On Experiential Idolatry

Something's been bothering me lately, and usually when that happens I think about it for a while and then I decide to write about it. I want to do three things here. I want to present an anecdotal situation, analyze both parts of it, and then evaluate based on what I'm observing.

Here's a metaphorical situation which I've encountered before, but it's been told a few different ways to me so I'm not thinking of any particular person. For example, there is a male person who is going to a retreat. On this retreat, there is a lot of talk about religious vocation. During the adoration session, this person feels inspired by some means to want to become a priest. He feels affirmed in this call when he prays and talks to his adviser (person in charge of the retreat) and it feels right for him, so he goes and pursues seminary work.

Of course, this may sound like a familiar situation, and one which many people favor. Some may ask, oh Aristocrates, why does this bother you so much? What could you possibly be thinking? To analyze this situation, I want to look at two parts of what is going on. The first part of the situation is that God gives grace through prayer, conversation, service, and many other means. To see God's grace is a wonderful thing, and when proper discernment is done about God's grace being present, rejoicing in God's grace is good. Of course, there are situations where the community will say God's grace is present when it violates the supreme law of love, and that's where discernment is needed. But this isn't what I want to talk about.

The problem with this scenario is the equation made between seeing grace, having a feeling, and then equating it to God's will to make a particular choice (in this case for the man to become a priest.) Grace can be experienced in many different ways, and this grace can cause us to have particular feelings. Happy or sad feelings because grace can also lead us to look at the hard parts of ourselves and where we need conversion. However, when grace causes us to think about negating free choice, or thinking that God's love will only come (or will mostly come) if a person makes a particular choice, then this equation must be questioned.

I want to name this phenomenon experiential idolatry using the philosophical definition of idol given by Jean-Luc Marion. Simply put, the idol is anything which saturates our image of God in one particular phenomenon (thing, concept, etc.) In the example above, the retreat experience is placing his image of God in the particular calling of becoming a priest, which hinders his decision making ability. Grace should influence our decisions, but just because one has a feeling of something in response to a particular experience doesn't mean that God loves us more if we make that choice. Also, we have to be honest and admit when we are making choices for ourselves.

For the man above, there are many reasons he might consider being a priest. Some people like service, some people like Church, and others like ontological assimilation. None of these things are necessarily God's will. The danger in choosing a particular vocation and thinking it's God's will and instilling this belief in others is that we can believe that God doesn't love people as much if they don't follow their particular vocation. To limit God in this way is a serious issue because it contributes to idolatry and draws worship away from an infinite God of infinite possibilities.

The solution for this ministerial problem is simple. Help people evaluate their choices honestly, help people think about what's good for them, but take out the language of God's will, and avoid the jump from feeling in experience to necessitating a certain choice. It doesn't matter if we "need" priests in the Catholic Church, to build psychological pressure on people to move toward religious vocation by emphasizing God's will is morally problematic. God's will must equate with love, and this includes not using others. Use of others, also includes promoting experiential idolatry