The Virgin Mary and Modern Therapeutic Culture
History is full of pendulum swings. Human beings tend to overreact to errors by committing equal and opposite errors. To avoid driving the car into one ditch, we jerk the steering wheel so hard that we end up in the other ditch. I believe modern Western culture is currently stuck in a therapeutic ditch on the question of what it means to live a blessed life.
In 1966, a sociologist named Philip Rieff (1922–2006) wrote The Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith After Freud, a book that can only be described as prophetic. Rieff described a consequential shift he was then observing in American culture. For the first time, he noted, Western man was attempting to organize society without reference to God or any other external authority. Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), the father of modern psychoanalysis, celebrated this loss of external authority and pointed his patients inward for meaning and identity in its stead. Thus, in Freud and those who built upon his work, “therapeutic culture” was born.
In therapeutic culture, the individual no longer finds purpose and well-being in commitment to God or community; rather, she finds herself by looking inward—by being committed to her own well-being above all. We no longer inherit meaning and identity from our faith traditions or communities; we are now responsible for creating our own. Rieff wrote, “Religious man was born to be saved; psychological man is born to be pleased.”
In modern society, few question the therapeutic legacy we’ve inherited. Just as a fish remains oblivious that it exists in water, we struggle to distance ourselves from modern assumptions about life. It’s the air we breathe. How do you find happiness? Of course, you prioritize what you want. More self-care. More self-esteem. Love yourself. Treat yourself. Get rid of any person or situation that makes you feel uneasy. These are the unstated mantras we live by.
But what if we’re wrong? Consider this: Today, there is more focus on positive mental health than at any other time in recorded history. We spend more money and devote more energy to reducing mental health stigma and providing therapeutic and pharmaceutical solutions than ever before. And yet, by every measure, we are the loneliest, most anxious, and most depressed generation on record. Why are our efforts not working?
Could it be that the pendulum has swung too far in the therapeutic direction? For all the good that comes from emphasizing mental health, might our extreme inward focus prevent us from seeing fundamental realities that previous generations took for granted?
I’ve long been struck by Mary’s response to the angel Gabriel’s message that she would be God’s chosen instrument through whom he would send his Son into the world. Upon hearing that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her, though a virgin, and cause her to bear the Son of God in her womb, Mary responded, “Behold, I am a servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).
Mary did not ask follow-up questions. She did not ask for a sign. She believed God’s word and submitted her life to God’s will. Immediately after, she went “with haste” to share the news with her cousin, Elizabeth, who was also miraculously pregnant in old age with John the Baptist. During their meeting, the same Spirit who would impregnate Mary filled Elizabeth, causing her to exclaim loudly, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Luke 1:42)!
Note that Mary was “blessed” among women yet none of her earthly circumstances—the things we typically associate with a blessed life—had changed. She was still unknown and unnoticed by the world around her. She had not inherited any wealth. In fact, from one angle, you could argue that her life was about to become immeasurably more difficult. She would bear a child and endure all the pain and strife typically associated with childbirth and childrearing. She would undoubtedly face shame resulting from an unwed pregnancy. The only thing that had changed—and the sole impetus for her new status as “blessed among women”—was God’s promise and her faithful submission to that promise. Mary was blessed because she had given herself completely to God.
I believe therapeutic culture gets the meaning of the blessed life wrong. You don’t find happiness, fulfillment, and meaning by prioritizing yourself above all. The pathway to true and lasting blessedness doesn’t come through getting our desires but through giving ourselves. We don’t discover joy by prioritizing ourselves but by completely giving ourselves back to the One who made us. Pursue your own happiness above all, and you’ll find yourself miserably enslaved. Willingly and joyfully enslave yourself to Christ, and you’ll find the freedom God created you to enjoy. Or as Jesus put it later in Luke, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it” (9:24).
Jesus won’t make all your problems go away and you may even still need therapy, but he will put you on the path to the blessed life. It’s not found within yourself; it’s only found in him.
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