I wonder to what extent this springs from the fact that most pastors do not expect most of their congregants to achieve great things. Presumably if you are a successful missionary who converts multiple people, your instrumental value significantly exceeds your intrinsic value, so I wonder if they have the same feelings. An extreme case would be someone like Moses, whose intrinsic value presumably paled into insignificance compared to his instrumental value as a saviour of the Israelites and passing on the Word of God.
In any case, I think there is a strong case to be made for spending resources on yourself for non-instrumental reasons. Even if you don’t think you matter more than anyone else, you definitely don’t matter less than them! And you have a unique advantage in spending resources to generate your own welfare: an intimate understanding of your own circumstances and preferences. When we give to help others, it can be very difficult to figure out what they want and how to best achieve that. In contrast, I know very well which things I have been fixated on!
Interesting thought. I’m not sure if what I had was the mainstream understanding of Christianity, but I didn’t experience that there was this kind of conflict in the same way. I’d think that the intrinsic value of being created and loved by God was not really something that could pale in comparison to anything. But I don’t know, and maybe it’s not very important.
I think there is a difference between justifying spending resources on our own wellbeing and being able to feel valuable independent of performance. Feeling valuable is of course related to feeling like we deserve to be spent resources on, but I don’t think it’s exactly the same.
I wonder to what extent this springs from the fact that most pastors do not expect most of their congregants to achieve great things. Presumably if you are a successful missionary who converts multiple people, your instrumental value significantly exceeds your intrinsic value, so I wonder if they have the same feelings. An extreme case would be someone like Moses, whose intrinsic value presumably paled into insignificance compared to his instrumental value as a saviour of the Israelites and passing on the Word of God.
In any case, I think there is a strong case to be made for spending resources on yourself for non-instrumental reasons. Even if you don’t think you matter more than anyone else, you definitely don’t matter less than them! And you have a unique advantage in spending resources to generate your own welfare: an intimate understanding of your own circumstances and preferences. When we give to help others, it can be very difficult to figure out what they want and how to best achieve that. In contrast, I know very well which things I have been fixated on!
Interesting thought. I’m not sure if what I had was the mainstream understanding of Christianity, but I didn’t experience that there was this kind of conflict in the same way. I’d think that the intrinsic value of being created and loved by God was not really something that could pale in comparison to anything. But I don’t know, and maybe it’s not very important.
I think there is a difference between justifying spending resources on our own wellbeing and being able to feel valuable independent of performance. Feeling valuable is of course related to feeling like we deserve to be spent resources on, but I don’t think it’s exactly the same.