Cornel West: Prophetic Pragmatism and Consequential Belief

Cornel West: Prophetic Pragmatism and Consequential Belief

​Cornel West is a Professor of African-American Studies and the philosophy of religion. Most of Cornel West’s ideas and philosophical views are based through a Christological lens. I personally find this viewpoint intriguing. Cornel West presents a new way of dealing with theories or beliefs in terms of the success of their practical application through religion. This new form of pragmatism is called Prophetic Pragmatism. 

​Personally, unlike West, I don’t like the word “religion”. I would rather use the term relationship. I understand that religion is a term that is easily relatable among all, however, I think that the definition is easily corrupted and too universal. Religion: the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods. Relationship requires action from both units of the parties. Religion requires action from only one part. 

​In Biblical terms, the word “prophet” is usually associated with the books of Isaiah, Daniel, or any other type of prophetic literature within the Bible. A prophet is someone who receivesword from God to tell to the people. The definition of the word “prophet” still hasn’t changed; however, the context that the word is placed in, has. We consume God’s word for our individual use. Each one of us who have access to tell and teach people about the Bible with confidence and belief, are contemporary prophets. 

​Whether we want to see it or not, we are living in a time of desperation. The world continues to spin out of control continuously. People are killing others, even unborn babies. World hunger is evident, even in our own communities. Criminal rates are increasing. The church is corrupted. Equality barely exists. Is there hope? Yes. 

​Cornel West states “The mark of the prophet is to speak the truth in love with courage—come what may.” West knows the world around him, but he also knows and believes in hope. He presents this idea through Biblical truths. He claims that it is nearly impossible to put forward rational defenses of one’s faith that can verify it’s veracity or even persuade one’s critics. But right after that, Cornel states that it is possible to convey to others the emptiness and loss of meaning that one feels if they are not grounded in a belief.  

​I think that all who have access to the Word of God are modern day prophets, West would agree. Biblical prophets didn’t have God’s Word in their hands, they had to receive God’s word through their perceptions. We have the ability to have God’s word in our hands, and share the message to the world. Are there consequences? Of course! 

​Christians are the ones who need to point out and stand on the practicality of why we need to believe. Each and every person in this world who does not hold a belief may not know that God exists, but they do recognize that they feel a deep void within them. What they do not discern, is that God fills that void with the Holy Spirit once they accept Jesus. Now stands a firm foundation that each human can relate to, whether they express it or not. Religion doesn’t have anything to do with this concept.This is Truth. Christians (modern day prophets) are called to share the Good News at hard times. In the Bible, when God would relay a message to a prophet, it was usually correct or encourage. Do we, as Christians, take part in that? 

​I am not so sure that we do. Yes, it is “easy” to stand up in front of church and talk about how Jesus died for our sins, specifically for our redemption; however, could we have the same confidence to relay a similar message in the middle of the streets? I am wondering why we spend so much time in the churches preaching about how Jesus saves us, when the people not in the churches need and crave that message more! We don’t want to face the consequences that will come when people hear our radical message. 

​Selfishness: the problem of this generation. We are so worried about our own salvation that we do not care about the salvation of others. I think that our human complex only cares about the eternity of the self. I personally do not think that our eternity is possible by just thinking “I believe”. Belief requires action and faith. God calls us to do so much more than just believing. Yes, believing is the first step, but next comes participation. Participation in God’s Word, prayer, missions, and outreach. Outreach is barely a focus anymore within the church. I think that we are so scared to risk our own social standard to share the Good News to even one person who isn’t in our clique. Belief in God causes consequences and change. As humans, consequence and change is panicking. Being selfless and sacrificing our distractions for our beliefs needs to be a priority in our relationship with God. 

​Lastly, I would like to address the problem of the word “love”. The mark of the prophet also requires this exact thing. Not the type of love that is seen in a Nicholas Sparks novel, but the love that is seen within Jesus: Agape Love. Agape love is self-sacrificial. We are called to love everyone sacrificially. Jesus shows us this type of love through the story of the Good Samaritan. Agape love is an action, not a feeling. We, as Christians, are called to joyfully put the well-being of others above ourselves. Knowing that we live in a fallen world, we cannot achieve this love without the ultimate Source. Jesus. 

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Is God Alive?

Why is God Dead?

            Considering my religious background, one might be curious as to why I would defend Nietzsche’s infamous statement “God is dead”. As Christians, we can take Nietzsche’s words and apply them to our thoughts and teachings. I was rather shocked at the discovery I made. To be honest, I felt a bit convicted after thoroughly investing Nietzsche’s vivid statement. Maybe we truly are killing God, or at least the power of His Word. Maybe we already have. The church.

            Before diving into Nietzsche’s claim, it is important to note that he is known as the atheistic existentialist. Existentialism simply means the thought of how individuals came to exist and how individuals interact in the world. The questions that rise when thinking about existentialism are: Why am I here? Why are we here? What does “the good life” look like if there is no clear purpose in life? Nietzsche makes several claims that clearly supports him being an atheistic existentialist.

            Knowing that Nietzsche was a professor of the New Testament allows us to recognize that he had a great understanding of Biblical language. All through the Bible we can see master-slave relationships. The Bible goes as far to say that we individuals are servants or slaves to God. How can we be slaves to God when we are free to do whatever we want? Also, our freedom becomes more prevalent as time progresses. The only possible outcome that Nietzsche discovers is that the Master has died. We no longer have a master controlling us.

            Nietzsche presents a story about a madman that is helpful in understanding his idea of God being dead. Nietzsche opens his anecdote with a madman running to the marketplace to a group of people who don’t believe in God. During this time the madman runs around and yells “I seek God! I seek God!” After this, many of the men around him made fun of his statement. The madman then explains that all of us have killed God. The madman goes through a large explanation as to why and how we have killed God. Nietzsche then explains that it is known that the madman went into the churches and sang “What are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?” My exact question.

            To some extent, I completely agree with Nietzsche’s idea and I think that all Christians should be open to the thought. In the world we live in, we don’t need a God for anything but an endless hope. We find love in anything or anyone. We find support in technology and social media. We have the freedom to say whatever we want, whenever we want. We have the ability to receive anything that we need in this world from everything but God. We don’t look to God for support.  We look to the world and what it offers.

            I think that Nietzsche explains the Christianity problem of this generation! If I were to go to many different youth individuals and ask them if they need God, most of the youth would honestly hesitate to answer. To them, their lives are perfect and they have the concept of immortality; therefore, they do not need to worry about God and their eternal life because the afterlife is far away from the individuals due to their age. I believe that we have entered an age where needing God isn’t a priority. What this generation “needs” is the latest and greatest iPhone, or the best fashion trends, or the latest Netflix shows and the top forty music hits! Sounds like a dangerous path to me!

            I think that we haven’t killed God, because God does exist. What I do think is that we have put a block in our minds and hearts that pushes God out. We live in a world of distractions. We can’t open the Bible without having our phone right next to us. All of the distractions of the world blinds us from God’s work. God still is active in the daily life just as he was in the Biblical times, we just have killed the desire to want to know about him because we want to know about the latest news of the top celebrities. Our connection with God seems to be weakened by the constant connection to Wi-Fi. How do we fix it?

            Clearly, finding a way to fix the overall problem is ludicrous. It’s impossible to fix a problem that is so easily attained by each individual. I think a good place to start fixing the problem is within the churches. As stated above, Nietzsche explains “What are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?” The church needs to bring God back to life! Our congregation is falling…the Lord’s Word isn’t impacting…the youth are only there because their parents make them go! I think that we need one person to believe in the power of God in each church. Clearly most church goers are just walking through the motions. If they weren’t, there would be a radical difference within the church and we would see more of God’s actions.

            Preachers are holding back because they only want the numbers in the church. They do not talk about the end times near as often as they used to because they do not want to scare their church-goers into a relationship with God. Each individual thinks that they are perfect and do not need improvement. Preachers are scared to let their church-goers know that they need a savior! All of the reasons that Nietzsche states why we have killed God, leads us to the reason why we need a Savior. The constant distractions and freedoms that we now possess allows us to travel into sin much easier. Sin leads to eternal death.

            Nietzsche clearly states that we have come accustomed to not needing a God; however, I claim, what we don’t realize enough is that we need a Savior! We have killed the idea of needing God on earth because we don’t need to be saved while we are alive, but when it is all said and done, we will wish that we would have wanted a God throughout our entirety of life. God doesn’t need us, we need Him. Without His Word and comfort, we would be lost. Without His love, we would not know how to love. We need God much more than what we know. God is alive.