The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
Deep Feeling, Not
Sentimentalism By Gianluigi Gugliermetto 12/17/2025 |
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. |
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. |
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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.
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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, simply spoken or just read, would not be the same message. It would not touch the viewer as deeply. True sentiment is what |
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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? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, or read other comments and enter into dialogue, please click HERE to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
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| Counterpoint: A Response to Peter Thiel’s Antichrist An Important Conversation with Matthew Fox and Gil Duran Did you miss this two-session series with its powerful counter-narrative rooted in wisdom, justice, and |
authentic spirituality? This is your
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PT January 14 - Creation as an Original Blessing and the Springboard of Awe and Wonder January 21 - Sacred Mother Earth: The Holiness of Creation and Recovering the Cosmic Christ January 28 - The Cosmic Mass, and the Stations of the Cosmic Christ: Reinvigorating Liturgy and Rituals February 4 - Jesus as a Teacher of Democracy and the Renewal of Education and Values through the “10 Cs” Register HERE |
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