in the age of 'I'...what?
modernity has done away with transcendence, heroism, and metanarratives. now we're all disillusioned and unmoored.
Heroism, transcendence, metanarrative—what are they and what part do they play in the 21st century? Do they even have a role anymore? All three require us to give up certain values inbred us by modern culture and take up a set of morals that would seem to us ancient and useless, but in fact are timeless and essential for flourishing.
We are living in the Age of I. Nothing much matters if it doesn’t make me feel included and/or the center of everybody else’s world. In the Age of I, sustainable values really mean nothing if the reward is not immediate and does not benefit ourselves in any way.
Any story worth following has at least one character, if not a whole cast, that has a larger goal in mind. For instance, in Hadestown, a Broadway show I particularly enjoy which recounts a version of the Orpheus and Eurydice legend, Orpheus has a goal to rescue Eurydice that entices him to follow her into Hadestown, a hellhole (literally) of hopelessness. Not only Eurydice, but all of the slaves that have sold themselves to the ‘almighty Mr. Hades’, he intends to lead out into the living world again, so that all of them can regain their lives outside of their contracts with Hades. Throughout the story, Orpheus has doubts and meets trial after trial, yet he renews himself with calling to mind memories of Eurydice’s love for him and his staunch belief in justice for all of Hade’s slaves. In short, Orpheus had a plot line to live in (metanarrative), people to live for (heroism), and an ethical standard to live by (transcendence). Without these three components, the Broadway show would have fallen flat.
Perhaps you can glimpse the monomyth or ‘hero’s journey’ through my brief summary of Hadestown. Joseph Campbell, discoverer of the hero’s journey idea, was highly successful in his finds and they obviously play out in all sorts of creative endeavors like movies, books, tv shows, and fictional podcasts.
modernity wrecked the philosophy of the hero
In The Four Loves C.S. Lewis discusses how the past ought not to be held up as if we should go back to it, like we’ve missed out if we were not born in a ‘golden’ age, as if its heroes were all perfect saints. Nor should it be that we share a false history with certain parts left out or emphasized to convince somebody of what history should have been as if it actually were that way. What caught me was his comment on heroes and myths.
The stories are best when they are handed on and accepted as stories. I do not mean by this that they should be handed on as mere fictions (some of them are after all true). But the emphasis should be on the tales as such, on the picture which fires the imagination, the example that strengthens the will. The schoolboy who hears them should dimly feel—though of course he cannot put it into words—that he is hearing saga… (The Four Loves)
In our modern science-oriented way of thinking through anything, it seems ludicrous that we would talk about, let alone teach children about people and events and gloss over the ‘historicity’ of them. Instead we analyze the heck out of every piece of content, searching for its ‘moral tale’ and ‘historical worth’. Even the humanities have turned into fields of science. There is no wonder, aspiration and inspiration to be found in modern education’s version of any event that either happened historically or mythologically in university or public education. Instead, young people from five years old up until graduating higher education are taught the serious collapse of every great empire, what they did wrong, and all of the people that went down with them. I’m not saying we ought to be so nostalgic or biased toward certain events and people groups so that we lie about what happened. But there’s no doubt that stories are no longer meant to uplift and inspire courage in young people. Education is simply an avenue in which people are schooled in how to live in the ‘real world’ and achieve career-level positions in the workforce. If that is the case, obviously the ambitions of mythical or historical figures and how they achieved what they achieved through their transcendent values has less than zero worth to a professor.
Sadly, by the time my peers graduate from higher education, they have no interest nor see the value in figures like Joan of Arc, Machiavelli, Amelia Earhart, or George Washington unless their names be brought up to back our own 21st century political, spiritual, and personal identities or to defeat somebody else’s. These wonderful heroes of romantic feats and grand adventures are dragged out of the proverbial attic to either be stoned or shoved into unwanted limelight for causes they know nothing about. Their ghosts hover in all parts of life, inviting us to partake with them in unending life through feats of nobility and honor, yet we shove them away as if they annoyed us, distractions on our journey to Progress. Lewis says about each country’s historical background: “The image becomes dangerous in the precise degree to which it is mistaken, or substituted, for serious and systematic historical study. The stories are best when they are handed on and accepted as stories.”
Every historical (or mythological) figure surfaces to be humilated by their failures, having precisely the opposite effect that they would have had a hundred years ago, fifty years ago, even. Why? Well, the Age of Reason entered the equation, discarding such ‘high ideals’ as heroes, romance, bravery, and transcendence. Everything that matters in the end must be sensory, physical, and all around, tangible. We tried to hold up heroes before a modern audience and expected them to do what they could not, and because they failed us, we swung in the opposite direction, choosing instead to belittle and tear them down for the fatal human beings that they are. What is left in their place is nothing but a mirror with our own equally flawed face staring back.
In short, the baby has been discarded with the bathwater.
we do not inherit good judgment or virtue
“What does seem poisonous…is the perfectly serious indoctrination of the young in knowably false or biased history—the heroic legend drably disguised as text-book fact. With this creeps the tacit assumption that other nations have not equally their heroes; perhaps even the belief—surely it is a very bad biology—that we can literally ‘inherit’ a tradition.” (The Four Loves
None of us are actually heroic in nature simply because we watched Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee carry the one ring up Mount Doom. Harry Potter and co. were, in fact, the crew to dismantle the dark Lord Voldemort; not us. You may have annihilated the opposing team on Call of Duty, but that makes no impact on real nations of this world fighting real bloody wars.
Whether or not we want to admit it, we are more prone to growing into sacks of potatoes that intake tales of heroic feats rather than stepping up into the role ourselves. Nationally speaking, it is the same; Americans today are not legendary figures held in honor simply because Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr, and others (who by the way, were immigrants to our at the time, new country—everybody was) were key figures in the building of the States. We are not a ‘moral’ country, simply because the Founding Fathers and those who made up the early models of our individual states lived virtuous lives (which, many did not). Thankfully, our government somewhat still functions to protect the morals which made America, though that itself is debatable on every level. However, the people itself, which is what makes a country, do not somehow inherit value from past generations. And because we have chosen to leave behind moral standards, we have also forfeited the right to the Good Life, although by God’s mercy, He still grants us sacred rites of repentance and love that heal the gulf between Himself and us.
nothing to live inside of
We all need a story to be part of. We need rising action, climax, and resolution. The hero’s journey, referenced earlier, is key here.
The hero is the role we can don, but a hero is nothing without his or her story which he acts inside of.
As a Christian, I take this a step further. We all craft our smaller stories that we want to produce and star in. Most of the time, our stories don’t turn out too well when our objective is to live for our own ends, and this is true because we were all made to be part of something grander.
Got Questions defines a metanarrative as “an overarching story or storyline that gives context, meaning, and purpose to all of life. A metanarrative is the “big picture” or all-encompassing theme that unites all smaller themes and individual stories. In building a house, there are many workers doing many individual jobs—plumbing, sheet rock, electrical work, roofing, etc.—but all of those contractors are working toward the same thing—completing a house. The blueprint is the “big picture,” the metanarrative that gives meaning to each contractor’s work. The plumber isn’t fitting pipes to nowhere; he is involved in a larger scheme.”
Huge stories, ones that encompass all of humankind, nature, and the (un)known universe, are large enough for us to flourish in. Our own distinct tales do matter especially to the One who spun each one at the beginning of time. However, if we live out each chapter as if the only end were our own joys or sorrows, it won’t be enough to sustain us. We will always be rewriting, rescripting because we cannot demand for life to go the way we dictate. It won’t follow our lead, simply put.
We live in a transient society which strips us of any story to make sense of the chaos around us. We are told is everything is relative, we make our destiny, and what matters to us doesn’t necessarily matter to anyone else. But Jesus extends a hand to join us in His narrative. He offers it to every single one of us—His special creatures. You see, we are the only ones that can act in His drama. Other living organisms play a part, but its minor. They cannot reciprocate His love nor love each other in quite the same way as human beings can. Nature praises and worships God, just not consciously. However, His image-bearers are able to desire to love Him and act upon it.
Our enemy is constantly making moves against the story that God has written for all of creation to live inside of. He often changes the narrative, upending, confusing, and switching sentences around to make us believe there is no order. Now, I think he has begun to tell us there simply is no metanarrative; that our own little games we play are all there is, nothing more.
I’ve been talking a lot about freedom. Part of living inside of the freedom that is always available is realizing that freedom isn’t the definition of ‘everything is up for grabs’; it’s an awakening to the story that lives inside all of us, that we are a part of, that we were ultimately designed for. We see this in novels, especially in medieval fantasy or mythological epics. But it’s also in songs or music albums, there being a cohesive theme and then each song a story of itself, explaining the philosophy and motives of the singer, while it still speaks of the larger narrative, a modern example being Taylor Swift’s evermore. John Eldredge details afternoons spent on his grandfather’s ranch,
I remember having a warm, settled feeling as I sat on the porch and listened to the older folks remembering the shared stories of their lives. My sense of security grew from an awareness that all this had been going on before me, that though I was part of it, I wasn’t all responsible for it.
In chapter four he laments,
“The central belief of our times is that there is no story, nothing hangs together, ad all we have are bits and pieces, the random days of our lives. Tragedy still brings us to tears and heroism still lifts our hearts, but there is no context for any of it. (The Sacred Romance)
Recognizing that I have the potential to be one of the heroes in a story that is being written all across human history has kept me afloat many a time. When I begin to feel the crushing weight of betrayal, lost relationships, and the encroaching darkness looms, I can only press on, knowing that in the end, it will all be worth it. Really, I don’t even quite know what the end will be. Yes, I am aware that I will spend eternity as the bride of Christ, with Him in His own city, forever and ever. Yes, this gives me peace and the greatest sense of excitement. But I have not experienced that fullness; what I have experienced is the decay of earth and all of its evil. Sometimes that feels more real than any mere whisp of Heaven that wafts by. In those moments, when my candle seems about to be snuffed out, a little chink of light in my mind recalls me to the true reality of things; that the hero must face rejection, suffering, and eventually, he/she will die. We all die a physical death, but we face another kind of death; either that of spiritual regeneration or of the self—and we get to choose which one we will partake in. All of us must eventually make a choice, whether on our deathbeds or at five year’s old.
nothing to live by
Transcendence, for the sake of this essay, pertains to ideals/experiences that are immaterial, spiritual in nature, and always purposeful in action. One anonymous writer from the Philosophy Institute explains,
“The concept of transcendence speaks directly to what makes human beings unique. Unlike other animals, humans do not merely react to the world around them—they actively engage with it, reflect on it, and seek to transcend the immediate experiences of life. This ability to transcend the material world, to reach into realms of thought, art, and spirituality, is what has allowed humans to build civilizations, create art, develop philosophies, and explore the mysteries of existence.”
Sadly, technology is slowly destroying any sort of preeminence in our culture. Although I do believe there is a movement back toward mysticism, meaningul Christianity, and the idea of a transcendent Being, the enemy is doing his best to waylay travelers on their journey back toward any semblance of morality.
Anybody can say they believe in anything, and no challenge will beset them to prove if what they claim to know is actually accurate. We all live comfortably in our homes, online shouting matches ensuing with no {visible} consequences to be had. Except, what are values worth if we are not tested and found to be living by them? Instead those who do stand up for Truth—capital ‘T’—are booed off the stage or told to shut up. And we so easily cave, going back to the our old lives, our own individual and boring stories. We want more, we know we could be heroic, yet we choose our couches, tv screens, or corporate career.
Humanity has resigned itself to living for the moment. “Put away those stuffy philosophy books and moralistic essays!” they cry, “Give us more to eat, more to drink, more to consume. Anything will do, but let it be quick, easy, and fun!” All the while, their body, spirit, and mind are falling to pieces, crying out from a weakened and ignore state, aching for real enrichment, to run toward. To move forward there must be rules. There can be no game if there are not limits or bounds to what players can and cannot do. The West sees rules as a bother, triggering, and not worth anybody’s notice. They scoff and spit at the signs warning them the cliff’s edge is approaching, even as they shut their eyes and find themselves free-falling into the abyss.
I almost have to laugh as I watch people shake their heads at the decline of Western civilization and human nature as a whole, wondering what will be the end of it all, while on the other side of their mouth condemning Christianity and tradition as if it were outdated nonsense.
Imagine every combat scene in a medieval or historic epic, where the soldiers’ strength is ebbing.
The fight has been going all through the night and into the next day without pause, and all hope has been dashed. Then one weary soldier spies another company of warriors on the crest of an embankment, and he cries out in wonder to his compatriots, all of them cheering even in their bloodsoaked conditions. Somehow, they rout the enemy, not only with numbers, but with their hearts in the battle at hand. Yes, the numbers matter, but so does the glimmer of hope in each of the tired soliders’ hearts in seeing their fellows join them in battle. They remembered themselves, what great feats they hoped to accomplish and why they were fighting in the first place. They had values that were worth living and dying for.
Take Emily St. Aubert, the young heroine I mentioned from Ann Radcliffe’s gothic tale The Mysteries of Udolpho (spoilers ahead, so don’t read this portion if you don’t want to know any details of the book). During and after having lost her father and mother almost at the same time, Emily falls in love with a young adventurer by the name of Valancourt, who desires to marry her because he loves her but also because her step-uncle desires to carry her away to some remote creepy castle and thereby hold her prisoner until he can marry her off to some cringy count. One problem remains: Count Montoni will not bestow his blessing on Valancourt and Emily’s union, forcing Valancourt to plead with Emily to escape the clutches of the count by fleeing and marrying in secret.
Emily refuses to do so, knowing that in good conscience she cannot marry Valancourt under false pretenses like their current circumstances.
Near the end of the tale, once Emily has endured much mental torment at the hands of Count Montoni and her loveless aunt, Valancourt finds her again after several long months (or years, I can’t recall) apart, begging for her hand. Again, Emily refuses, though she loves him more than life itself. Why? This time, Emily is wary of his moral character. She has heard that he encountered questionable folk and partook of criminal activity. Because Emily fell in love with Valancourt’s character, she is brokenhearted that she thought she knew this man when in fact, she did not. She mourns the man he used to be, pained when he recollects olden days spent in her and her father’s company. Emily cannot and will not, even to a man she loves, marry that which would betray her virtues—that which would betray her very nature.
We laugh at this somewhat melodramatic example. We are in good company with most of our society. It’s a farce, isn’t it? I mean, who really cares if the evil uncle won’t give his blessing—what is his word worth anyway? The past is the past, isn’t it? Why can’t she get over it and just hope to luck that Valancourt has left his immoral patterns behind? Well, maybe because that would mean Emily couldn’t be our heroine in the truest sense of the word, since to be a hero is to fight for what is really right, in all scenarios.
nobody to live for
Finally, we circle back to heroism.
In the Age of I, nothing matters except ourselves. Woefully, the state of the Body of Christ is not much better at this than the world outside the Church. We may boast to serve at church, go to Bible study and pray with others, even have many Christian circles in which we run; yet that does not equal a heart that is at root selfless and sacrificial. In fact, no run-of-the-mill ‘Christian’ can be solidly relied upon to forfeit her desires for the good of her neighbor when she herself does not live inside the metanarrative nor live by transcendent values. There can be no heroic acts if we refuse to partake in our roles as such.
A couple years ago, I had the pleasure of reading Le Morte Darthur by Sir Thomas Malory. At the end of the one chapter pertaining to Sir Tristram of Lyonesse there lies this quote: “So with great dole King Mark and Sir Tristram rode together; for it was by Sir Tristram’s will and his means to go with King Mark, and all was for the intent to see La Belle Isode, for without the sight of her Sir Tristram might not endure.” Ahh, we all sigh and women among their hands to their breast, smiling dreamily at their knight in shining armor.
Contrast this with wild sex scenes in pornographic fantasy YA fiction and entire 1,000 page ‘novels’ dedicated to talking about the hero’s journey in ‘finding themselves’. I think I know what books I’ll be reading in my spare time.
While Arthur and his knights’ behavior wasn’t exactly stellar, considering the amount of sleeping around that happened, there was still a chivalry, and attitude of self-sacrifice when it came to defending those weaker than themselves. In fact there are many accounts of knights coming to the rescue of religious figures, their fallen comrades, as well as womenfolk. Much of their service can be attributed to their awe and respect for God, as can be seen throughout the stories collected by Malory’s work.
In the Age of I, we do not choose to live for anybody. For the self, and only for the self, are decisions enacted. It would be madness to die for a distant friend or in defense of some random woman on the street. Of course, there is something of a flare for the dramatic in these romantic ballads, but nobody denies their gut reaction when they are awed by these men and women of renown. In fact, some part of us wishes we could be even an inch shy of who they seem to be.
We are a lonely and adrift generation, living on our own islands with oceans between each of us. True relationship always demands something of us, and since we don’t really like to give up anything that would cause us any amount of grief or discomfort, deep relationships don’t really exist in the majority of the world. Perhaps we have groups that we run in which seem to adopt the same hobbies or interests as we do, but could any of us claim to be or possess a friend who would stand up for us in our weakness and defend us to the world? Who would not back down even to us, when we defy truth or give in to darkness?
Instead, there is no anchor, no reason to go on as the bitterness of trials engulf us. Women are told to just ‘get over it’ after they’ve been abandoned when the one night stand is done—after all, that person had no ties to you, no commitments to you; you were both in it for the fun. Men are called misogynists for holding open a door for a woman or paying for their meals. Swipe right if that person isn’t what you would deem worth your notice. And forget having a family; it’s way more fulfilling to party it up all night, go to that concert who’s tickets cost a thousand bucks per ticket to get into. Blaine and John Eldredge discuss the population desolation that is occuring even as I write this; how whole nations like North Korea are actually worried that the current birthrates will never be able to supply enough people to regenerate those generations that are dying off. In certain countries, the idea of literally killing all elderly people since they are economically useless is actually a solution to the younger working class being able to pursue their dreams.
When did this become acceptable, my friends? When did euthanasia and abortion—just coverup words for mass murder—become standard practice for anybody who didn’t feed the self and our own indulgences? Being a good samaritan is virtually unheard of these days.
Counterintuitive as it may seem in our day, to live for another is what really fulfills us and completes our purpose on earth. It can’t culminate with us as the end, and yet God does not treat as the means either.
My friends, you were made for more. Upholding virtue, acting heroically, and playing a part of the cosmic play we were born for is what gives us ultimate meaning and satisfaction even when our circumstances seem to say otherwise. As I’ve quoted elsewhere, true freedom is doing what we ought to do and becoming who we were originally designed to become.
okay, so eveything is falling apart. what do we do?
Firstly, I hate contradicting myself, but everything isn’t falling apart. There is always hope, even if it is just a fool’s hope, as Gandalf so wisely put it. I don’t like self-help tips normally, but in this case, I don’t want to leave everyone on a dire note of the world’s end in sight, so I figured it might be appropriate to offer some tricks to keep the world’s end at bay.
Grow up — Scott Peck once said, “Emotional sickness is avoiding reality at any cost. Emotional health is facing reality at any cost.” So, grow up. Embrace reality as it is, because the reality for the mature person is Jesus Christ. Part of that reality is that the narrative you are living in is pretty small and honestly inane at times. If you find yourself falling prey to this desolate feeling inside, wondering what it’s all for, it might be time to reevaluate if what you’re living inside of is big enough to house the deepest desires of your heart.
Find yourself some values that last — do yourself a favor and ignore all this nonsense about everything being subjective and up for debate. Clearly, that isn’t working for you or for anyone else. It’s wrong to murder, no matter the age of a person, period. There’s no need to waste time arguing matters that don’t need to be argued. Instead, go read some classical literature where traditional values which actually uphold humankind are discussed and taught (or if you can’t find the time to do that, go read some of Megha Lillywhite’s articles on her Substack, Classical Ideals).
Act heroic by not isolating yourself — heroic acts either culminate in standing up for one’s values or for another person (or group of people). If you do not have either of these things, don’t call yourself a hero, and don’t even try to act like one, because it won’t work. Find some friends, create deeper bonds with family members, and in general, choose to give the last cookie to your loved one. Get off the TV or your phone and touch grass, inviting somebody you appreciate to go along with you—maybe offer to give them a lift so they can save a buck. Heroes have to start somwhere.
Jesus as the ultimate metanarrative, transcendent, and hero
I think I’ve put a lot of pressure on each of us, and I won’t apologize for it. I think we need a little pressure.
With all of what I said, however, ultimately we are not the heroes of the world. Yes, we ought to to enact heroic feats, but only because we serve the greatest Hero of all—the King Himself. Jesus has already claimed victory over sin, death, and the powers of this world.
He is the main character of the narrative He wrote with His Father in the beginning of time, and only He offers transcendent meaning to life. We can find strength and redemption at the Cross, where that symbol spurs us on to greater heights, rather than be discouraged or confused by the enemy’s ploys.
As so, as we’ve heard many a time in those medieval songs of old, onward!
