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Poverty of Spirit within Party and Hookup Culture: Undergraduates' Engagement with Johann Metz
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 May 2017
Abstract
In his work Poverty of Spirit, Johann Metz depicts Jesus Christ as embodying three aspects of poverty of spirit required to become fully human: (1) an affirmation of interdependence on God and others, (2) self-love (accepting human finitude and one's unique calling), and (3) love of neighbor as self. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of 150 students’ reflections on poverty of spirit within the context of party and hookup culture, this article explores the challenges US undergraduates face in following Christ's path of full humanity. Undergraduates’ own insights issue an urgent call to Catholic universities to respond proactively to the dehumanization, injustices, and forms of violence present in party and hookup culture. At stake is the integrity of Catholic higher education's mission to care for the whole person and form students into men and women “for others” who are committed to justice, solidarity, and the common good.
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References
1 Keenan, James, University Ethics: How Colleges Can Build and Benefit from a Culture of Ethics (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2015), 98Google Scholar.
2 Ibid., 99.
3 Ibid., 122.
4 Ibid., 115.
5 When, in 2009, I received a grant to organize a program on hookup culture for first-year college students, I asked my students for ideas. Their emphatic advice was the following: “The last thing you want to do is bring in an adult speaker. They will not listen to some adult.” Their counsel led me to collaborate with students at my university to create a video of college students sharing their honest perspectives about hookup culture, the relationship between hookups and sexual violence, and how to create a more just sexual culture.
6 See Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997)Google Scholar, §§27, 355, 371–72, 1700, 1704–6, 2331–34; Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Educational Guidance in Human Love, November 1, 1983, §§4–5, 25, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_19831101_sexual-education_en.html; Paul, John II, Theology of the Body: Human Love in the Divine Plan (Boston: Pauline Books & Media, 1997), 42–49, 457Google Scholar; Committee on Education, Human Sexuality: A Catholic Perspective for Education and Lifelong Learning (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 1991), 8Google Scholar; Pontifical Council for the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality, December 8, 1995, §10, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/family/documents/rc_pc_family_doc_08121995_human-sexuality_en.html.
7 For a fuller analysis of undergraduate reflections on multiple aspects of poverty of spirit, see my forthcoming book, College Hookup Culture and Christian Ethics: The Lives and Longings of Emerging Adults (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018)Google Scholar.
8 Metz's articulation of our God-given telos coheres with the Catholic tradition's affirmation that being created in God's image means that our life's purpose is loving communion with God and others. As Pope John Paul II writes, “Creating the human race in His own image and continually keeping it in being, God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion. Love is therefore the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being.” Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation, Familiaris Consortio, November 22, 1981, §11, http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_19811122_familiaris-consortio.html. Metz, Poverty of Spirit, 32–33.
9 Metz, Johannes Baptist, Poverty of Spirit, trans. Drury, John (New York and Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1998), 161Google Scholar.
10 Ibid., 33–34. According to Metz, egoism and fear not only blind us to seeing others as they “really are,” but make it much easier to treat others as objects for our own agenda. These insights reflect key Catholic understandings of the dynamics of sin and our tendency toward concupiscence. See Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§387, 398, 400, 1849–50; Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Educational Guidance in Human Love, §§17, 44; Pontifical Council for the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality, §§9, 57, 97.
11 Such a claim coheres with the Catholic tradition's account of neighbor-love as involving the capacity to respect the personality and freedom of the other and relating to others in ways that affirm their good. Within this context, the purpose of sexuality is to express love and affirmation of one's partner as an end in him/herself. As the Pontifical Council for the Family affirms, “The person is thus capable of a higher kind of love than concupiscence, which only sees objects as a means to satisfy one's appetites; the person is capable rather of friendship and self-giving, with the capacity to recognize and love persons for themselves . . . . One desires the good of the other because he or she is recognized as worthy of being loved.” Pontifical Council for the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality, §9. See also United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catechetical Formation in Chaste Living: Guidelines for Curriculum Design and Publication (Washington, DC: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2008)Google Scholar.
12 Metz, Poverty of Spirit, 44.
13 While Metz does not explicitly address sexuality and intimate relationships in Poverty of Spirit, he clearly emphasizes that love requires full commitment without reservation, supporting the Catholic tradition's position that sexual expression in the context of a lifelong commitment enables us to experience, in a fully human way, the gifts of loving and being loved. See Pontifical Council of the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality, §27.
14 Metz, Poverty of Spirit, 43.
15 Ibid., 44.
16 Ibid., 43.
17 Metz's depiction of being vulnerable and sharing one's authentic self coheres with the Catholic tradition's affirmation that the purpose of sexuality is to offer oneself as a gift to one's beloved. See Pope Paul VI, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the World (Gaudium et Spes), December 7, 1965, §49, http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html; Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§27, 371–72, 2331–34; Pontifical Council for the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality, §§9–12, 16; National Committee for Human Sexuality Education, Education in Human Sexuality for Christians (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 1981)Google Scholar, 14, 47; John Paul II, Theology of the Body, 50, 213–14.
18 Metz, Poverty of Spirit, 39.
19 The Catholic tradition likewise affirms that joy and fulfillment stem from our capacity to love and be loved. Pope Francis articulates this well: “True joy does not come from things or from possessing, no! It is born from the encounter, from the relationship with others, it is born from feeling accepted, understood and loved, and from accepting, from understanding and from loving; and this is not because of a passing fancy but because the other is a person. Joy is born from the gratuitousness of an encounter! It is hearing someone say, but not necessarily with words: ‘You are important to me.’ This is beautiful.” “Meeting with Seminarians and Novices: Address of Holy Father Francis,” Rome, July 6, 2013, http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2013/july/documents/papa-francesco_20130706_incontro-seminaristi.html.
20 Metz, Johann Baptist, Faith in History and Society: Toward a Practical Fundamental Theology (New York: Crossroad, 2007), 93Google Scholar. Metz's claim that love involves justice and solidarity on interpersonal, communal, and global levels affirms the increasing recognition present in the Catholic tradition that justice is an intrinsic component of love. Pope Benedict XVI writes: “If we love others with charity, then first of all we are just towards them. Not only is justice not extraneous to charity, not only is it not an alternative or parallel path to charity: justice is inseparable from charity, and intrinsic to it. Justice is the primary way of charity or, in Paul VI's words, ‘the minimum measure’ of it, an integral part of the love ‘in deed and in truth’ to which Saint John exhorts us.” Pope Benedict XVI, Encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, June 29, 2009, §6, http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate.html.
21 Metz, Johann Baptist, “Christians and Jews after Auschwitz,” in Love's Strategy: The Political Theology of Johann Baptist Metz, ed. Downey, John K. (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1999), 47Google Scholar.
22 Ibid., 93.
23 Ibid., 163.
24 Ibid., 113.
25 Downey, John, “Can We Talk? Globalization, Human Rights, and Political Theology,” in Missing God? Cultural Amnesia and Political Theology, ed. Downey, John K., Manemann, Jürgen, and Ostovich, Steven T. (Münster: Lit, 2007), 137Google Scholar.
26 Metz, “Christians and Jews after Auschwitz,” 55.
27 Metz, Faith in History and Society, 222.
28 Ibid., 209.
29 Metz, , The Emergent Church: The Future of Christianity in a Postbourgeois World (New York, Crossroad, 1981), 35Google Scholar.
30 Metz, Faith in History and Society, 43–44.
31 Metz, The Emergent Church, 53.
32 Ibid., 4–6.
33 Prior to reading Poverty of Spirit, students had engaged the work of Kelly Brown Douglas on the intersections between racism and sexuality. They had examined unjust racist stereotyping historically and in contemporary society. I chose to depict Metz's Jesus as African American in hopes that students might reflect on the impact of racist dynamics on their capacity to embrace poverty of spirit. Only a few students mentioned the ethnicity of Metz's Jesus in their reflections or acknowledged that white students might react differently toward Metz's Jesus because of his race. For more analysis of undergraduate reflections on racist dynamics at college parties, see my forthcoming book, in footnote 7.
34 I collected only the papers written by undergraduates who signed a consent form granting permission to use their written work anonymously for the purposes of teaching and research. In order to protect confidentiality and anonymity, I used pseudonyms. As necessary, I made slight edits to avoid awkwardness that occurred occasionally in students’ writing.
35 I employed Carl Auerbach and Louise Silverstein's grounded theory of qualitative analysis. See Auerbach, Carl and Silverstein, Louise, Qualitative Data: An Introduction to Coding and Analysis (New York: New York University Press, 2003)Google Scholar. Besides my own qualitative coding, I hired two students—one female and one male undergraduate—to code portions of the relevant text and identify repeated ideas and themes.
36 Since I did not gather data on the socioeconomic background of my students, this study cannot analyze how the dynamics of class affect students’ theological reflections on party and hookup culture.
37 When students perceive that intense competitive pressure to be the best and attain materialistic success fuel egoism and conformity as well as fears of becoming vulnerable and authentic, they are corroborating Metz's critique of modern subjectivity and the Catholic tradition's view of obstacles to neighbor-love in contemporary society. Pope Francis exhorts us to acknowledge the “profound human crisis” that is hidden by economic crisis and the idolatry of money in addition to the increasingly pervasive conception of human beings as exploited products. Pope Francis, Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, November 24, 2013, §55, https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html. Pope Francis concedes that “to be attracted by power, by grandeur, by appearances is tragically human,” and yet insists that rejecting these idols is essential to a fulfilling life: “Christian spirituality proposes an alternative understanding of the quality of life, and encourages a prophetic and contemplative lifestyle, one capable of deep enjoyment free of the obsession with consumption.” “Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis,” Cheȩstochowa, July 28, 2016, http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2016/documents/papa-francesco_20160728_omelia-polonia-czestochowa.html.
38 Students’ acknowledgment that popular culture celebrates college as the time to be selfish, sexually experiment, and enjoy hookups that are “no big deal” confirms the Catholic Church's concern that Western media and culture “largely reduces human sexuality to the level of something commonplace, since it interprets and lives it in a reductive and impoverished way by linking it solely with the body and with selfish pleasure.” Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Educational Guidance in Human Love, §16. See also National Committee on Human Sexuality Education, Education in Human Sexuality for Christians, 13; Pontifical Council for the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality, §46.
39 Farley, Margaret A., Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics (New York: Continuum, 2006)Google Scholar.
40 The percentages of students do not equal 100 because 1 percent of women and 6 percent of men did not directly answer the question.
41 See Orchowski, Lindsay M., Mastroleo, Nadine R., and Borsari, Brian, “Correlates of Alcohol-Related Regretted Sex among College Students,” Psychology of Addictive Behaviors 26, no. 4 (2012): 782–90CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Flack, W. F. et al. ., “Risk Factors and Consequences of Unwanted Sex among University Students: Hooking Up, Alcohol, and Stress Response,” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 22, no. 2 (2007): 139–57CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Bersamin, Melina M. et al. . “Young Adults and Casual Sex: The Relevance of College Drinking Settings,” Journal of Sex Research 49, nos. 2–3 (2012): 274CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.
42 Students’ recognition that their peers can so easily use another person as an object during a hookup when they do not know the other person well and lack emotional attachment lends credence to the Catholic tradition's insight that love and commitment are needed to transcend selfishness and relate to one's partner as an end in him/herself.
43 Wade, Lisa, “Are Women Bad at Orgasms?,” in Gender, Sex, and Politics, ed. Tarrant, Shira (New York: Routledge, 2016), 227–58Google Scholar; Hamilton, L. and Armstrong, E. A., “Gendered Sexuality in Young Adulthood: Double Binds and Flawed Options,” Gender & Society 23, no. 5 (2009): 599CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Paul, E. L. and Hayes, K. A., “The Casualties of ‘Casual’ Sex: A Qualitative Exploration of the Phenomenology of College Students’ Hookups,” Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 19, no. 5 (2002): 654–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Heldman, Caroline and Wade, Lisa, “Hook-Up Culture: Setting a New Research Agenda,” Sexuality Research and Social Policy 7, no. 4 (2010): 325–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
44 As the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education states, “Sexuality is an enrichment of the whole person—body, emotions, and soul—and manifests its inmost meaning in leading the person to the gift of self in love.” Sacred Congregation for the Catholic Education, Educational Guidance in Human Love, §16; see also Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§2332, 2337; Committee on Education, Human Sexuality, 9.
45 While my students’ engagement with Metz's model of Christ as fully human and vision of Christian discipleship are most likely insightful and relevant for all Christian colleges and universities, I focus on Catholic institutions in this article because Metz's theology is deeply rooted in the Catholic tradition. Christian university mission statements are also quite diverse. I cannot, for instance, presume all Christian universities aim to foster students’ commitment to Catholic conceptions of solidarity, justice, and the common good.
46 Research indicates that hookup culture is just as normative at Catholic and other religiously affiliated colleges and universities as it is at secular institutions. Protestant evangelical colleges may be the exception to this norm. See, for instance, Donna Freitas, Sex and the Soul: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance, and Religion on America's College Campuses (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
47 Metz, The Emergent Church, 3.
48 In my experience, many students have readily criticized the injustices of hookup culture and worked toward creating a more sexually just community when they were asked to contribute their ideas and talents. For instance, at a prior university where I worked, over two hundred students between 2009 and 2011 volunteered to be interviewed and share their honest perspectives on hookups, sexual violence, and sexual justice for a video that was shown to all first-year students from 2009 to 2011. When I sought to train students to watch and discuss this DVD with discussion groups of first-year students, sixty to ninety juniors and seniors each fall volunteered significant time and energy to become trained as “peer leaders for sexual justice.”