Thomas O’Dea wrote, “Five Dilemmas in the Institutionalization of Religion” in 1961.  Here is a link to the original article. I first learned about this article through the insightful and briliant book, Rejesus: A Wild Messiah For A Missional Church by Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost.

This is what Hirsch and Frost say on page 69 of the book:

“What happens in the beginning of a movement is that the people encounter the divine in a profound and revelatory way, but with successive generations this encounter tends to fade like a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy.  What begins as a revolutionary, life-transforming, confrontation with Jesus eventually subsides into a codified religion and is subsequently incorporated into normal social life.”

They describe the irresolvable dilemma in this way:

“Although genuine faith is born out of direct encounters with God, it cannot survive and prosper without some form of stability and order. Viewed positively, rituals, creeds, and organizations can help people structure their relationship with God.  In fact, we believe this is what they were initially designed for.  But unless the worshipper is very wary, the glory of the God encounter will slowly fade and the ritual, creeds, and rules intended to preserve the encounter will take its place.”

Thomas O’Dea, in the article linked to above, points out how consecutive generations tend to construct religious systems to take the place of the original encounter.  Thus, the “crisis inevitably dawns when the outward forms of worship no longer match the inward experience and spiritual condition of the participants.  Decline becomes inevitable.  Authentic Christianity is subverted and constant renewals become necessary.”  (Hirsch and Frost, 77).

So what are these five dilemmas the Thomas O’Dea wrote about?  I have summarized them below.  If you look at the original article, you will see why a summary is helpful!

1. THE DILEMMA OF MIXED MOTIVATION

In the beginning, in what O’Dea calls the “pre-institutionalized stage” of a religious movement, the disciples are gathered around a charismatic leader and there is only one single motivation.  When the movement is stabilized with an institutional matrix, new kinds of motivation arise – needs for prestige, leadership, power, and respect. An example from the New Testament is seen where we read the disciples becoming concerned with who shall be the highest in the kingdom.

Institutions can mobilize all these different kinds of motivation but selection and promotion within the organization must reflect the functional needs of the organization and therefore will not distinguish between the different motivations.  The self-interested motivation may prevail leading to its corruption.  Mixed motivation is not unique to leadership but changes the composition of its members.  With the passing of the founding generation, the religious body now contains people who have not had the original conversion experience.  “The selection process which voluntary conversion represented often kept out of the organization precisely the kinds of persons who are now brought up within it.”

2. THE SYMBOLIC DILEMMA: OBJECTIFICATION VERSUS ALIENATION

Our response to the holy is expressed not only in community, but also in worship.  However, in order to survive its charismatic moment, worship must become stabilized in established forms.  Thus, ritual develops forcing to conform our interior disposition to this symbolic order.  So, worship becomes an objective reality that imposes its own patterns upon the participants.

And yet, this “objectification” is necessary for common worship for without it prayer would be individual, not communal.  The ritualization which makes it possible to worship in community can become so routinized that it becomes cut off from the experience of the participants.  Thus, we have alienation.   (I wonder if this is what I see in contemporary church services when participants are text messaging or talking on their cell phones while the worship band plays on.)

“To symbolize the transcendent is to take the inevitable risk of losing the contact with it.  To embody the sacred in a vehicle is to run the risk of its secularization.  Yet if religious life is to be shared and transmitted down the generations the attempt must be made.”  The medium of genuine communication becomes a barrier and an object of aggression. (Could this be the basis for the “worship wars”, the denomination rifts, or the strong feelings invoked by some by the words, Emergent, Charismatic, Evangelical, or Institutional Church?)

3. THE DILEMMA OF ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER

Charismatic leadership quickly changes into a traditional structure consisting of a chief and an administrative staff.  Precedents are established, new offices and roles are formed, new communication protocols and soon the structure is in danger of complicating itself.  “The tendency or organization to complicate itself to meet new situations often transforms it into an awkward and confusing mechanism within whose context is it difficult to accomplish anything.”

4. THE DILEMMA OF DELIMITATION: CONCRETE DEFINITION VERSUS SUBSTITUTION OF LETTER FOR SPIRIT

In order to have an impact on our lives, religious insights must be translated into terms relevant for everyday life.  These terms, however elaborate, or however gifted the communicator maybe be, can’t make explicit all that is implied in the original insight or experience.  A similar thing happens when you try to explain a dream or a wonderful experience to someone.  Your words can never fully encapsulate your original experience.  And yet we must try or the experience will be lost by others.  The risk is that it may end up being reduced too much which would lead to a deadening legalism.

5. THE DILEMMA OF POWER: CONVERSION VERSUS COERCION

The propagation of Christianity involves an interior “change” or “conversion”.  This decision is the beginning of the religious life for the individual.  “With institutionalization of the religious movement, such a conversion may be replace by the socialization of the young so that a slow process of education and training substitutes for the more dramatic experience.”  Of course, this kind of socialization often paves the way for conversion.   Since religion depends on this interior disposition of the individuals who are vulnerable to outside influences, there is a temptation to use the close relation or similarities between religion and societal values to reinforce the religion.  The organization, in its search for power, is often co-opted by the very forces it seeks to control.

Those are the five dilemmas written about in the article, “Five Dilemmas in the Institutionalization of Religion”.  The article takes a long time to wade through so I hope it benefits you to have my brief synopsis here.  I searched for a summary but couldn’t find one so hopefully this one will suffice for now.  If, after reading the article, you have something to add or can word it better than I, let me know and I would be glad to include it here!

Again, comments are always welcome and not moderated.