The Individual or the community, or Both ?
Individual, according to a popular notion, is the hallmark of Protestantism. Such slogans as “the private interpretation of the Bible” or “a man and his God” reinforce this ideal. The passing ideal of “the rugged individualist” has often been equated with the true Protestant. Having this understanding, one who reads the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights might readily assume that it is a very Protestant document. Nearly all the thirty specific articles employ the singular subject and verb. “Everyone” has rights. “No one” shall be deprived of these rights. In the case of parents and family in Article 16, of course, the plural has to be used. Otherwise, the Declaration appears to be entirely individualistic.
“And why not?” asks a Protestant Christian. “Isn’t that what our faith is about?” Yes and no; the answer must be equivocal. In most of its theological types and ecclesial shapes, Protestantism enhances the eminence of the individual person. Private judgment in matters of faith is equated with freedom of conscience. Personal responsibility in morals and ethics may not be evaded. Personal prayer and worship may not be accomplished by a priest on the individual’s behalf. Christian faith, then, is the concern of the individual, but it is never individualistic.
It is manifestly the case that Protestant belief generally supports the value and integrity of each human being. There is no alternative in belief and theory to holding each person to be of “infinite value,” as liberal Protestants usually say Why? Because God created each one; God loves each one; and Jesus Christ died for sins of each might be saved. Inasmuch as you did an act of mercy for one of the least of these persons, you did it for Jesus Christ. One of the least! No one is left out. The Creator who marks the fall to earth of each perishing sparrow surely holds dearer by far each human person. These and similar biblical insights and affirmations are fundamental to the religious and moral perspective held by Protestants.
The claim of one person, however, to require satisfaction of a given human right cannot in all cases be held to be absolute. The right of one member of the community must not be used to override the well-being of the whole, any more than the whole community may annul the right of any one member. The individual always exists in community, and it is within this community that the truth personal character of the individual’s life is realized. For many Protestants, with all their regard for the individual’s right and value, it is the intimacy and solidarity of members of the community which are the distinctive signs of their concept of the church.
The teaching of the apostle Pual on this question is authoritative in two ways: if one member suffers or is honored, all in the community like wise suffer or enjoy honor; but whatever their individually received gift may be, all must strive to build up the church in love. So the understanding of the church as the Body of Christ is as much a Protestant as it is an Orthodox or Catholic one, however differently interpreted. Paul gave an exemplary instance of the application of human rights within a communal context when he instructed the Corinthian Christian about their dispute over eating sacrificed meat. In the pagan custom of the Roman Empire the meat animals offered to idols was later sold in the market and served at table. Some very sensitive Christians believed and feared that it world amount to the terrible sin of idolatry to eat such meat. Pual disagreed. In modern idiom he would said , “I have a perfect to eat meat. There is no divine law against doing so.” For the sake of his own sense of dignity and for apostolic authority of his officer he could have insisted on this permissive belief. He chose not to insist.