System

In everyday discourse we sometimes hear people say, “Blame it on the system!” or “You’ve got to know the system to get ahead.” What do we mean by such language? And how are we to think in Christian terms about the experiences to which such talk refers?

A system is a number of things connected together as a whole. The whole is not a random happening but gives evidence of regularity and order in its organization and method, in its plan and operation. The human body is a system of systems, and within the body we can identify a skeletal system, a circulatory system, a nervous system and so on. A machine, like an automobile or computer, is a system. Most of us have some kind of stereo system at home, an integrated whole composed of various electronic components. Schools and colleges are usually thought of as parts of an educational system. Nature and the environment form an ecosystem of interdependent parts. A system may be rigid or flexible, enduring or evolving, formal or informal.

To understand any individual thing, we need to attend to the systems of which it is a part. It is not enough simply to isolate something for study and reflection; we must also see its roles and relations within its systems. In the academic, business and professional worlds, there are now specialists in systems engineering and systems analysis.

A Christian Approach to Systems

God’s creation brought forth a kind of system. The individual parts of this created system (man and woman, animals, plants, the sun, moon, stars, etc.) each have a certain uniqueness, dignity, beauty and purpose (see Structures). But the individual parts are intended to flourish in relationships, not in isolation. As a whole, this created system displayed an equilibrium of freedom and order, innovation and constancy, individuality and community. The social system intended partnership and complementarity, meaningful work and rest. The broader ecosystem was characterized by beauty as well as utility.

The fall away from God and into sin brought disorder into God’s created system. While the grace and providence of God have sustained the systems of our universe as a livable milieu, humankind’s alienation from God is the fundamental cause of our problems in coping with the “systems questions” of our experience. Our social systems degenerated from partnership to competition, oppression and exploitation. Our ethical and moral systems replaced reliance on God’s judgment of what is good with a quest to know and declare autonomously what is good and what is evil. In place of God’s system of partnership, we soon had a rigid separation in the roles of man and woman, polygamy, a violent competition between brothers and the creation of systems of war. Systems of idolatry and religion replace the living relationship with God.

Christians should not reject the notion of systems per se but should adopt a critical and redemptive stance toward them. We cannot live without systems of some kind—but systems can be better or worse, and they can help or hinder our pursuit of God’s purposes for life. Our intervention into the various systems of nature is part of the human task. What is necessary, especially from a Christian point of view, is that these interventions (to fight disease, increase food production, explore the universe, acquire sources of energy, etc.) ought to be undertaken with respect for the value and integrity of God’s creation. As stewards and caretakers of God’s creation and as responsible keepers of our brother’s and sister’s life, we must be careful not to add to the disorder of the world through our interventions (see New Reproductive Technology). This is not an easy accomplishment in an era of great threats, great needs and a voracious appetite for technological development.

Our social systems present us with other challenges. Some of these systems, for example, families and households, tend to be informal. Traditions, habits and unarticulated expectations and assumptions often form an invisible system within which we carry out our tasks. Even so, such systems for child rearing, decision-making and other activities can be better or worse. We cannot make every decision de novo. We need continuity, stability, tradition. But we must reflect critically on these patterns and systems. Are they promoting the partnership, dignity, growth, beauty and goodness of each member as God’s creation intended? Are they redemptive, reconciling, healing and life-giving as our Lord intends?

Businesses, churches, schools, community groups and political organizations also have informal systems: customs, habits and traditions for decision-making and action. But they also, more than family and friendship, create systems of formal structures and policies. The organizational structure (administrative hierarchy, bureaucracy, committees, job descriptions) might be thought of as the “skeleton” and “organs” of the system. Constitutions, laws, regulations, curricula, policy statements and employee handbooks describe the functional “circulatory system” in such social systems. Social systems, in short, have formal structures and processes as well as informal constraints.

The Challenge of Reforming Systems

We cannot live and work very well without such systems. No business or community or school will survive without adequate organization, without developing its system. Nevertheless, social systems can become unjust, repressive and even demonic. History gives us many examples of political structures whose laws were blatantly racist or discriminatory against women, religious and ethnic minorities, the landless or poor. Businesses, schools and churches have also been prone to systematic, structural and procedural evil and oppression.

Even when structural reforms have occurred, informal traditions and old-boy networks have kept many systems frozen to improvement. Reforming the system requires not only formal structural and procedural changes but changes in attitudes and values in the organizational culture. It is, of course, more difficult to reform the many than the few: the size and scale of organizations and systems present special problems. It is more difficult to reform the old and long-standing than the new and recent; old habits and traditions die hard. It is more difficult to reform the successful than the struggling; leaders and beneficiaries are resistant to upsetting the apple cart. It is difficult to bring about reforms without them being undergirded by powerful, shared values.

Part of the difficulty in reforming social systems arises because of the way responsibility is diffused in organizations. The “buck” gets passed around, and individuals find responsibility avoidable or unattainable: “It’s not my fault.” “That’s the way we’ve always done things, and I can’t change that.” This resistance to change leads some to argue that at a fundamental level organizations and systems have been captivated by the principalities and powers of evil. Well-intentioned individuals seem incapacitated by a demonic system.

Christians will recall that Paul “used the system” when he appealed to Caesar (Acts 22:25-29; Acts 25:11). Peter urged subordination to human institutions and even to the economic system of slavery (1 Peter 2:13-25). On a personal level, however, Paul urged Philemon to set free his slave Onesimus (Philemon 8-16). The New Testament suggests that (1) where possible, we create new, transformed systems bearing witness to the creative and redemptive purposes of God; (2) we speak up on behalf of those oppressed, challenging the masters of the system to be accountable to God; (3) we encourage those who are struggling under the weight of the system; and (4) when caught within an oppressive system, we exercise faithful servant leadership, trusting God to use our faithful, alien presence to bring about divine purposes in due time.

In short, blaming our predicaments on “the system” may be true enough; evil and good are structural and systemic as well as personal. In fact it may be the system more than any individual’s malice that is the source of our displeasure. But the assignment of blame hardly begins to describe the Christian calling in the world. Rather than seek objects to blame, we should look for causes to address and create redemptive alternatives that bear witness to the goodness of God.

As Paul did, we may “use the system” but never in a self-serving, world-compromising way. We want to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16 NRSV), but this counsel to prudence must never justify an abandonment of our identity as the children of light, the citizens of God’s kingdom, the ambassadors of the coming age of Jesus Christ. Because the weapons of our warfare are spiritual and because our battle with “the system” is not always with flesh and blood but rather with principalities and powers, with the cosmic powers of this present darkness, we must always be vigilant in prayer, and we must draw close to our fellow soldiers in the Christian community as we carry out our life in various systems (Ephes. 6:10-18).

» See also: Organization

» See also: Power

» See also: Principalities and Powers

» See also: Structures

References and Resources

L. von Bertalanffy, General System Theory (New York: Braziller, 1968); L. von Bertalanffy, Perspectives on General System Theory: Scientific-Philosophical Studies (New York: Braziller, 1975); P. Collins and R. Paul Stevens, The Equipping Pastor: A Systems Approach to Empowering the People of God (Washington, D.C.: Alban Institute, 1993); E. H. Friedman, Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and Synagogue (New York: Guilford Press, 1985); A. W. Schaef and D. Fassel, The Addictive Organization (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988); E. H. Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership: A Dynamic View (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1991); P. Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization (New York: Doubleday, 1990).

—David W. Gill