Thanks to Brueggemann in his book Texts That Linger, Words That Explode: Listening to Prophetic Voices I have a new term in my vocabulary – “monoizers.”(mono-izers) You can check out my first post related to this book here.
In his essay entitled “Exodus in the Plural” based on Amos 9:7, he writes about the propensity of social groups to retreat into what he calls mono-ideology. There are times where groups in the face of a diversity of ideas begin to retreat into a very strict and unyielding ideology. There are times in which this is necessary – Israel’s identity as a people was at times saved by a fierce commitment to a focused ideology. However, there are times when the external enemies of God subside and the efforts to preserve a people become more an effort to control the people.
Brueggemann writes, “The mono-propensities that sound most orthodox may be desperate attempts to reduce Yahweh to safer proportions.” (pg. 101) Essentially, he is theorizing that often those who try to establish a strict or overly dogmatic theology or ideology are doing so out of their own fear and insecurity (or anxiety for fellow systems’ readers out there) – they need to set up clear lines and categories to feel better about themselves and about their future. Those who cannot sit in the ambiguity of an unknown future try to control the present. They use stronger language, create extra rules, and work harder to get people to fall in line with their own adopted view of reality.
Brueggemann writes,
“I am sure there is a need for ‘monoizing’ that arises from time to time in the church. But it is not a given that monoizing is in every circumstance the proper work of the church. There are also occasions when monoizing is an act of disobedience, when in God’s time pluralizing is required. If both practices on occasion are congruent with God’s will and purpose, then we may now (and in any time) have a conversation about which is our appropriate posture, without monoizers assuming that they automatically hold the high ground, high ground that seems almost always to be congruent with vested interest.” (101)
Those who “mono-ize” out of fear strike me as being akin to the “poser prophets” I’ve drawn attention to. They use control and spiritual rhetoric to preserve their own reality as oppose to fuel the alternative kingdom of God in the face of worldly culture and powers.
Brueggemann concludes some of his reflections here powerfully as he writes, “In our struggle with the matters that preoccupied Amos, it is important to ease our desperate need for control enough to be dazzled at the Holy One of Israel, a dazzling that outruns our need or capacity for our particular mode of coherence.” (102)
What great wisdom during times when bureaucracy and politics so often ends up dictating spiritual formation!