searching for authenticity

On what makes an authentic blues club, as described by one sociologist:

"Regulars experience B.L.U.E.S. as a place of refuge where authenticity is measured in terms of the club's ability to represent an idealized vision of community and moral order...By forging nocturnal selves that emphasize membership in such a community, these regulars can experience the blues club as regulars by enjoying the emotional benefits associated with the role, including a sense of individual worth...

"Meanwhile, among more professional musicians, concerns over authenticity always play a role in determining how they view their own status as musicians, but unlike their audiences, they tend to search for authenticity within the musical performance itself, as opposed to the racial ascription of the performer or the clubs where their performances occur...In fact, for some of these performers, the sliding scale of authenticity was not the yardstick by which they measured their worth as musicians, but served as a stumbling block to their success and happiness, and thus represented a false stereotype - an expectation to be overcome, rather than achieved." *

On what makes an authentic church, as described by this theologian:

People search for a place of refuge and acceptance, a place to fill this God-shaped vacuum in their lives. Many will evaluate a church's ability to represent an idealized vision of community and moral order by forging pious selves that emphasize membership in such a community, complete with all of the right words and actions that characterize the community. These regulars can experience a church as members by enjoying the emotional benefits associated with the role, including a sense of individual worth.

Meanwhile, from God's perspective, concerns over authenticity always calls individuals to a deeper and more profound experience of himself. And unlike church gatherers who often act more like audiences than worshipers, he tends to search for authenticity within the single-minded devotion of these very people, as opposed to any socio-cultural ascription of what his followers must look like or the churches where their meetings occur. In fact, God does not view the sliding scale of authenticity as some yardstick by which he measures our worth as his people, but calls it what it is: a hypocritical standard of a hallow piety that serves as a stumbling block to our spiritual success and joy. Thus, our own merit is a false stereotype - an expectation to be overcome, rather than achieved.

For he does not search out performance...



*quote from: David Grazian, Blue Chicago: The Search for Authenticity in Urban Blues Clubs (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 24-25.