Two and a Half Man: Aesthetic, Ethical, and the Grace of God

"Two and a Half Men" is a bawdy romp of a sitcom, one which dramatically depicts two very conflicting lifestyles.

Charlie Harper is a playboy who wins every play, gets every girl, and mires in self-absorbed, alcohol-soaked apathy and boredom.

Allen Harper is a milquetoast doormat who tries to play by the rules, but ends up getting played and ruled over.

The lives of these two men demonstrate the two spheres of existence, or stages of life, outlined by Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard.

Charlie Harper represents a man given over to the Aesthetic Sphere, a determined hedonist who pursues pleasures and flees from pain, dismissing every rule and responsibility to fulfill his own wishes.

Allen Harper represents a man in the Ethical Sphere, one dedicated to making it in society, playing by the rules of the community, getting married, settling down, and making something of his life in the service of others.

In every episode the CBS sitcom makes light of the two men's abject failure to find satisfaction in their lives, though the production is biased toward a life of unending pleasure (Charlie) as opposed to the pitiful fallout of a man always down on his luck, despised even by his own family (Allen).

Charlie makes lots of money, beds lots of women, gets in lots of trouble, has lots of friends, and seems to have a lot to laugh at. Yet his pursuits always turn up empty, and the one romantic interest that becomes serious so unnerves him, that he resorts only to living with the woman, chronically putting of marriage and family life.

Allen fails in every endeavor, striving to be good, ending up with bad, worse, and not worth mentioning. From his terrible divorce, to his failure to parent his own son, to his awkward appearance and attempts to meet other women, Allen personifies "loser".

According to Kierkegaard, the aesthetic life ends in abject boredom, a gnawing emptiness in the soul of the aesthete who is afraid to take on life, always hiding from commitment, always fearful of getting hurt, getting used, and getting nowhere form the void of a life of pleasure without purpose.

In contrast, the ethical life is impossible, and man's futile attempts to live by his own code of conduct or the code of society are doomed to end in failure. For a man to scrutinize every decision, limiting himself to the various and contradictory roles of other people or various rules and regulations, so afflicts a man that he collapses into an "ethical despair."

A human being cannot define himself by a pursuit of pleasure or a persistence in practicing goodness. He is designed for more than passing pleasures and rule-keeping

Jesus promised to his followers:

"I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." 9John 10:10)

Unlike the Aesthete, the Believer receives the eternal, ever-enriching "Zoe" Life -- everything else is mere "grasping of the wind." Instead, a believer allows the Holy Spirit (or "Wind" in Hebrew) to indwell and empower him. The Fruit of the Spirit includes Love, Peace, and Joy, all the things which seekers of pleasure never find on their own.

"Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit." (Ecclesiastes 6:9) "Vexation of spirit" can also be translated "striving after wind."

Unlike the Ethical man, Jesus Christ fulfills the law for us, removing from every man who believes on Him the curse of the Sin Nature. Once a believer receives God's grace, the Holy Spirit guides a man to live righteously, more than fulfilling the law.

"But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness." (Romans 9:31)

But for the believer, Christ has done the following:

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

In Him, we are forever righteousness, no longer striving or having to strive in our efforts to be holy. Christ Himself becomes:

"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30)

Christ makes us wise, righteous, holy, and redeemed -- everything that the Ethical man desires but cannot obtain through His own efforts.

By grace, therefore, man is instilled with right feeling and right thinking, all a matter of right believing, believing on the grace of God accorded to man through the death of His Son Jesus Christ.