http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1749614,00.htmlYou ought to be ashamed of yourself. This is the message of Lent, and it is a basic part of Christian belief. There is an absolute difference between God, who is absolutely good, and us, who are defined by our endless fallibility.
This is where Christianity differs from the myriad "spiritualities" on offer today. Every form of new age therapy will tell you the same flattering half-truth: you are special, you are deep, you can attain fuller inner peace and strength, and you can discover the divine by deepened self-awareness. There is an obvious overlap between holistic spirituality and a consumerist culture: buy this because you're worth it. Express yourself, with the help of this new product. Discover new depths to your personality by taking a holiday in Turkey.
All this celebration of the self is rooted in the Enlightenment belief in the natural goodness of humanity. It also draws on Romanticism, for it suggests that one's natural goodness is not "standard issue" but totally distinctive: it must be discovered through a unique inner journey. "Discover your unique inner goodness" is perhaps the central message of the age. And there is an increasing appetite to receive this message in spiritual form, in the language of belief. The growth of such spirituality has put the concept of secularisation in doubt: it still makes sense in terms of church decline but fails to account for the rise of the alternative religious market.
The cult of self-development is not entirely to be rubbished. There are worse myths to live by. It generally emphasises mental and physical health, quiet reflection, respect for others of all types and the freedom of the individual to find his or her own path in life. There is plenty of good here. There is much to be said for the rejection of authoritarian structures, moral rules, the dead hand of traditional dogma.
Yet the cult of self-celebration is based in a lie. And Lent is the nailing of that lie. The lie is that we can, with the right formulas and techniques, nurture our inner goodness. But in reality we are not naturally good. There is something wrong with us, deep down. There is a bias towards evil. This perhaps sounds melodramatic, but that is the fault of our unfamiliarity with our religious tradition. It used to be taken for granted in Christian cultures that we are constitutionally flawed. Our natural desire is not holy but dangerous.
Is this account of humanity a gloomy myth that sunny science has disproved? If only. It can hardly be said that experience disproves it. Humanity has not been on its best behaviour this past century. But that proves nothing about us, comes the cry. The secular illusion is to associate evil with other people. Hell is other people, not people like me. Evil is the business of Hitler and Hindley and so on. How we need these monsters, these scapegoats, how we worship them, in a sense, for they "prove" that the problem of evil is nothing to do with us, that it belongs to others.
Surely the idea of natural human depravity has been discredited by modern thought? Surely it was rooted in a fear of sexuality, from which most of us are now liberated? This is a crass, yet very common, misreading of Freud. In reality he knew that sexuality was worthy of fear. Human civilisation, he said, is a constant struggle against the anarchy of natural desire. He would be horrified by the flippancy with which we treat sexuality today, as if it's harmless fun.
The lie that our natural desires are healthy has become the orthodoxy. To question it is to seem medieval, odd, reactionary, guilt-ridden. But we must question it if we are to have a substantial idea of goodness, or God. The whole point of the Christian God is that he is better than us, that we are lost without him. He does for humanity what it cannot do for itself. Christianity is capable of being utterly realistic about our natural depravity, without pessimism. It allows us, at Easter especially, to proclaim our frailty and shame as good news.
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