Understanding Anthropocentric vs Theocentric Faith Paradigms

This is designed to be a reference guide to terms and concepts we will use periodically in other posts.

Overview

The concepts of Anthropocentric (An-thro-po-cen-tric) and Theocentric faith refer to what I call ‘paradigms of faith’. Each one is its own paradigm; each one represents two different philosophies / approaches to faith. This means they each have a starting point, an object they’re moving towards, and an end goal. They both share these three phases, but each phase looks differently depending on which paradigm you’re in. I don’t think individuals actively choose which paradigm they embrace. Instead, I think culture plays a large role in shaping and cultivating our faith paradigm.

Definitions

Anthropocentric faith

Anthropocentric faith is built around the self. I don’t want to use the phrase “self-centered” because that brings a specific connotation that I don’t think is quite fair. However, the individual’s “self” is foundational to this paradigm. The term “anthropocentric” is a compound word, stemming from the Greek anthropos (meaning “man”), and the English center. Thus, “anthropocentric faith” conveys the idea of “man-centered faith.”

The anthropocentric paradigm centralizes the individual self, but it is not in a maliciously selfish way (which is why I avoid calling it “self-centered faith”). This paradigm sees the individual’s experience as foundational.¹ It also sees God’s involvement in the individual’s experience as essential. However, its ultimate focus is on how God’s involvement affects the individual’s experience. The progressive flow through the paradigms phases, then, are as follows:

The individual begins with his/her experience within reality as an anchor point. This individual moves towards God because he/she understands who He is and recognizes his/her need for Him, but the movement towards God is ultimately for the purpose of boomeranging back to the self and his/her experience.

Those in an anthropocentric faith paradigm love God, but there is also an underlying assumption that their faith needs to somehow find its way back to their individual experience in order to be meaningful. When thinking about concepts that correspond to faith and practice, the anthropocentric paradigm produces the question “how does this relate to me?”

Theocentric faith

Theocentric faith places God at the center and keeps Him as the sole object of faith. The term “theocentric” is a compound word stemming from the Greek theos (meaning “God”) and the English center. Thus, theocentric faith conveys the idea of “God-centered faith.” The individual recognizes that he/she is out of alignment with God; the individual needs to learn how to be part of God’s reality instead of wondering how God fits into theirs. In a theocentric paradigm, the individual seeks God because of who He is. The individual recognizes the truth of God’s role within reality, and he/she seeks to know and relate to God because of that reality. This relationship, of course, is only possible through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ.

The movement through the three phases in a theocentric faith paradigm would look like this:

The individual places his/her faith in Jesus Christ, thereby becoming part of God’s family (cf. John 1:12; 1 John 1–4). The individual recognizes the gap between his/her human experience and God’s description of how humanity ought to be as laid out in the Bible, recognizing that this “gap” is the result of the fall of humanity. In response, the individual pursues the teachings of Christ because they are the standard of reality within God’s kingdom (which is the foundation of reality whether you’re within God’s family or not). The object of pursuit is God and His kingdom, and the self is dragged along towards these through sanctification.

Where’s the difference?

The difference is that, in the anthropocentric paradigm, the individual focusses on the experience of their life in Christ whereas the individual in the theocentric paradigm focusses on God, knowing that the experience of transformation will come.

A Scenario: Biblical Engagement

The purpose for biblical engagement and its result will be different in a theocentric paradigm verses an anthropocentric one.

In an Anthropocentric paradigm, the individual seeks a euphoric experience with God through Scripture. This does not begin as a malicious replacement of God, but it does result in us using our faith as a launching pad towards something other than God. Here’s how the logic develops:

I was just brought into a sweet euphoria with God through my biblical engagement;
I don’t want that sweet euphoria to end, and I want to feel it every time I engage Scripture;
The Bible is a special book that should lead me into this euphoric space;
Next time I open my Bible, I am going to try to replicate that feeling.

In the anthropocentric paradigm, the object of our desire ends up circling back around to us and how we feel instead of longing towards God.

The desire to be in the presence of God is good. However, we must remember that it is God who brings us into that space. God created us; God invaded His creation in the Garden of Eden to be among His creation; and God has implemented a plan of redemption so that creation will once again be curse-free and in His presence. God is the one who moves towards creation, not creation towards God. Humans cannot concoct a plan to re-enter God’s presence. We must hope towards the full implementation of God’s redemptive plan while resting in the work of Christ, who completed the atoning work required for the reunion between creation and creator.

Biblical engagement under a theocentric paradigm seeks God through Scripture, knowing that He is the one who moves towards creation; knowing that those sweet, euphoric moments with God are a testimony of His goodness and grace because He has already moved closer to us by giving us greater access to Himself through Christ despite the fact that His plan of redemption is not yet fully implemented.

In my experience, a theocentric faith paradigm produces the sweet euphoria of being in God’s presence, but an anthropocentric faith paradigm produces anxiety about not having enough of it.