Be true to yourself

Christian Century, Nov 15, 2003

Expressive individualism, says Charles Taylor, is the view that each human being must find his or her personhood without surrendering to the imposition of tradition or society. Bequeathed by the Romantics of the late 18th century, expressive individualism was embodied in the artistic and intellectual elites of the 19th century (think Ralph Waldo Emerson).

It became a mass phenomenon in the 20th century, especially in the 1960s, captured in slogans like "Find yourself' and "Do your own thing." Expressive individualism is characterized by a strong reluctance to criticize others' values. Religion has not been untouched by this form of individualism, of course. Taylor says the current preference for a spirituality not tied to traditions or restitutions was presaged in William James's Gifford Lectures, delivered a century ago and published as The Varieties of Religious Experience. James could well have coined the oft-quoted contemporary mantra, "I'm spiritual, but not religious," biased as he was toward individual expressions of religiosity and against corporate and cognitive forms of faith. James, argues Taylor, tended to ignore the fact that communities of faith not only pass on religious tradition but are generators of religious experience, and that spiritual intuitions become embodied in spiritual practices over time and are not just momentary "wows" (Varieties of Religion Today, Harvard University Press).