The Demon is in too Deep

Recently Padre Steve pointed out a Protestant minister to me named Tim Keller, who is the founding pastor of one of the most prominent Methodist congregations in New York City. Dr. Keller is popularly known for his roll in political commentator Kirsten Powers' conversion from secular atheism to Evangelical Christianity. Listening to a lecture of his from eight years ago I was pleasantly surprised to hear that he is very much in line with the thinking of the likes of George Weigel and Pope Francis on the need for a new approach to evangelization (what he calls evangelism). Don't get me wrong, Dr. Keller is Protestant all the way (he talks a lot about justification by faith), but he recognizes that the game has changed, if you will. We live in a post-modern world where the very foundations that Christian thought are built on: the reality of sin, the need for redemption, the existence of objective truth, no longer apply. As a result people of faith can't engage the world under the assumptions of the past because, as he puts it, "the demon is in too deep."

Dr. Keller uses a 1959 talk by twentieth century Welsh minister Dr. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones as a launching pad for his rather wide ranging presentation. Lloyd-Jones references Mark 9 where the disciples weren't able to expel a demon which Jesus ends up casting out with ease. When they ask him why they were unsuccessful in performing the exorcism, Jesus replies that this kind of devil can only be expelled with prayer (Matthew's account says prayer and fasting). Lloyd-Jones explains that Jesus is telling his disciples that the ordinary, business as usual way of doing things no longer work; the demon is in too deep. This passage serves as an allegory for our contemporary society (the boy) and the church (the disciples), and how strategies that worked in spreading the Gospel in the past no longer apply because we are dealing with a different "spirit."

Keller goes on to say is that in previous generations, after Western society had been Christianized, the roll of the evangelist was primarily to awaken whatever dormant, complacent faith was within a person's heart so that he or she would become a more fervent believer. The vast majority of people already knew about Original Sin, personal sin and the guilt that comes along with it, redemption and that in Jesus we encounter the very incarnation of the Truth. In a way the evangelist didn't make the first announcement of the Gospel, but more like a first re-introduction of the Good News. Our own post modern world has lost almost all sense of these things, especially the concept of objective truth. Today we are not dealing with a population of lukewarm Christians in need of a good old fashioned revival. We face a world that has rejected Gospel, doesn't believe in sin, at least not in the traditional sense, and so sees no need for redemption. At the foundation of contemporary belief is that there is no objective truth.  The evangelist not only needs to be expert in the Scripture, but also needs to be a bit of a philosopher who can make the case that the post-modern rejection of truth is self-falsifying proposition (this is my paraphrase, but I think it captures what Dr. Keller is trying to say).

One could argue that the Protestant question that has informed it's evangelizing has been "am I saved." To a certain extent the Catholic questions have been "am I orthodox," and "do I receive valid sacraments." The relevance of these questions for those to whom they are being directed is their acceptance of a Christian ethos, and a culture that believes that sin is real and we are need of salvation, or that their is Truth and error leads to sin and unhappiness, and the sacraments are avenues of grace we need to be forgiven of sin and strengthened from falling again. But if the wider culture believes that there is no sin, just less good choices, there is no truth only alternate lifestyles and we are lords of our own destiny in no need of Divine assistance, the questions are meaningless. While our contemporary culture accepts "spirituality" (even some atheists speak of spirituality) it is vague and highly personal. We are not conditioned to examine or question ourselves, but to justify our own behavior, seemingly at all costs. As evangelists we are not simply dealing with a more wide spread apathy. We are dealing with a de-Christified world. The demon is in too deep and has perverted the culture, not simply anesthetized it.

The old ways no longer work and it is for us as the Church, not to change doctrine to accommodate the "new reality," but to go deeper ourselves. If the demon is in too deep, we need to go deeper. We need to understand why we believe what we believe in a more profound way and be ready to explain it to a skeptical world, not taking for granted that people share the same presuppositions as ourselves. For all of us, the most important thing is an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. Prayer is the starting point, and with it a deep immersion in Scripture. As a Catholic I would say that a Sacramental spirituality is essential. The journey won't be easy. There will be many set backs. But our times call for a more radical commitment than maybe at any other time since the first three centuries of the Church. If we remember that it is, in the end, Christ's work, and he will give us the strength and wisdom we need, anything is possible; there won't be any demon that can't be cast out, no matter how deep it is.