The Scandal Freud Could Not Endure

On the death of the ego and the obedience that reason cannot accept

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus… who humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

Philippians 2:5–8

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Freud was not entirely wrong.

He saw that what most men call faith is a construction.

A support.

A defense against the terror of being alone in a universe that does not answer them.

He saw that men create God in order to survive themselves.

He saw that faith often functions as anesthesia. A way to quiet the anxiety that rises from the groundlessness of existence.

He saw men clinging to belief not because they had encountered God, but because they could not endure the silence without Him.

And in this, he exposed something real.

He exposed false faith.

He exposed the faith that exists to preserve the self.

The faith that serves psychological stability.

The faith that does not crucify the ego, but protects it.

This faith deserves to die.

Because it is not faith.

It is self preservation wearing the language of God.

Freud could see this because he was honest enough to see man’s fear.

But he could not see what comes after fear dies.

He could not see obedience.

Because obedience appears as pathology to the autonomous mind.

The rational mind cannot understand obedience because obedience destroys the rational mind’s sovereignty. It removes its throne. It removes its authority. It removes its illusion that it stands at the center of reality.

To Freud, this looks like regression.

To God, it is resurrection.

The fallen mind must interpret everything in order to survive. It must reduce reality to what it can measure, what it can analyze, what it can control. It cannot tolerate mystery because mystery exposes its limits.

Empiricism becomes its refuge.

Rationalism becomes its fortress.

Private judgment becomes its god.

This is the air the modern man breathes.

Even in the Church.

Especially in the Church.

Men come to Christ but do not relinquish themselves. They believe, but they continue to interpret their belief. They obey, but only where obedience aligns with their understanding. They surrender, but only what they have already approved.

They remain intact.

They remain sovereign.

They remain alone.

Archimandrite Zacharias says that the aim of the Christian life is to acquire the mind of Christ.

But the mind of Christ is not autonomous.

It is obedient.

Christ does not act apart from the Father. He does not interpret the Father. He does not negotiate with the Father.

He obeys.

Even unto death.

“And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death.”

This is the scandal.

Because obedience unto death appears as failure to the rational mind.

It appears as weakness.

It appears as annihilation.

But this obedience reveals something Freud could never accept.

The self that must preserve itself cannot receive life.

The ego must die because it cannot be united to God.

This is why renewal in the Church cannot come through argument.

It cannot come through better explanations.

It cannot come through intellectual persuasion.

It cannot come through defending Christianity within the framework of rational autonomy.

Because that framework is the problem.

Renewal begins when man ceases to trust himself.

When he ceases to stand outside God and evaluate Him.

When he ceases to preserve the self that must understand in order to obey.

Renewal begins when obedience becomes possible again.

When man allows himself to be led where he does not understand.

When he accepts humiliation.

When he accepts loss.

When he accepts the destruction of the identity he constructed.

This is what Christ reveals on the Cross.

Not explanation.

Obedience.

He does not justify Himself.

He does not defend Himself.

He does not assert Himself.

He entrusts Himself.

“Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.” Luke 23:46

This is the mind of Christ.

And this mind cannot be produced by culture.

It cannot be produced by education.

It cannot be produced by argument.

It can only be received when the ego collapses.

Freud saw faith as illusion because he saw faith that preserved the ego.

He did not see the faith that destroys it.

He did not see the faith that leads a man into darkness without explanation.

He did not see the faith that empties man of himself until only Christ remains.

Because this faith cannot be observed from outside.

It can only be lived.

The tragedy of the modern Christian is not that he does not believe.

It is that he believes without dying.

He believes while remaining intact.

He believes while preserving the mind that crucified Christ.

But true phronema is not belief alone.

It is participation.

It is the slow and terrible process of losing the self that lives apart from God.

It is learning obedience not as concept, but as crucifixion.

And every Christian who walks this path discovers the same thing.

Faith is not given to make you safe.

It is given to make you dead.

So that Christ may become your life.