The Evil of Reductionism

One

Lust and the Evil of Reduction

The ninth commandment forbids, “coveting your neighbor’s wife.” But more generally, it’s a commandment against lusting in general.

It’s a call to change the way we look at others, and particularly, how men look at women. Because there is a sinful way to see things. Which is why Our Lord says, “Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has committed adultery in his heart.”

Now what makes the look of lust sinful is that it’s reductive.

Reductionism is when you treat something as less than it really is. It’s when you see only one aspect of reality, and usually the most superficial or the most selfish aspect.

And whenever you deliberately close your eyes to the fullness of what God has made, whenever you fail to appreciate the full beauty and goodness of something, especially a fellow human being, you are falling into the evil of reductionism.

Two

Reducing Women to Less Than They Are

It should be obvious that looking at women, or thinking about women, only as an opportunity for sexual gratification, is a radical form of reductionism.

Here is a person, a daughter of God, a daughter of Mother Mary, a sister of Christ, made for glory, for happiness. This is a woman with the capacity for heroism, for motherhood, for holiness, for profound insight and powerful self-sacrifice. Lust cares for none of that. Lust doesn’t want to think about any of that. Quite the contrary: a man in the grip of lust normally wants to see the woman degraded for his entertainment.

How can you do that? It’s like going to an art gallery, finding the most magnificent piece of sacred art – say, Raphael’s Sistine Madonna – and fantasizing about blowing your nose on it. Only, of course, it’s infinitely worse than that. Because a woman is a person, and a painting, for all its sacred subject matter, is just an artifact. But wanting to blow your nose on a magnificent piece of sacred art shows how degraded your mind has become that you would reduce such an exquisite reality to such a limited function.

And that’s what the look of lust does, on an infinitely greater scale, to the reality of femininity.

Three

Reducing people to what you can get from them

Lust isn’t the only way to reduce someone to less than they really are. In fact, the evil of lust is part of a more general moral evil of reductionism – namely, when you reduce other people only to the way in which they can benefit you. 

The German philosopher Immanuel Kant once articulated a basic moral principle: it is always wrong to treat another person as a mere means to your end.

In other words, it’s always wrong to think of other people just in terms of how they can benefit you, or further your projects. Because people are more than just tools. They’re more than just resources for you to factor into your plans. They are just as important as you are, their humanity is just as rich and complete, and their fulfillment and happiness is just as important as yours is.

So is there a person in your life that you think of or treat basically just as an asset? Someone that is useful to you that you take for granted, but have no interest in helping? 

If so, consider ways you might be able to show that person that you are committed to their good, that you aren’t reducing that person to just a rung in your efforts to achieve your own ends.

Four

Women also reduce men 

It is always wrong to reduce people merely to the way in which they can benefit us. That is use. 

It is obvious that men tend to reduce women to objects for sexual gratification. But does that mean the ninth commandment does not apply to women? 

How do women reduce men to the way in which the man benefits the woman? Well, again, what do women want? To be valued, cherished, loved, protected and provided for. They want relationships and not to be alone. They want the good of kids and grandkids. These are all very good things.

Yet, consciously or unconsciously, women can reduce men to a mere means to achieve those things. 

When they do, the fail to really love the men in their lives, they fail to go beyond what they want to do good to their husbands, to make sure they man also receives what he needs and deserves. I joke with women who have become grandmothers for the first time and I say, “I bet your husband doesn’t even exist now.” Immediately they all agree with the statement without thinking or resisting this comment. 

It is not only men who reduce women. 

Women also reduce men to a means to what they want. And use is always the opposite of love. 

Five

Reducing the Church to its Appearances

If we’re going to talk about the evil of reducing things and people to less than they are, there’s one more example we should give.

We began by saying that it’s wrong for a man to reduce a woman to her superficial appearance, and the potential pleasure he might get from her. Now, of course, normally physical attractiveness is part of what initially draws a man to a woman – but as their relationship matures, he’s supposed to more deeply appreciate her character and personality. If a couple has been married for twenty years, and the husband says to the wife, “You know, you’re having a really bad hair day, and I can’t even relate to you like this,” we would say there’s something really wrong with a man who is still, after all this time, reducing his wife to her appearance.

Well, remember the Church is the Bride of Christ, and sometimes the Church is very beautiful and attractive, and sometimes it isn’t. Many people convert partially because they're so impressed with the loveliness of the Church, our sacred art, our magnificent cathedrals, our depth and breadth of truth, and our organizational structure. And that’s fine, at the beginning.

But the Church has a lot of bad hair days too. Sometimes the music and architecture and art are a mess at mass. Sometimes the hierarchy seems pretty disorganized. Sometimes the teaching doesn’t seem too clear. And then we have to remember that we love the Church because it brings us to Jesus. Because it communicates the Holy Spirit.

If we’re mature Christians, we won’t reduce the Church to its superficials. We will appreciate that the invisible head of the Church is Christ, and the invisible Soul of the Church is the Holy Spirit. And we will love the Church because of it.