On Intentionality

Part 4, The Desolations of an Intentional Faith

I want to continue to reflect a bit more upon how modernity fragilized faith by shifting us from a cultural taken-for-grantedness to a marketplace of metaphysical choices.

As I’ve described, many lament this loss, and that sadness can tip toward nostalgia. We long for the homogeneous consensus that had once characterized Latin Christendom. Having lost this consensus we’re condemned to a decisional, effortful, and deliberative choosing of faith, over and over again. Faith as intentionality.

The desolations here are many. As I said, the very act of choosing faith over and over again is effortful, wearying, and exhausting. Do I still believe this? Do I still identify as a Christian? Should I leave my church? Do I want to get out of bed on Sunday morning? Decision fatigue sets in.

Next, given all the choices in the religious marketplace, we face chronic decision regret. Did we pick the right brand of Christianity? We look over denominational fences and think the grass is always greener. We also observe people wandering from tradition to tradition looking for a place to land.

Also, by privileging individual choice we create the conditions of fissuring and fracturing. The moment Martin Luther privileged the individual conscience over tradition--”To go against conscience is neither right nor safe”--a Pandora’s Box was opened. Now left up to the individual, faith has became a DIY project.

Scholars also describe a fourth problem. Beyond the issue of belief there is also the question of forming virtue. Forming virtue requires a thick culture. As scholars such as Alasdair MacIntyre and Stanley Hauerwas have argued, virtue emerges from a habitus, a communal ethos of social practices, religious tradition, normative expectations, patterns of living, and shared cultural worldview. Virtue is different from the content of an ethics class, like what to do with the Trolley Problem. Virtue concerns habits and dispositions. And you need a culture to form that character.

In short, when the habitus of Latin Christendom evaporated we lost our ability to cultivate virtue. We’re no longer embedded in a thick and rich moral culture that shapes and forms us. This, I think, is one of the reasons our politics has become so moralized. Politics has replaced virtue. I’m a good person not because of my character but because of how I vote. Politics is faux-virtue and ersatz character.

Summarizing, here’s how our loss of a taken-for-granted tradition affects the experience of modern faith:

Decision fatigue: It is effortful to keep choosing faith.

Decision regret: We worry over having chosen the “right” denominational brand of Christianity.

DIY Christianity: We privilege individual autonomy over submission to tradition and church authority.

Loss of virtue: We lack thick moral cultures that can form virtue.

Summarizing, calls for intentionality are occurring within this cultural context and these accompanying desolations. In fact, as I’ve suggested, the call for intentionality might not be a cure for the disease but symptomatic of the disease itself. By privileging individual choice and decision-making “being intentional” may be reinforcing the very things making us so sick.

And if that’s so, what might the alternative be? And is an alternative even possible?