Thomas at Endlessly Rocking has a very interesting series of posts on what he calls the “individualist paradox.” In short, he says that often those who are most vocal in their denunciations of “individualism” in their churches and as a result become converts to another, supposedly less individualistic, tradition are in fact engaging in a paradigm act of individual assertion and judgment.

That seems right to me, and, in fact, it may not be too much to say that individualism just is our condition as moderns (or post-moderns, or whatever we are nowadays). Gone are the days when our identities were given to us at birth. And even if I decide to submit myself to some outside authority, it’s still me (I?) that decides to do so.

I thought this was particularly insightful:

Still, I don’t want to single out the Orthodox, and in any case I hope it’s clear that I’m talking about particular experiences I’ve had, particular books I’ve read, particular blogs I’ve encountered, and not Orthodoxy itself, which again needn’t fall into this as a matter of course. Such a desire for the ‘Golden Age’ of the Church can take refuge in a rather Traditionalist Catholicism, or a confessing Anglican Church standing against apostasy, or a Baptist congregation that claims not to dilute the Bible’s word with ‘human traditions’. It can lead to anyplace, really. All one has to do is read a few books, listen to a few pastors or priests, figure out what the unadulterated Church looks like, and go find it. …

So, the whole point to those admittedly ragged, poorly written little posts is that often in the search for a relief from the illusions and terrors of a false individualism, folks are forced to decide on the basis of very little except private judgment to abandon ship and seek the fullness of Truth elsewhere. It is, in our context, an inherently lonely act, no matter how many people may support the move, for ultimately it rests on a decision, one which in early Christian eras would have been not only forbidden, but even unthinkable.