How can one differentiate between deep feeling and sentimentalism? I have run the risk of throwing out deep feeling together with sentimentalism, so I will say one word or two on the subject.
Kristian Bjornard on Flickr. Creative Commons.
I realized at some point, with dismay, that the church is filled with sentimentalism and hypocrisy, and that those two go side by side. I met colleagues in the ministry who talked about love all the time, while they behaved with a rare degree of insensitivity. I had parishioners betraying my trust, and they were usually among the most pious.
Creation Spirituality has represented for me a great antidote to sentimentalism, naming it for me in ways that made it immediately recognizable.
Matthew Fox was writing as early as 1978 on “desentimentalizing spirituality” in the magazine Spirituality Today. In his book A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew makes reference to the philosopher Max Scheler who was wary of “emotional infection,” that is, of those sudden waves of feeling passing from one person to another — especially in religious groups — which instead of leading to real deep connections and mutual help fade at once like snow in the sun, leaving nothing but a sense of lack.
Compassion, says Matthew in that book, is not only distinct from sentimentalism, but the latter is the utter negation of the first. Where there is sentimentalism, compassion is banned. Encountering sentimentalism is like meeting an impersonator. Yet until you meet the real person you may feel confused. It’s no wonder that people raised on a sentimental diet are often full of rage as adults: they were cheated of the real connections that they yearned for.
This is why it’s important not to confuse deep feeling with sentimentalism. Without deep feelings, we cannot live. In my work on Jung and Fox, I identify the “feeling function” with the Via Negativa, thus with one of the four necessary components of the human spiritual journey.
There was a time in my life when — partly to escape sentimentalism — I was letting my “thinking function” grow exponentially to the detriment of the “feeling function,” but that was a mistake because the four Jungian functions — just like the four paths — are incommensurable to each other. That is, none can measure another, or be reduced to another, and all are indispensable.
To give you an example of what I am trying to say, please watch the Brazilian video by Edu Krieger and Natalia Voss called “Cristo presente” (Christ is present) which displays a deep incarnational theology in a light and soulful mode. The words say that “Christ is among people, Christ is in those who sing, and he who lives with the presence of Christ does not wage holy wars; He is in all forms of love, and in all kinds of faiths, in traditional families as well as in queer ones… After all, God can be also called Olodumaré (the high God in the Yuruba tradition)”.
My point is that the dance and the singing in this video express a very deep and soulful feeling, clear of sentimentalism, which speaks volumes. The same message, whether spoken or read, would simply not be the same message. It would not touch the viewer as deeply. True sentiment is what makes Edu’s and Natalia’s incarnational message alive and believable and — I dare to say —almost unassailable.
Banner image: “The Soweto Gospel Choir at Womad New Plymouth, New Zealand 2013.” Photo by Warren Smart on Flickr. Creative Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
Have you experienced the need to differentiate between sentimentalism and true deep feelings?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet
One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faith Tradition
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
Hildegard of Bingen: A Saint For Our Times: Unleashing Her Power in the 21st Century
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Prophet For Our Time
4 thoughts on “Deep Feeling, Not Sentimentalism”
Thank you, Gianluigi, for opening this topic. To me the difference between “sentimentality” and “true deep feelings” is similar to that between “crocodile tears” and “grief.” However, such mind-made categories should not occult the continuum on which they only qualify degrees. That is why one has to qualify feelings of “true deep feelings” or “deep feelings.” Sentiment also belongs to a continuum with sentimentality at the surface and “true sentiment” deeper. Unfortunately, “feelings” are too often frozen in our brainy culture and confused with “thoughts”: ask 10 people how they “feel,” chances are that most answers will express thoughts. Hypocrisy can mimic both sentiments and feelings: the Greek etymology of “hypocrisy” points to stage actors wearing masks. The more superficial the sentiment or the feeling, the easier it is to “act” (deliberately or, most often, subconsciously).
Yes, it’s important to be aware of our ‘true deep feelings’ because they can help us in our spiritual awareness and transformation of Being & Becoming our LOVING DIVERSE ONENESS with the Living Spirit/Flow of DIVINE LOVE~WISDOM~PEACE~HEALING~TRANSFORMATION~FREEDOM~CREATIVITY~BEAUTY~JOY~COMPASSION in the Sacredness of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT….
Dear GG, Thanks for this reflection. To know the difference is easier than to define it. I like the video, even though I cannot speak or sing in Portugese, because of the open faces, the delight they have in singing together, their simplicity and “tenderness, genuine smiles, and the beauty of their daughter running to be with them at the end! Nothing glamorous. It is just that issue of “glamor” which maybe changes the timbre of the emotion from something clean and spontaneous, like a breath of fresh air, into something artful. When someone feels something deeply true, and connects, it is satisfying and nurturing and a delight. It is not done for recognition or self-promotion. It is not intending to get a response. I remember a moment when an otherwise dense and seemingly emotionally “deaf and blind” person in a therapy circle really “saw” the marks of cruelty on another person’s body, and was stunned into tears. Her eyes widened. She did not have words to say. She stuttered, she wept. The person who had been loathe to show these wounds was so touched by the sincerity of her response, the true empathy she felt, that it was healing in a deep way. It was unexpected and confounding, that her response was so genuine. The wounded woman whispered “Thank you.”
I appreciate the distinctions between sentimentality and deep feelings made in this article. I view sentimentality to be brittle, insignificant and transient. But deep feelings leave an impact and strengthen the human experience. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.