Corporate Personality PDF

Corporate Personality A psalm of the Sons of Korah. A Song. 1. On the holy mount he founded (it), (and) 2. Yahweh loves the gates of Zion more than the dwelling places of Jacob. 3. Glorious things are spoken of you, city of God. 4. I will proclaim Rahab and Babylon as those knowing Me. Behold, (of)...

Corporate Personality A psalm of the Sons of Korah. A Song. 1. On the holy mount he founded (it), (and) 2. Yahweh loves the gates of Zion more than the dwelling places of Jacob. 3. Glorious things are spoken of you, city of God. 4. I will proclaim Rahab and Babylon as those knowing Me. Behold, (of) Philistia and Tyre along with Ethiopia ( it shall be said) : "This one is born there." 5. And of Zion it shall be said: "This one and that one is born in her," and the Highest Himself will establish her. 6. The Lord records when registering the people: "This one is there." Selah. 7. As well singers and dancers (say): "All my fountains are in you." PSALM 87 ICk====~"IC=:::Xkri=====::xx 106 The term Zion (vs. 2) reflects more than a historic and troubled f aiJh, or the special promises of God to the Hebrew ·people. It can be applied to Christian experience in general and the Church in particular. Here we will consider the latter. application. THEORY Corporate personality means that an individual functions not in isolation from but in conjunction with others. It is recognition "of the fact that the individual is more than an atom cut off from his group; rather he as an individual is such because he is part of the group from which he emerges. It might be declared with slight modification that the group is a mass individual living through its constituent members."1 The person is in pan the result of the group, and bears in common with his associates certain basic characteristics of the group. The corporate personality is not necessarily limited to geographical location or to a generation of people. The Hebrew partook of the social heritage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by way of instruction and veneration. Edmund Fleg, reflecting on the question of why he was a Jew, observed: "And I say to myself: From this remote father [Abraham] right up to my own father, all these fathers have handed on to me a truth which flowed in their blood, which flows in mine; and shall I not hand it on, with my blood, to those of my blood? " 2 There is a peculiar social character which identifies personality, whether corporate or individual. Corporate social character is that structure which is common to most members of the group. The individual deviates from the social character due to a variety of factors but he is still a representative of the body. Social character is necessarily more general than that of the individual, but it often provides the clue to understanding a person's response. A social identity is forged through basic experience and a common mode of response. This can readily be illustrated from Israel's past. God did not forsake His people to the abuse of Egypt, but delivered them from Pharaoh, sustained them through 1 Russell Shedd, Man in Community, p. S. Anhur Hert'Lberg, The Zionist Idea, p. 485. 2 the wandering, and settled them in the promised country. For this reason the prophets consistently urged the people to thankfulness and restraint from idolatry. The corpo1'ate personality was being realized as a result of experience and the common attitude solicited in response. The rhapsodies which Zion called forth were due less to the walls which towered about it or the splendor of the Temple in the sun's reflection than to the corporate personality of a people with whom the Hebrew identified. Sufficient background has been sketched to allow the stating of a thesis of sweeping implications: ideas are important only as they provide meaning in a social environ. Society is much more than suppression, as Freud implied, or the dialectical framework for economic interests as Marx claimed; it is the matrix where meaning is measured. Man is not so much a being who relates as he is a being in relationship. He is perhaps the least self-sufficient of animal progeny, not only capable of culture but dependent upon it. From earliest memory his personal meaning is understood in the light of association with others. He sees himself reflected in the look, response, or creative silence of his fellows. He derives meaning in a qualified sense from, but in any case, in community. The text now opens to us exciting possibilities. A littleemployed psalm, it is perhaps the most remarkable entry in the Psalter. Its picture of God's purpose being realized with humanity is comparable to similar passages in Isaiah. Man is viewed as responding to divine summons and taking up residence in the city of God. The occasion of the psalm's writing has been variously understood as a national victory of some imponance3 or the 8The reference to Egypt and Babylon as dominant world powers, and parallels with Isaiah, have led numerous commentators to tie the psalm to Sennacherib's cataStrophe (II Kings 18:13-19:37; II Chron. 32:1-22; Isa. 36:137: 38). Sennacherib's annals picture earlier successes-the threat to Jerusalem, payment of tribute-but no reference to the destruction of his army: "As for Hezekiah, the Jew, who did not submit to my yoke, 46 of his strong, walled cities, as well as the small cities in their neighborhood, which were without number (succumbed).... 200,150 people, great and small, male and female, horses, mules, asses, camels, cattle and sheep, without number, I brought away from them and counted as spoil. Himself, like a caged bird, I shut up in Jerusalem, his royal cicy." No claim is made for a siege, and Assyria's fortune declined rapidly, perhaps reA.ecting the defeat suffered. CORPORATE PERSONALITY 109 reception of proselytes. It may be outlined as: theocracy, the rule of God ( vss. 1-3 ) ; theodicy, the turning to God (vss. 4-7). The importance of our consideration should be underscored before proceeding. Individual man varies from the character structure of his group, although this is best understood as a deviation from the nucleus. Up to this point our main interest has been to understand the individual more fully, and therefore we have given preference to personal considerations. "However, if we want to understand how human energy is channeled and operates as a productive force in a given social order then the social character deserves our main interest.'' THEOCRACY Zion is described as ''the city of God" ( vs. 3). Yahweh has founded it (vs. 1), and esteems it above the villages of Israel (vs. 2). It is the habitat of His holiness (Jer. 31:23), and from it proceeds His law (Isa. 2: 3). Zion is the corporate symbol for the people of God, the peculiar expression of God's domain. The author of Hebrews employs Zion as the figure of the Church (Heb. 12:22-23). PaulspeaksoftheChurchas participating in the promise made to the people of God (Israel) (Eph. 2: 1213), and of Christ being the foundation for "the dwelling of God" (Eph. 2:22). The Church is beloved (Eph. 5:25), and it is sustained through affiiction (Eph. 3: 13-16). It is the society of the reconciled, the being reconciled, and the reconciling (I Cor. 5: 1421). Here Christ has been professed, and is being preferred and pronounced to others. The Church is Christ in community, the society of divine rule. There are four traditional marks applied to the Church: apostolicity, universality, unity, and sanctity. These signs h-ive been generally stressed for formal and/ or polemic reasons. While it is legitimate and profitable to approach the issue in these ways, we shall rather consider them for the interpersonal dynamic implied. Our hope is to uncover how the divine purpose becomes operative in the body of believers. Erich Fromm, "Character and the Social Process," Theories of Personality (Lindzey and Hall, eds.), p. 117. 110 PSYCHOLOGY JN THE PSALMS Apostolicity The discussion of apostolicity involves the authority exercised in regard to the community. No organized society is possible without authority. Divine authority is the recognized norm for the Church; God's word provides the needed unity and stability. In its response to the authority of God, the Church becomes the earnest of the theocracy-the Kingdom of God. "The Church... is the present manifestation of the Kingdom of God and in her the Kingdom's transforming power operates and from her its life and blessedness flows to form an oasis in the desert of this world's sin and misery, darkness and death, to which the thirsty traveler may come and drink deeply at the well-spring of salvation. " 5 The Church is not synonymous with the Kingdom of God, in either its present realization or its future expectation. Common grace precedes special grace, and provides the background and environment within which the latter operates. God now restrains evil in its means and from its destructive ends. He now supports constructive activity as it figures in the cultural mandate to subdue the earth. Government, home, and labor are aspects of God's order and indications of His authority. There is also a future cosmic dimension to the Kingdom. The climactic intervention of Christ in the course of history is promised (I Thess. 4: 16-17). He will receive the scepter of His reign (Rev. 11:15). The forces of evil will be eventually and permanently curtailed (Rev. 20: 11-15), and the theocracy will be realized in cosmic fulness (I Cor. 15:28). For the present, the Church is the fellowship gathered to demonstrate the sovereignty of God and His gracious purpose toward man. The apostolic task is to communicate to others that which is received of Christ, to perpetuate the continuity of faith. The published word becomes the promise of reconciliation and the means of establishing Christian fellowship. The Church exists because it was called into being by the word and on the authority of God. Universality The second mark of the Church is illustrated by the familiar ~Raymond O. Zorn, Church and Kingdom, p. 81. CORPORATE PERSONALITY 111 passage from the early Roman historian Tacitus: "Christus, the founder of that name [Christians], was put to death as a criminal by Pontius Pilate at the reign of Tiberius, but the pernicious superstition repressed for a time, broke out again not only throughout Judea, where the mischief originated, but also in the city of Rome." 6 The Church knows no boundaries, no locality, race, or social distinction. The gospel was to be proclaimed to all men (Matt. 24: 14; 28: 18-20; Luke 24:46-47). Within three decades from the death of Christ, the word had spread from Judea to Rome, and had embraced a "vast multitude," according to Tacitus' further ·elaboration. Even more striking is the boast of Tertullian a century later: "We are but of yesterday and we have filled every place among you-cities, islands, fortresses, towns; market-places, the very camp, tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum... we have left nothing but the temples of your idols. " 7 The Church welcomes every man, but not his vain images. Nondifferentiati.on corresponds to universality as obedience does to authority. Like its Lord, the Church is no respecter of persons. In fact both value a purposeful variety, whether diversity in creation or the diverse ministries within the Church (I Cor. 12: 14-25). The ps;ilrnist points to this high regard for variety; he describes the delight of God as He lists the names of those who have come from such various origins (vs. 4). Unity The Church is one (cf. vss. 1, 3, 6). It is a company of penitents who have put their trust in the Lord. This realization guards against prideful presumption and unhealthy criticism on the one hand, and fortifies against abandonment and despair on the other. Paul T ournier describes the subtle dynamics of interpersonal criticism: "Thus in everyday life we are continually soaked in this unhealthy annosphere of mutual criticism, so much so that we are not always aware of it and we find ourselves drawn unwittingly into an implacable vicious circle; every reproach evokes a feeling -Tacitus, Anna/es, XX, 44. 7 Tertullian, Apologeticum, 37, 112 PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PSALMS of guilt in the critic as much as in the one criticized, and each one gains relief from his guilt in any way he can, by criticizing other people and in self-justifica.tion."8 The Christian community should rather be a for giving community, for it has experienced forgiveness. It can provide consolation, for it has been consoled in Christ. It does not follow that the community will treat sin lightly. Paul demanded action on behalf of the Corinthian believers to rectify their evils (I Cor. 5). The very love which characterizes the Church requires that it stand against the sin which would destroy its members. However, the stance is redemptive. It does not boost over the fallen, recognizing the propensity in all to sin; it seeks to reclaim the erring. The unity of faith also protects the believer from the despair which is natural to any man, and peculiarly to one receiving the immeasurably high calling in Christ. The sense of variance between Christian ideal and practice can be the cause of disabling guilt. Where an isolated person would succumb, the member of the Church may be sustained by the strength of the corporate personality. As in the case of an injury to one's physical body, protective and restorative resources are summoned from elsewhere to combat the difficulty. Group theorists talk of interstimulation, the increase of central motion built up in an aggregation of persons developing unity. There is a gravitational-like hold which is exerted on those belonging to the group. How supremely this is true of those experiencing Christ's love in community! Sanctity The Church is called out from a world which has surrendered to its own depravity, which does not simply break the ordinances of God but gives hearty approval to those who are disobedient (Rom. 1:28-32). It is instructed to love God and repudiate affection for the world (I John 2: 15). The Church is called not from life but from disobedience (I John 2: 17). The Church's head is Christ from whom its identity is taken. -Paul Toumier, Guilt and Grace, pp, 15-16. CORPORATE PERSONALITY 113 It accepts the servant role as did its Lord (Matt. 25:40). Its holiness reflects the compassion of God, and its nature the likeness of Christ. The Church as a fellowship is far from perfect, and in its institutional form it includes false adherents (Matt. 13:21-30, 4750). Time will disclose the truthfulness of faith and the perversity of fault. The community is to take appropriate action as its need is indicated, but not to become obsessed with rooting out the heretics. Otherwise, the tender faith of some will receive incalculable harm. In conclusion, look at the strong masculine symbols of faith used by the psahnist: God is the builder, and Zion stands impregnable (vs. 1). Like other early Canaanite settlements, the original city of Jerusalem was situated on a rocky spur isolated on three sides by deep valleys. It was thereby suited to military defense and provided maximum security for its inhabitants. Great annies were stymied by the walls of Jerusalem towering above the valleys below. However, the true strength of the city lay not in its advantageous location and supplementary defenses, but in the presence of God (vs. 3). For all of their natural security, the Israelites were terrified at the approach of the Assyrians. Isaiah could disdain the enemy because their advance was an affront to God. "Against whom have you raised your voice and haughtily lifted your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel" (II Kings 19:22). Judah's success was assured because of the presence of the Defender, not because of the defense. The Church has often been able to exert influence in an impressive, if not wise, fashion. Its affluence has threatened at times the stability of the state and conversely has been depleted out of resentment. The Church is weak in its own strength but strong in God. The counsel of evil is said not to be able to resist it ( Matt. 16: 18). For all its vulnerability, only the fool would despise the Church, the fellowship where God's name resides (vs. 3). THEODICY The psalmist turns now from the masculine image of Zion as an impregnable fortress to the feminine image of a receptive woman, 114 PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PSALMS impregnated by God's love to bring forth children of faith (vs. 4). From theocracy, the rule of God, we arrive at theodicy, conversion to Him. Mother of the Nations The discussion has turned on aggressiveness, rigor, and discipline-masculine qualities; but here the tone must be altered to allow the sensitivity and enrichment of feminine character. Anna. Hempstead Branch's verse on her mother's words are appropriate to set the mood: My mother has the prettiest tricks Of words and words and words. Her talk comes out as smooth and sleek As breasts of singing birds. We had not dreamed these things were so Of sorrow and of minh. Her speech is as a thousand eyes Through which we see the earth. God wove a web of loveliness, Of clouds and stars and birds, But made not any thing at all So beautiful as words. They shine around our simple earth With golden shadowings, And every common thing they rouch Is exquisite with wings. There's nothing poor and nothing small But is made fair with them. They are the hands of living faith That couch the garment's hem. They are as fair as bloom or air, They shine like any star, And I am rich who learned from her How beautiful they are. CORPORATE PERSONALITY 115 Such is the winsomeness of the Church's plea to man to be reconciled to God. It stres.5es the compassion of its Lord, reflected in a patient and painful endurance with a wayward people. It intuitively feels that distress which the prodigal cannot put into words, keeping the arms of invitation open for the repentant's return. Similarly, the Rabbinic commentary testifies: "The Holy One, praised be He, does not disqualify any creature; He accepts anyone. The gates are always ope~ and whoever wants to enter may enter."9 Travail of Birth Love must conquer (Rom. 12: 21). There is a natural resentment which must be overcome, the neutralizing of natural resistance to those who are different. "Narrow nationalistic pride could have crossed Philistia off the list, national jealousy could have refused to speak of Tyre, and racial snobbishness could have looked down on the teeming dark peoples of the land of Kush." 10 We tend to suspect the unfamiliar, recognizing in it a threat to our security. A community provides not only a common ground of support, but also protection against the out-group. The love of Christ, however, constrains the Church to lower its natural defenses and to risk its life in the cause of turning men to God. Such a dynamic deserves the title of travail. The Church must overcome not only its own corporate resistance but also the hostility of the nations. How Israel had suffered at the hands of great and small alike! They had been tom like a scrap of meat thrown to the dogs. Antagonisms were deeply rooted Not one or even several generations could hope to dissipate the suspicion and the stereotype. The Church is slow to recognize that it is held in contempt by a major percentage of the world's population. It is the opiate of the people to the communist world; to the Moslem masses it is the Crusades; to countless people the world over it is the symbol of W estem colonization. The complaints of the protesting nations are largely justified. To face a world which disdains your existence is also travail. Exodus Rabbab 19:4. Quoted in Hertzberg, ed., Judaism, p. 34. ~dwin McNeill Poteat, Tbe Interpreter's Bible, IV, p. 470. 116 PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PSALMS Perhaps the most difficult reality for the Church to face in its theodicy is apathy. A great segment of the world's population either gives lip service to the teaching of the Church or accepts it as one of the world religions. Christianity may be tolerated either for its assumed benefit or for its needed alliance. It is tolerated but its claims are not taken seriously. The Church can face its own limitation and the hostility of the nations better than the indifference of mankind. It can accept the role of martyr more easily than that of mediocrity. But there is no turning to God without the suffering of the Church. The child is conceived in love but born through travail. Love which conquers is the product of community, the corporate personality of the Church. It calls upon all the resources of a redemptive fellowship in order to be actualized in the lives of its membership. It is threatened at every turn, but it must triumph in the purpose of God. Rejoicing in the City There is perhaps no bolder anthropomorphism in Scripture than that of God gleefully registering the people ( vs. 6), taking a personal concern and delight in each one. A striking balance is maintained here between the community and the individual: uGod does not desire a community which absorbs the individual into itself, but a community of men. In his sight the community and the individual are present at the same moment, and rest in one another."11 God singles out the individual for attention, and inscribes his name on the city roster. In the tension between the differentiation of persons and the dynamic of society, we can observe several concepts at work-the concepts of instinct, idea, and ideal. An instinct may be said to drive a man, an idea to pull him, but an ideal is a meaning which he realizes for himself. The ideal is the incarnation of idea into personality, the personal locus of meaning around which life is oriented. The city of God would degenerate quickly if uniformity were its goal. The variety of ideals within a community insures the continued vitality of the society. Through the diaDietrich Bonhocffer, The Communion of Saints, p. 5Z, 11 CORPORATE PERSONALITY 117 logue of persons, each expressing his own ideals, there is f ormulated a growing sense of value and meaning. The contrast between national origins in the psalm is apparently not meant to imply depreciation of the proselyte. The opposite may be the case. Because he lacks the natural inclination of the person nurtured in Zion, the proselyte should be commended for the very obstacles which he overcomes in embracing God's promise. A rabbinic comment is pertinent here: "A proselyte who has come of his own accord is dearer to God than all the Israelites who stood before Him at Mount Sinai. Had the Israelites not witnessed the thunders, lightnings, quaking mountains and sound of trumpets, they would not have accepted the Torah. The proselyte, who saw not one of these things, came and surrendered himself to the Holy One, praised be He, and took the yoke of Heaven upon himself. Can anyone be dearer to God than such a person?" 12 The Lord's parable on the lost sheep (Luke 15: 1-7) shows that there is more rejoicing over that one than over the ninety-nine who were in the fold. The parable of the prodigal son that follows the parable of the lost sheep is also relevant (Luke 15: 11-32). The elder brother, representing incensed religious leaders, begrudged the feast given to the prodigal by his rejoicing father. He supposed that the prodigal's gain would be his 10&5, He poorly understood the nawre of community where the true gain of one enriches all. In the sharing fellowship all benefit when one is acclaimed, and all are depreciated in the injury to any. For the psalmist, God's love was not diminished toward those born to Zion as the converts arrived from Egypt and Babylon. Instead there was joy unrestrained. We have reflected on the motherlike love of the Church for the lost, the travail which it devoutly assumes to bring forth life, and the rejoicing which accompanies introduction into the family of God. Now the psalmist pauses as if out of reverence for the sanctity of the divine-human drama he has witnessed, before proceeding with the final refrain (vs. 7) in which the singers attest that man's resources are to be found in Zion. "Tanbuma, Lekh Lekha, 6, quoted in Hertzberg, ed., Judaism, pp. 35-6. 118 PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PSALMS THESIS There is no dichotomy between self and society, but there are tensions, which are most adequately resolved in the Church. The Church as a corporate personality bears the marks of apostolicity, universality, unity, an~ sanctity. This is its evangelical nature. It also acts as the agency through which God brings to life those dead in trespasses. This is its evangelistic function. The Church is theocracy and theodicy, the alpha and omega of God's redemptive purpose with man. Origen reflected it all in his testimonial: "For the word, spoken with power, has gained mastery over men of all sorts of nature and it is impossible to find any race of men which has escaped the teachings of Jesus."13 Social identity is forged through experience and the fostering of a pattern of response. The Church's experience is with the sovereignty and redemptive activity of God. The terms "Lord" and "Savior" attributed to Christ correspond to these two aspects of experience. The Church is coextensive with other units of society. Jesus Christ refused to draw the categorical distinction demanded by His questioners (Matt. 22:21). A Christian may be an American, a Republican, a member of the C.I.A., and so on, but the fact that he is a Christian will define to some degree the extent, and in every sense the nature, of his other involvements. He welcomes the opportunity to work cooperatively with others in constructive social enterprise, but is persuaded that Christ is the Mediator (I Tim. 2: 5). While this conviction does not curtail his ministry, it will play a critical role in setting priorities and suggesting ways of implementing decisions and goals. The social gospel is not a substitute for the good news of salvation, but the gospel is social. Once the believer has found the place of God's will in society, he is at the point of divine opportunity. Here he can mediate the purpose of God to men where they live, where truth is relevant. uorigen, Contra Celsum, II, 13.