must Relearn How to be Human

What I've been trying to do in this space

Photo by Andriyko Podilnyk on Unsplash

When I started writing this newsletter a few years ago I set out with a mission statement that I have moved on from. That mission was a good one: to look beneath appearances of Social Myths to identify what is really at stake in our cultural conflicts. It was a form of cultural analysis that I still practice in some ways. But my focus has shifted over the years. Since the publication of On Getting Out of Bed I have written many articles on mental health, for example. I have noticed another theme in my writing in the last year, probably inspired by my writing and revising of To Live Well. And I believe this theme is driven by a thesis which has become the new mission statement for this newsletter: we must relearn how to be human.

That’s the short version. The long version is something like this:

Because of the dehumanizing forces of consumerism, bureaucracy, technology (A.I. in particular), addictions, secularism, and individualism, we have become alienated from the practices and habits of being human. This alienation is most commonly treated with more of the same poison that causes the alienation (e.g. A.I. chatbots to cure loneliness). To resist this decay of our humanity means (1) relearning the basics of life and (2) choosing not to do all that we can do (my favorite Ellul paraphrase). The goal of relearning the basics of life is to live into the creational reality of who God designed us to be, rather than defining our own telos (primarily through consumerism).

It seems to me that much of my writing of the last year can be categorized as either (1) or (2) with the underlying thesis being that we need to rehumanize our lives in light of our telos or else be consumed by the machine.

For example, I’ve written about how to read a novel, how to reclaim your inner-thought life, how to cultivate the life of the mind, how to mentor, how to fail, how to speak, and so on. I know that “how to” articles can be popular on the Internet, but these are not esoteric topics. These are basic life skills. And yet each of these articles has found a readership. Why? I think because there is a hunger for human wisdom.

We have been conditioned by our environment to behave in certain ways, to respond in certain ways to stimuli, but those behaviors are driven by a false assumption of what it means to be human. We are conditioned to behave as radically autonomous individuals who are pursuing their fully actualized lives, when in reality we belong to God. A radically autonomous self has no obligation to read books, to cultivate an inner thought life, mentor others, learn to fail well, speak graciously, and so on. They only have an obligation to themselves. Conditioned in this way, we must work to relearn how to function as fully human, relearn how to accept our obligations to our neighbors and God. We must even relearn how to accept our duty before God to pursue excellence with the gifts He has given us, like intelligence, instead of squandering it on distractions.

And for some of us, I think this will mean that we need basic instruction or contemplation about prototypical human practices and events like speaking, mentoring, dating, parenting, aging, and dying. We may not need others to instruct us, but we may need to slow down and contemplate these practices and events ourselves. The automatic way we have been going about life which culture has taught us to accept has to be rejected because it’s based on a false anthropology, one that degrades the human person. And so perhaps the most important thing we all can do is slow down and think: how do I make friends? Don’t Google. And certainly don’t ask A.I. Think for yourself. Wrestle humanly and prayerfully with the problem. This will cultivate wisdom in yourself. Also consider seeking the counsel of wise friends. The point is that in slowing down and studying the basic ways we live, whether that’s through the wisdom of the wise or primarily through your own contemplation, we can choose to live a more human life, embracing who God designed us to be and living into that creational reality rather than pursuing an agenda of autonomous pleasure seeking.

The other aspect of my new mission statement is the duty to not do all that we can do, and this applies especially to technology, but it fits with this larger thesis about losing our humanity. I have in mind here the several articles I have written about A.I. “offloading” bedtime stories, education, and ministry for us. What they all have in common is the idea of using technology to shortcut our way through a problem that by design is good for us. We are only going to be offered more and more options for “easing” our lives, and the questions we will need to ask at each juncture are: is this making me more or less human? Is this honoring the person God created me to be or dishonoring him or her? Is this pleasing to God or not?

Some group of people will choose not do all that they can do, will choose not to adopt all the technology, all the power, all the advantages available to them. And that will cost them. Eventually it will cost them dearly. But it will cost much more to lose their humanity. The promise of A.I. is that we can “offload” our cognitive work onto a machine so that we are freed up to do other things. But the grim reality is that the vast majority of us are freeing up our minds not to read great novels and watch great films but to scroll on TikTok. Addiction has taken the place of contemplation and cognitive processing. We are not being freed for leisure. We’re being freed to a more profound form of enslavement. So the second part of my new mission statement is that we must choose not to do all that we can do in order that we can live as God designed us to live as fully human.

Thankfully, I think the church is in a great position to be an outpost of resistance to these dehumanizing forces because it is an inherently embodied institution that holds a high view of the human person because of the Imago Dei. I’m confident that while many people will take the path of least resistance and acquiesce to A.I. and consumerism and individualism, a confident minority will hold on to a belief that human-written sermons are superior to A.I.-written ones. That human connections are superior to A.I. chatbots. That we need to contemplate the basics of human life rather than just accept society’s norms. That books are good and worth reading when they are good. Some churches will choose to adopt the culture’s narrative, as they always have. And God will work through that, as He always has. But my admonition to you would be to do the hard work of meeting in person (as Paul commands) for worship, making friends, reading books, sacrificing time for people, studying your habits, contemplating your life, seeking wisdom, and trusting God.

We’ll see how long this new mission statement lasts, but for now, expect me to continue writing articles urging you to relearn how to be human, as God designed you to be, for His glory.