Re: What (again) is emerging theology
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Circular, yes, but not the same circle
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A bit of a rant...
Jonathan, you asked where I see the evangelical church’s loss of interest and confidence in the content of scripture happening. I see it in glib, shallow sermons. I see it the persistent habit of proof-texting without regard for argumentative or narrative context. I see it in the reliance on simplistic dogmatic summaries and formulae. I see it in the bored mouthing of platitudes in Bible studies. I see it in the lack of interest in the historical context of scripture, in contemporary writings such as those of Josephus. I see it in naive apologetic arguments. I see it in the isolationist tendencies of the evangelical mind. I see it in the facile sentimental language of much evangelical-charismatic worship. I see it in the dilemma of pastors who can’t preach what they really think. I see it in the crass commercialization of faith. I see it in the distrust of critical thinking. I see it in the large numbers of people who are leaving evangelicalism because they can no longer endure the cognitive dissonance ringing in their heads. And so on…
Our doctrine of biblical authority has kept us from thinking, kept us from struggling, kept us from fighting to make sense of what it means to tell this extraordinary and very strange story in the world. We have grown fat and lazy because we have been told, ‘Don’t worry it’s all true, it’s all God’s word. Everyone else is simply wrong. Just believe what it says and everything will be fine.’ I think we need to make scripture prove itself again - make it justify itself. That won’t happen as long as we cling to our doctrine of biblical authority. We’re like a little boy who’s put his toy boat in the water but won’t let go of it in case it sinks.
This may not mean much to you, but I think it reflects how a lot of people feel, how they see things. The old paradigm simply does not work for them anymore, it doesn’t convince, they can’t hold it with integrity, they are fed up with pretending. So (if they haven’t given up altogether) they are struggling to renew their understanding of scripture - and as far as I’m concerned, it is a serious undertaking. It is not ‘free-wheel theologizing’, as you put it - at least, it shouldn’t be. A significant and growing part of the church in the West feels that the mind of faith - I mean biblical faith - needs to go through a process of dying and rebirth for the sake of the meaningfulness of scripture.
For example, I don’t think your letter metaphor, which I would consider characteristic of the modern evangelical approach at least at a popular level, does justice to scripture or to the challenge of reading it. First, the boss didn’t ‘write’ the letter. His workers recorded his instructions at an operational level, along with a lot of other information, and then passed that on to succeeding generations of employees. Secondly, the letter was written a long time ago for the benefit of a completely different group of employees under very different circumstances. Thirdly, the interpretation of that letter today is controlled, on the one hand, by tradition and, on the other, by a layer of intermediate management and lawyers - and postmodernism has taught me to distrust the spin that they tend to put on things. Having read the letter through a couple of times myself, I’m not entirely sure they’ve got it right. And having got to that point, I get very suspicious when they start telling me that the letter is authoritative. Maybe, but…
Incidentally, I once suggested a ‘conviction-based model of biblical authority’. I still, personally, prefer this more pragmatic approach, in which ‘authority’ arises as an emergent and experiential quality rather than as an a priori postulate. It comes with understanding. It doesn’t precede it.
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A non-believer's lament...
The Lost World of Genesis One - John H. Walton