"We must...go deeper than the half-twilight that has fallen over our culture at the end of the modern age. The lack of purpose, meaning, and pattern, which all our study of the natural world and society and the human psyche proclaim, should have made evident to this age that we cannot find life-giving truth and meaning by examining again and again nature, society, and the human psyche. The only hope is in the sacred, which comes to us so gently in Jesus and the holy things of God, lovingly shared by faithful people."
-----Diogenes Allen, from "Steps Along the Way"
6 comments:
I both like and don't like that quote.
Like: I see the same problem he sees -- how messed up the modern/postmodern world is.
Dislike: I don't think Jesus is the solution. I don't think Jesus came to change this world -- his kingdom is not of this world. Instead, he created a new world, a seperate world because this world is not a fixer-upper -- it is going to be destroyed on that final day.
Jesus isn't going to make this world a better place. Don't get me wrong, I do think it is a possibility that if the majority of the world imitated Jesus it would probably be a better place than it is now. But this is a long shot, especially since the existing and historical body of believers are some of the most ruthless and violent people around. So I'm not put many of my eggs in that basket.
Instead, I think we need to develop a model that can improve this world given the pluralitic nature of religious sentiments. In other words, we need to figure out how to peacefully exist in a world that has both believers and unbelievers. I think making improvements is possible -- we've done it before and we can do it again. Rather than evangelism, I think progress can be made through rational, secular discourse amongst different social groups.
JT, thanks for the post!
A couple comments. Allen, in this book, is talking to believers about epistemology, and, specifically here, the limitations of a materialist conception of the universe that insists upon starting with only us.
Prior to this quotation he was talking about Anselm's dictum about "believing to know." So I don't think he's advocating some form of transformationalist cultural program (at least not here), which I'm assuming is the spirit of your reaction to him.
What I liked about this quotation is that it acknowledges the inadequacy of enlightenment thinking, while trying to move us beyond it by returning us (Xians) to a more holistic, and perhaps more "appropriate," position of humility as fallible subjects before an infinite God.
In short, I'm not sure if he's saying what you're saying, although I don't know enough about his theology to say whether he's a transformationalist or not (he is, after all, an ordained Episcopalean).
For my part, that wasn't what I was thinking in posting this quotation. You and zrim have fairly convinced me that the gospel message is not reducible to "we're only here to make this world a better place."
That being said, I think it would be worth a whole separate set of posts to discuss your positive proposal that "we need to develop a model that can improve this world given the pluralistic nature of religious sentiments."
I might agree (on days when I manage to overcome my pessimism---Putin and Bush anyone?) that we--the human race--can make improvements, or at least peaceable room, in fact are making some improvements, toward peaceful coexistance, based upon pluralistic models.
Recognizing our diversity and perspectivalism/cultural contingency "should" lead to greater understanding and improved co-existance. Whether I'm supposed to care about that---and if I am, in what ways---is a totally different question, for the Christian.
in short, I think he was talking about the post modern context making unique room for the gospel, as opposed to it making room for world transformation. . .
jt,
"it is going to be destroyed on that final day."
care to restate that?
i think in general i like what jt says.
in quotes like this i find disturbingly absent any categories of law and gospel. i simply do not understand any christian discussion without them. i like to don my secularist, unbeliever cap when some folks talk from a self-proclaimed christian POV and ask, "so, why am i supposed to be here again"? what are these "holy things of God, lovingly shared by faithful people" that "come to us gently in Jesus"?
zrim
zrim, I'm not sure what you mean.
How about, it will be rolled up like a scroll on that final day, or the elements will be burned as with fire.
jt,
i was simply wanting to point out that we are not gnostic-dispensational-world denying-fundamentalists who have the idea that creation is evil and either needs to be or will be "destroyed." it will be renewed, set aright and that any burning is a cleansing or tempering burn and not a destroying burn.
that's all,
zrim
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