MAKING A DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE SPIRITUALITY OF ANGER AND THE IDEOLOGY OF ANGER.

SimonMary Asese Aihiokhai

In a book project I am working on, I explored the difference between the spirituality of anger and the ideology of anger as two responses to the culture of hate playing out in our world. Below is an excerpt from the chapter on these two themes. For more, I say look out for the published work. Enjoy!

“Christian theology on the human person upholds the claim that the human person is made in God’s image and likeness. But how can this be upheld in the world where empire ethic dominates? It is important to note that empire ethic mimics a type of fundamentalist worldview that upholds an unhealthy fidelity to its own socially constructed vision. By this I mean that it produces a world that demands absolute fidelity to it. It is this operating principle inherent in such ethic that responses to the culture and praxis of hate and anger ought to be evaluated. When people’s dignities are threatened by those who embrace hate, there is a strong temptation to want to respond with anger. But what type of anger, one must ask. Here, I want to make a distinction between a spirituality of anger and an ideology of anger. The former is oriented towards surplus imaginations that invites all, perpetrator and victim into a new dawn of life where God’s abundant gift of life can be experienced by all. It rejects the reign of scarcities that define the world of empire. The latter operates just like the ideology of hate. It is grounded in scarcity. It sees human dignity as one that must be fought for in such a manner that the destruction of the perpetrator of hate is a legitimate way of claiming human dignity for the victims. This type of ideology must be condemned because it cannot birth-forth the needed space for reclaiming the dignity of the human person as a creature made by God and in God’s image as well.”