Best of the Week: The Autonomy Trap by James R. Wood
A very personal essay on the need for community and connection
We have had an incredibly busy week, so no Pearls from Worship for last Lord’s Day, but I did want to share the best thing that I have read this week, from one of the best Presbyterian thinkers currently working, James R. Wood.
Dr. Wood is Assistant Professor Religion and Theology at Redeemer University (Ontario), and has previously served as a PCA pastor and as an associate editor at First Things.
This week he wrote a very personal essay at Plough, I would encourage you to take a few minutes and read it. As a child of divorce who was blessed with a more stable home life than Dr. Wood, much of it hit home.
“I come from a stock of relationship-quitters. During my childhood, pretty much everyone in my life had divorced at least once, extended family connections were strained, long-term friends were nonexistent, and moves were frequent. Over time I came to adopt a conception of freedom that had destroyed the lives of many around me, and which would threaten to destroy my own as well: the popular idea of freedom as unconstrained choice. Since this is impossible, the default was a more achievable version: the ability to drop commitments and relationships at any point when they become too complicated. Freedom as the license to leave when things get tough. Live by the mantra of Robert De Niro’s character in Heat: “Don’t let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in thirty seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner.” If complications come, don’t worry. You can always go.”