day no. 15,946: personality and pelagianism

"I have been anxious to bring out two points. I have wanted to try to expel that quite unchristian worship of the human individual simply as such which is so rampant in modern thought side by side with our collectivism; for one error begets the opposite error and, far from neutralizing, they aggravate each other. I mean the pestilent notion (one sees it in literary criticism) that each of us starts with a treasure called 'Personality' locked up inside him, and that to expand and express this, to guard it from interference, to be 'original', is the main end of life. This is Pelagian, or worse, and it defeats even itself. No man who values originality will ever be original. But try to tell the truth as you see it, try to do any bit of work as well as it can be done for the work’s sake, and what men call originality will come unsought. Even on that level, the submission of the individual to the function is already beginning to bring true Personality to birth. And secondly, I have wanted to show that Christianity is not, in the long run, concerned either with individuals or communities. Neither the individual nor the community as popular thought understands them can inherit eternal life: neither the natural self, nor the collective mass, but a new creature." -- C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, Membership

Personality, as defined by many Christians, is Pelagian.

Pelagianism maintains that people are not radically corrupted by sin, that they retain a will that is free to choose to pursue Him, and that they have the ability to secure His favor, if they so choose. It is an unfounded faith in an inner light. Many place this kind of faith in their personality. They work hard and take countless inventories and read endless articles trying to isolate the exact ingredients of their personality. The idea is that whoever that turns out to be, is true, good, and beautiful, because it's you... the REAL you and “God don’t make no junk.”

For many, their personality is a sacred object of intense interest and devotion. It demands sacrifices and it vents its wrath on those who refuse to acknowledge it. Personality dwells in unapproachable light and is immutable. It rewards those who seek it earnestly. It justifies those who find it. It defines the individual and insists that everyone else use the same dictionary.

Personality, for many, is a place of refuge. It never judges, unless that's your personality, in which case, that's just who you are and what you do. It excuses all sin and provides alibis for any attitude.

What many of us call our individualism or our personality needs to be repented of. It needs to die if it is going to be saved. It cannot be redeemed by worshiping it. If it is served, it falls down like Dagon. For many of us, what we like most about ourselves will not survive the Refiner's fire and won't unless we turn our backs on it and lift our naked souls up to God. If we side with our personality, we side with Pelagianism, and it along with us will be cast out of God's good presence and into the hell of being left alone with our "real" selves for eternity.

Hebrews 4:13

Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

It is only in turning to God that we become who we truly are. It is in dying that we live and in the resurrection that we become. We do not find signs of life the harder we look inside. Personality when sought as an end is a dead end. Personality is received by looking somewhere else. The most creative, dynamic persons are those not trying to be creative or dynamic for it's own sake. They are free to be who they were created to be because they aren't obsessed with who or what they are, but focused on the One who created them.