Sub title: The Pious Crowd: Le Bon, Performative Religion, and the Erasure of the Soul

In my recent analysis of Gustave Le Bon’s The Crowd, I explored how the decline of literacy and critical thinking reduces modern society to a “spinal cord” existence—driven by impulse rather than the brain.

But there is a deeper, more chilling spiritual dimension to this. When we apply Le Bon’s insights to our spiritual lives, we discover the phenomenon of Performative Religion: a state where one can “look the part,” belong to a “pious group,” and yet remain “evil within.”What is my concern about this performative and erosive crowd?

This type of crowd doesn’t just hide evil—it can make people believe their evil is righteousness. What we once might have stood firmly against is slowly redefined as good, and anyone who refuses to comply is quietly gaslit under the guise of “spiritual insight.”

The Temple as a Stage

The Gospel of John records a haunting moment before the Passover: “They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, ‘What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all?’” (John 11:56). Note the setting. They were in the Temple to “purify themselves.” The ritual was perfect. The setting was holy. Yet, the conversation was not about the transformation of the heart; it was about the drama of the “manhunt.”

They were a crowd caught in the tension of a political and religious spectacle, following the “orders” of the elite while maintaining the outward appearance of sanctity.

The Comfort of the Collective Vindicated

Le Bon argued that the individual in a crowd loses their sense of responsibility. In a religious context, this creates a dangerous “pool of vindication.” If I belong to a large enough group of people who all say the right words, wear the right clothes, and perform the right rituals, I no longer feel the need to examine my own internal darkness.

The crowd provides a “pious cloak” that hides the “evil within.” It is an easy place to exist because the group validates the ego without demanding the death of the self. We become, as Le Bon might suggest, “primitive beings” driven by the instinct to belong rather than the rational and spiritual mandate to be transformed.

The “Spinal Cord” of Superficiality

When our spiritual life moves from the “brain” (meditation on the Word, critical self-examination, and reasoned faith) to the “spinal cord” (emotional highs, tribal belonging, and performative virtue), we lose our grip on reality.

Language, as I’ve noted before, is thought projected into reality. When our religious language becomes a series of slogans or “games people play,” we are no longer projecting truth; we are projecting a mask. We end up with a “performative spiritual existence” where the goal is to appear purified while the heart remains a theatre of suspicion and self-interest.

The Christian Existential Challenge

The lesson I extract from Le Bon is a warning to the modern Church: A large, pious crowd is not evidence of a healthy spirit; it may be evidence of a successful performance.

True Christianity is an existential crisis—it is the individual standing alone before the Truth, stripped of the crowd’s protection. If our faith is merely a way to “look the part” and stay safe within a group, we are not followers of the Christ who stood outside the camp; we are merely members of the crowd in the Temple, wondering if the Truth will show up to the feast, while we ourselves are busy plotting how to avoid its conviction.

If you lean toward a form of existence that betrays your authentic self before the Lord, then your spirituality will only ever mirror the crowd. And the crowd does not refine the soul—it dilutes it. What stands before God is not the image you have performed, but the self you have concealed.