I wrote about this back in 2021, but I've found myself regularly coming back to a point that Hauerwas makes in Session 2. In many ways, the point he makes sits at the heart of my next book The Shape of Joy.
Willimon asks Hauerwas about what was fresh or radical in Barth's theology, then and now. Hauerwas responds that "Barth frees us from our subjectivities." This is a comment that highlights a theme that runs through their entire conversation about Barth.
As I describe in Part 1 of The Shape of Joy, due to the influences of thinkers like Descartes and Freud the modern self collapsed in upon itself. Following Hauerwas, we've become trapped within our subjectivities, imprisoned within our wavering emotions, fractured thinking, broken self-images, inner demons, neurotic ruminations, anxious obsessions, uncontrollable impulses, and wayward desires. We're a mess.
We trap God in this prison as well. We fret over if we believe in God anymore, and drown under the weight of our questions and doubts. Deconstruction is a highly neurotic journey.
Emotional freedom and relief comes, therefore, when we escape ourselves. When we become freed of our subjectivities. As the subtitle of The Shape of Joy puts it, there is a transformative power in moving beyond yourself.
