Submitting ourselves to paradigms that are not rooted in Christ nor oriented towards God shapes us to become inherently disordered.
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Defining Paradigms
In general when we're speaking about paradigms we mean the following:
A general mental model or framework for anything... [or] an example serving as a model for others to imitate or pattern their lives on. 1
In the science of cognitive development, paradigms are typically referred to as concepts, and are understood as representations of categories of things in the world. 2 Throughout our lives we categorize, define, and assimilate information into paradigms to take what are otherwise chaotic inputs of information, and order them so they can be understood.
We have paradigms for literally everything, which we can describe when we phrase them as answers to a question like:
What is...
a man?
a woman?
success?
healthy?
marriage?
happiness?
love?
The list could go on and on, but that's the general idea.
What are Disordered Paradigms?
Perhaps the better question is, what is disorder? The easiest way to understand this concept is as the opposite of something rightly ordered, and as such it serves as prelude to chaos. In the first chapter of Genesis God is ordering things amidst a chaotic nothingness. 3, 4 In fact, order appears to be a necessary precondition for all life, and the universe itself. 5, 6, 7 If your genetic coding were to become disordered in the form of a faulty gene causing your skin to be extremely fragile, you could experience painful blisters or wounds any time your skin experienced friction. Imagine how difficult it would be to go through everyday life like this. This example is actually a rare skin disorder called Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB). 8, 9 When we hold disordered paradigms concerning aspects of creation or life itself, we inevitably become dysfunctional, and suffer like those afflicted by EB.
Charitable Opportunity: After doing some research I found a non-profit that is highly rated on Charity Navigator, that is actively funding research to find a cure for Epidermolysis Bullosa. EB Research Partnership is based out of New York City, and appears to be driving much of the research for this condition. You can find their website here if you would like to support them. I am not guaranteeing their efficacy or legitimacy, but based on prior professional experience with non-profits this organization appears to be legitimate, and actively working towards helping people suffering from this terrible disorder.
As a Catholic Christian, a life rightly ordered is one rooted in Christ.
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:1-5 NRSV 10
When our lives are rooted in Christ, we should be oriented towards God. I think of it as analogous to a person walking a path (going through life) with Christ being the fundamental truth that orients us on our heading; a North Star providing us with the direction of true north. When we're rooted in Christ (being properly oriented), we cooperate with the Divine Will making it easier for the Holy Spirit to guide us through the various obstacles, and decisions that occur along the path. With these things acting upon us, our destination should then be towards eternal life with God the Father.
Christ represents the ultimate model on which we should pattern our lives. 11 This is why books like the Imitation of Christ are so popular among Christians, as well as the phrase, "what would Jesus do?" Any paradigm that is not patterned on the truth revealed in Christ, will ultimately be disordered.
For example, if we were to hold a paradigm of success in life, like many do, as being the attainment of wealth and power, our paradigm of success would be disordered. This is because we would be defining a successful life in strictly worldly terms, and in a manner completely separate from the truth made manifest in Christ. 12
Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." Luke 18:24-25 NRSV 13
The Origin of Disordered Paradigms
So where do these disordered paradigms come from? We develop them all the time as we grow and learn, but we also inherit them from our parents and family members, or absorb them through the osmosis of socialization with friends, coworkers and the wider world. We humans are social creatures, and the people around us carry the ability to tear down or reinforces our paradigms. Likewise, our culture as a reflection of the collective inputs of a given community or people across time transfer a whole host of paradigms about the world we live in onto us.
Because our paradigms are a function of our cognition, in a sense they are akin to a wallpaper plastered over the back of our experience with the world. We rarely consider the sheer magnitude of their influence over our perception of reality itself, but they deeply affect much of how we see ourselves, and others. As such, it is important to remember that we live in a fallen world. We use that term often on this site, but it is absolutely true!
There is an inherent brokenness in us inherited from our first parents after the fall in chapter 3 of Genesis. 14 This fundamental truth serves as the basis for the doctrine of original sin. 15 All of us have parents, and they aren't perfect because they're human. For any of you that have children of your own, how often have you found yourself saying to them something your parents said to you? Their influence permeates our subconscious buried away just waiting for the day we have kids of our own to make its way back to the surface. Now consider that your parents were doing the same things they learned from their parents, and so on, and so on all the way back to our first parents. We inherited original sin and the inclination towards sin (called concupiscence) as a consequence of the actions of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in this very same way. 16
Why Disordered Paradigms Matter and What to do About Them
In short, disordered paradigms matter because all of us have them, and they are rampant among our societies, cultures, friends, and even our families. Many of us have withered under the weight of disordered paradigms of success foisted onto us by our parents, or disordered paradigms of love causing us to hurt or be hurt by the people we care about the most.
Through this lens we can better understand one of Christ's more controversial statements in the Gospel of Luke:
"I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” Luke 12:49-53 NRSV 17
When we identify a fundamentally disordered paradigm that we are patterning our life on, or basing our understanding of creation on, we have to reintroduce proper order. Identifying these disordered paradigms should be part of healthy interior life, but rightly ordering these paradigms must necessarily advance outward into the exterior life for us to be rightly ordered as people. This is usually where the difficulty comes because it is at this point that we will inevitably experience conflict with ourselves, our families, our friends, and the wider world. To be clear, I'm not advocating for people to actively seek out conflict with others. I'm simply warning you that when you start to recognize your disordered paradigms, and transition to living in accordance with rightly ordered one you will necessarily experience conflict in some way.
So how do we do this? By frequently evaluating the rationale serving as the animus for the things we do. Not just in those big moments, but in all the smaller ones too. Personally, I find that this type of introspection tends to yield good fruit when we're willing to submit to it by being honest with ourselves before God. You may be thinking, can I really do this constantly throughout the day? Probably not, but you can think about your day in its totality at the close of it. In the Catholic faith we call this an examination of conscience. Examining one's conscience is actually a required part of Night Prayer (the last prayer of the day in the Liturgy of the Hours, aka the Divine Office). 18
This is also a great way to identify things we should bring to confession. When we act in accordance with a disordered paradigm that we hold, we are making sin manifest in the world. This wounds ourselves and others, and can damage our communion with God and the Church. 19 The sacrament of confession is an integral part of our journey to becoming rightly ordered by reconciling ourselves with God and the visible body of Christ on earth - the Church.
In summary, to identify and correct disordered paradigms we need to engage in frequent introspection by examining our conscience, and seeking to understand why we do the things we do. We need to be honest with ourselves and God, prayerfully seeking deeper communion with God and the Church, and making regular confession an essential part of our journey toward becoming rightly ordered. On this journey we need to be prepared for conflict and hardship, but we must persevere to the end! 20
May God answer when you call, and increase the strength of your soul.
Works Cited
"Paradigm," Dictionary.com Unabridged based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Dictionary.com, accessed January 24, 2023, https://www.dictionary.com/browse/paradigm.
Nicolás Alessandroni, and Cintia Rodríguez, "The development of categorisation and conceptual thinking in early childhood: methods and limitations," Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica (translation: Psychology: Research and Review) 33, no. 17 (2020): paragraph 2, https://doi.org/10.1186/s41155-020-00154-9.
Gen. 1:1-31 (New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition), Bible Hub, accessed January 25, 2023, https://biblehub.com/nrsvce/genesis/1.htm. God has to separate light from dark, water from water, water from dry land, before he can fill these spaces with life. He orders the chaos for life to exist, and while metaphorical this is also manifest in the physical universe.
"Tohu v’vohu: FORMLESS & VOID… or uninhabitable chaos & emptiness?," Hebrew Word Lessons, Sarah Fisher, accessed on January 25, 2023, https://hebrewwordlessons.com/2019/06/09/tohu-vvohu-formless-void-or-uninhabitable-chaos-emptiness/. This is a wonderful discourse on the meaning of the Hebrew phrase 'tohu-v'vohu' at the beginning of Genesis, which highlights why 'chaos' may be a more appropriate translation for 'tohu'.
Jeffrey Koperski, "Firing Squads and Fine-Tuning: Sober on the Design Argument," The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 56, no. 2 (June 2005): 303-319, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3541704. It should be noted that the 'Fine-Tuned Universe' is ongoing debate that has sparked a lot of interest and has many schools of thought. It is commonly advanced as an argument in support of the notion that there is a God, which I think is generally correct. However, the purpose of these citations (5-7) is to highlight the core element of the 'Fine-Tuned Universe' argument, which is the considerable order necessary for life and objects within the universe to exist at all.
Jonathan Weisberg, "Should We Care about Fine-Tuning?," The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 56, no. 4 (December 2005): 309-821, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3541868.
Bradley Monton, "God, Fine-Tuning, and the Problem of Old Evidence," The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 57, no. 2 (June 2006): 405-424, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3873473.
"Epidermolysis bullosa," United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS), last reviewed June 23, 2021, https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/epidermolysis-bullosa/.
"Epidermolysis bullosa," Mayo Clinic, accessed January 25, 2023, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/epidermolysis-bullosa/symptoms-causes/syc-20361062.
John 15:1-5 (New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition), Bible Hub, accessed January 25, 2023, https://biblehub.com/nrsvce/john/15.htm. Particular emphasis is placed on the part where Christ says that we must abide in Christ in order to bear fruit.
"The Mysteries of Christ's Life," Catechism of the Catholic Church, accessed January 26, 2023, paragraph 562, https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P5J.HTM.
"The Desire for Happiness," Catechism of the Catholic Church, accessed January 26, 2023, paragraphs 1718-1719, https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P5J.HTM.
Luke 18:24-25 (New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition), Bible Hub, accessed January 25, 2023, https://biblehub.com/nrsvce/luke/18.htm. This same dialogue occurs in Mark 10:23-26.
Genesis 3:1-24 (New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition), Bible Hub, accessed January 25, 2023, https://biblehub.com/nrsvce/genesis/3.htm.
"III. Original Sin," Catechism of the Catholic Church, accessed January 25, 2023, paragraphs 397-409, https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P70.HTM.
"III. Original Sin," Catechism of the Catholic Church, accessed January 25, 2023, paragraphs 390, 404-405, https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1C.HTM. The definition of 'concupiscence' is given in paragraph 405 as the "[inclination] to sin - an inclination to evil".
Luke 12:49-53 (New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition), Bible Hub, accessed January 25, 2023, https://biblehub.com/nrsvce/luke/12.htm. This same dialogue occurs in Matthew 10:34-38.
The Liturgy of the Hours, or Divine Office is a structured prayer that serves the consecration of time to God, and is considered the primary form of prayer in the Catholic Church. There are seven prayers that occur at set hours, which are required for people in religious life to pray. Laity are encouraged to participate, and it is a excellent way to make time for prayer in your day.
"VI. The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation," Catechism of the Catholic Church, accessed January 26, 2023, paragraph 1440, https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P4C.HTM.
Heb. 10:19-39 (New Revised Standard Version Catholic edition), Bible Hub, accessed January 26, 2023, https://biblehub.com/nrsvce/hebrews/10.htm.
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