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Posts Tagged: postmodernism
September 24, 2009
Exploring Emerging Theology: The Connections between Emergence and John D. Caputo’s The Weakness of God
An Emerging Theology
“The SS seemed more preoccupied, more worried, than usual. To hang a child in front of thousands of onlookers was not a small matter. The head of the camp read the verdict. All eyes were on the child. He was pale, almost calm, but he was biting his lips as he stood in the shadow of the gallows … ‘Where is merciful God, where is he?’ someone behind me was asking … Behind me, I heard the same man asking: ‘For God’s sake, where is God?’ And from within me, I heard an answer: ‘Where He is? This is where – hanging from this gallows.’ That night, the soup tasted of corpses.” – Excerpt from “Night,” by Elie Wiesel in which he recounts his time spent as a young boy in Auschwitz.
I don’t have a personal copy of John D. Caputo’s The Weakness of God: A Theology of Event but this wonderfully advanced technological age in which we all are living and playing has afforded me the opportunity to read most of it for free online. Sure, Google Books intentionally discards pages here and there so that paupers like me will be forced to actually go and purchase books, and I will, but in the meantime I am happily perusing large sections of this very, very enlightening work for free. Read more…
September 16, 2009
The Modern Charge of Postmodern Relativism
Modernism and Postmodernism?
Postmodernism is often branded as meaningless relativism. This is especially true as far as most Christian conversation in the West is concerned because of the blurry western religious propensity towards propositional truth, absolutism and total objectivity. In most cases, however, the shallow branding of postmodernism as relativistic is performed with zero/little understanding of very important issues, such as: 1. Postmodernity’s over-arching skepticism concerning meta-narratives; 2. Modernity’s deep dependence upon metanarratives for its perceived truth; 3. The myth of total objectivity; 4. Conceptual presuppositions concerning reason and knowledge (e.g., reason itself existing independently from one’s context and cultural constraints). Reducing postmodernism to relativism without actually understanding postmodernism – or modernism – is unfortunate, to say the least. Read more…
July 28, 2009
Certeau’s Perpetual Eruption of Inquietude
Michel de Certeau (1925-1986) is fascinating. His life’s work is as deep as it is broad. I am only beginning to dive into it and most of the material I am sifting through regarding the man is not primary. I’ll get to those primary sources as soon as time and money permit. Meanwhile, I’ll say this: The material I am engaging provokes much thought. In fact, Certeau’s intellectual project could be a catalyst for a lot of serious work in Christian theology (his work is already important in postmodern theory, obviously) if only more people were familiar with it. Unfortunately, so many of us are so focused upon distractions and the wrong questions that we miss the really big theological questions Certeau openly asked during his existence. We would do well to wrestle with more of his work. Certeau’s intellectual framework was erected upon a multi-disciplinary approach that included anthropology, economics, linguistics, philosophy, history, psychology and theology. A work founded upon such big and broad vision will have some staying power. The questions it raised are not going away anytime soon. Certeau was painting a big picture. He was looking for universal threads. He may have found a few. The question is, what are we going to do with them? Maybe we should pull one of those threads and unravel a sweater or two? Perhaps. Read more…
May 19, 2009
On Symbolism and Interpretation
Occasionally, some of the comments I receive on this blog are what I call “post worthy.” Said differently, sometimes a reader’s comment is so interesting that it is promoted to a full post for everyone to enjoy. It rarely happens, but it does happen occasionally. The comment below is that sort of interesting. When I first received the following comment I was struck silly by an almost “Are you kidding me?!?” sort of vibe, but then, and after a few minutes of thought, I realized there is a lesson in this comment about symbols and our interpretation of symbols and the effect our interpretations can have upon our subsequent/consequent thoughts and actions. Read more…
March 2, 2009
Why Would God Ask Us To Do That?
Is it our job to differentiate between the divine and human aspects/nature of scripture? Some think this is NOT our job; I think it IS our job! Some might even ask, “Why would God ask us to do that?” I’d simply say because God must! It – the differentiation – is an unavoidable part of the Incarnation, and thus an unavoidable characteristic of our expressions of faith and God. When we then choose to record these expressions of faith and God that result from our real-time engagement of the Incarnation, then we literally become characters in the drama and bring all of our character traits with us into the story. This creates the very real need for those who will enter the story in the future to actually differentiate between all that the people from the past have brought to the story and the revelation of God. This is all about the Incarnation. The Incarnation is not a one time even in history; it is a perpetual state of existence for those of us who believe in the living Christ. The Incarnation is something each of us as followers of Christ engage and enter every single day of our lives. The really interesting thing in all of this is that the the Incarnation is something offered to each of us right where we are immediately living in time, space, and history. In other words, God meets us right where we are, culturally. And we express this event in language and understanding shaped and nearly limited to our cultural setting. And by grace, God meets us all there and lovingly guides us and accepts our worship in spite of our seriously limited and culturally informed expressions of God’s self. Amazing! Read more…
February 24, 2009
A Reflective Rant Concerning Postmodernism, Objectivity and The Emerging Conversation
<reflective rant> I talk before I think, and often. But don’t let anyone tell you otherwise: It is a good character trait! It is a good character trait with a bit of potential for bad. I would rather be the guy who talks before he thinks than the guy who never says anything because he is thinking. A handful of bad consequences born from talking before thinking are more valuable than a million good thoughts never spoken. I, however, don’t stop there. I actually act before I think too. Now, that’s a bit risky. I’m a spontaneous guy, for sure, but I think what I’m talking about here goes well beyond spontaneity. I’m talking about taking real risks. I see a chaotic fray and I’ll dive headlong into it and worry about the cognitive aspects of my act during tomorrow’s reflections. The dive has garnered me way more success in life than it has failure, but it has also introduced me to more than a few unfortunate experiences. That’s the risk! And it’s a good risk! After all, you never really know what’s in a fray until you dive into it and take a good look around for yourself. In fact, until you do so, it’s all second-hand knowledge. If “knowing” is worth it, if 1st hand knowledge is worth it, than the risk is a good one no matter what you find in the fray. So, the dive – succeed or fail – is an edifying one. Risky? Yes! You might lose! You might win! Sometimes you chase the bear; sometimes the bear chases you. That’s real life and living! That’s reality! Read more…