"Today, some are making an idol out of “evangelicalism.” They are doing that by insisting
that it is a closed system, exclusive of all but themselves and those who think just like them -
always the same (impervious to change and development), absolutely and objectively true
(unbiased, without perspective) and bounded by identifiable boundaries (propositional truths)
impervious to outsiders or new ideas and established by “the received evangelical tradition."
- Roger Olson
I
found early on when doing the hard work of Christian deconstruction that after
completing its project - such as the one Roger Olson is referencing today - that it is always
spiritually healthy to then provide a Christian reconstruction as bridge from
the
apophatic (what God is not) to the
cataphatic (what God is). That it would be spiritually healthy for me
to discern both my background and the effects of my background upon my faith - both in the negative and in the positive. To take an "internal inventory" if you will, of my beliefs, and to determine, if possible, where necessary change must come.
More importantly, this task took me by surprise when after over a dozen years of Holy-Spirit burden I became overwhelmed by God and fell into a black pit of despair requiring a personal brokenness for a period of time before then yearning for release. And when delivered by the hand of God, He had formed within me a new purpose, a new mind, a changed heart, and renewed determination measured in passion and insight. It was both a God-thing and a me-thing where God took my mind, heart, will, and spirit, and re-oriented myself towards a gospel filled with Jesus and no longer a form of Jesus as expressed by a hardened religion that had absorbed me without my notice. And yet, this idolatrous form of Christianity needed breaking, and when done, was broken, and I was released into a clearer light of day than I first had possessed in my earlier adult years.
It was a process which took its time with me (by my count, approximately eleven months). And it was within this personally difficult process or space that the truth of Jack Caputo's statement became true:
"The truth will set you free,
but it does so by turning your life upside down."
-
John (Jack) Caputo
However, if I were to tarry too long in this land of loss and positive criticism
then I would miss the beauty of Christ in the lands of renewal, reclamation, and reconstruction.
That it was my responsibility to also speak of a better form of Christian faith and theology then what it had become these past several decades. And so I have. As best as I could. With what I had. More specifically, I became burdened to speak of a postmodern, post-Christian faith emphasizing some of its newer discoveries over the past several decades. Discoveries such as presenting:
- a "weak (sic, non-dogmatic) theology" that is more open (and less closed) within the best traditions of the church; or,
- a faith that allows for the Spirit of God to presage our hearts and minds again in the forms of mystic Christianity (ala Richard Rohr, Stanley Hauerwas, et al) which stands amazed and wordless before the presence of a Holy God; or,
- recognizing an "anthropological hermeneutic" inadvertently laid upon Scripture which we bring upon the interpretations of God's revelation in the Bible through our self-oriented (existential) needs, wants, prejudices, and bigotries; or even,
- when discovering a ground-changing philosophical basis other than the Western Analytical tradition I grew up within. An over-used tradition steeped in a "mathematical, syllogistic, formula-based theology" when describing God (systematic theology) or His work (Christian essays). One known as a (Hegelian-based) Continental Philosophy (cf. Postmodern Christianity) which would emphasize God's revealed story as a salvific (meta)narrative wrapped around the nucleus of a Radical Christianity which tore at the idols of modernal Christian religion.
And so then, in today's post, submitted by a true-to-form religious evangelic theologian steeped in church history, Dr. Roger Olson, we can hear again of this newer movement writhing within the deep halls of both evangelical and liberal Christianity. And, of course, I use the descriptive word "liberal" in its best sense of
"reconstructing" a Jesus-centric Christian faith - not a biblio-centric, nor a closed dogmatic faith, nor even a sectarian creed-based Christianity. But a faith that leads out with Jesus even as the best bible-centered, weaker dogmatic, and confessional creeds do over the church's long, controversy-filled, history. One that lifts up God's revealed self-incarnation in the flesh, Jesus, as our Sovereign Lord and Savior, who came to save us from our sin and suffering. Who offers real hope in the "lands of the midnight sun" underwhich we turn-and-spin seeking truth-and-knowledge through the grand auspices of love, compassion, forgiveness, and service.
As such, the take-aways from today's discussion is the rebalancing of what an evangelic faith can be with Jesus at its center. To not over-judge a beneficial (evangelical) movement largely
taken heist by the idolaters of its faith having crept in and demanded a more sectarian, secular form of its best self. To understand that a postmodern Christianity has come to re-right its 20th century predecessor by emphasizing both the negatives and the positives of its evangelical heritage in the best that it has to offer through its more progressive, liberal forms of revelation. That in the end, this rebalancing act (one which Peter Rollins calls a "magic act") will remove the idolatry we have brought to a godly faith by supplanting it with God Himself rather than with our unrepentant selves. To do this we must declare Jesus by speaking of Him and His resurrection through newer words and ideas which will lead us out of our present darkness. Words and ideas which will perform their necessary work of a postmodern deconstruction and reconstruction. Words hearkening to the old words of the Apostle Paul who declared we must deliver over the "old man" to death in order to allow the Holy Spirit to place within our hearts and minds and souls "the new man in Christ." And this I had proposed to do by the merciful hand of God - and have done to the best of my ability - within the pages of this blogsite. To the glory of God, and to His Son. Amen and amen.
R.E. Slater
May 1, 2016
edited May 10, 2016
* * * * * * * * *
Deconstructing "Evangelicalism"
by Roger Olson
April 29, 2016
Recently I had the privilege of hearing George Marsden speak. Marsden is widely considered the “dean” of evangelical historians. That is, he practically pioneered and led in the study of the history of the evangelical movement. He taught at Calvin College, Duke Divinity School and retired from the University of Notre Dame (where Mark Noll succeeded him). Marsden helped many of us, in our callow years as budding evangelical scholars, distinguish between “evangelicalism” and “fundamentalism.” The lecture I heard, just recently, was about C. S. Lewis and Mere Christianity—a phenomenon that continues to grow in influence and not only among evangelicals.
Hearing Marsden, and meeting him for the first time, reminded me of an essay I wrote a few years ago that never was published. If I posted it here, I have forgotten that. So here it is:
“Deconstructing Evangelicalism”
What is “deconstruction,” anyway? Well, I’ve been reading a lot about that and it turns out it’s not at all what I had been told. It’s not “destruction” but rather has a positive agenda–to expose idols for what they are and help institutions and movements (etc.) improve themselves by becoming more open, more just and more flexible.
A basic presupposition of deconstruction is that all ideologies are idols because they usurp the place of God (for Christian deconstructionists) and/or claim to be what no human system can be–totalizing, monolithic, all-encompassing explanatory schemes that function as God (for secular deconstructionists).
According to Peter Rollins (How [Not] to Speak of God) (depending largely on Christian philosopher Merold Westphal) there are at least two principles of deconstruction: the principle of finitude and the principle of suspicion. These, along with some other possible deconstructive principles, serve as critical tools for exposing idols.
Today, some are making an idol out of “evangelicalism.” They are doing that by insisting that it is a closed system, exclusive of all but themselves and those who think just like them - always the same (impervious to change and development), absolutely and objectively true (unbiased, without perspective) and bounded by identifiable boundaries (propositional truths) impervious to outsiders or new ideas and established by “the received evangelical tradition.”
Of course, few evangelicals would put it this way, but one can easily detect this notion of evangelicalism by reading some of its self-appointed spokesmen.
My intention is not at all to critique authentic evangelicalism, although it is always improvable, but rather my intention is to deconstruct the concept of evangelicalism being promoted by some conservatives.
My first deconstructive move is to demonstrate the aporia of a movement with boundaries. I’ve written about this here before, but it bears repeating. Evangelicalism is a movement and a movement, by definition, cannot have boundaries. Thus, it is simply ridiculous to think of or to talk about evangelical boundaries. Evangelicalism would have to have a magisterium [a centralizing synod-like body] to have boundaries; it has no magisterium. It [the evangelical movement] is a people’s movement stemming from the Reformation, the Pietist renewals, the first and second Great Awakenings, the conservative reaction to liberal theology (early fundamentalism) and dissatisfaction with fundamentalism. Evangelicalism has always been tremendously diverse. All within it have similiar concerns and interests, but the moment you try to put your finger on something that could serve as a boundary (rather than a center of attention and interest) it slips away because someone within the movement has already violated it!
Along the same lines (exposing an aporia of this concept of evangelicalism): evangelicals have always valued the Scripture principle stemming from the Reformation (sola scriptura). They have interpreted it in many different ways, but it stands at the center of the movement (which is a centered set but not a bounded set). Yet, many of those promoting this new, narrow, almost idolatrous notion of evangelicalism seem to violate sola scriptura even as they identify it as a boundary of the movement. They violate it by solidifying tradition and raising it to a level of authority functionally equal with Scripture.
Real affirmation of the Scripture principle manifests in openness to correction of all systems and traditions from Scripture itself. Where that openness is missing sola scriptura is receiving only lip service at best.
Moving on to the deconstructive principle of finitude: Evangelicalism is historically allergic to idolatry of any kind and yet idolatry appears wherever and whenever something finite, human, is elevated to God-like status. Anything treated as immutable, absolute, incorrigible, all comprehensive, completely objective and exclusive of insights from others (beyond God’s own self-revelation) is an idol. No theological system or doctrinal confession or tradition can be any of those things because they are all finite creations of humans. That is not to say they are false; it is only to say they are less than absolute and, if they are to avoid idolatry, must be held open to correction. Thus, to the extent that people treat evangelicalism as a regime of truth incapable of improvement through criticism and correction it is becoming an ideology rather than an expression of the gospel and therefore an idol.
What about the principle of suspicion? Anyone who has been intimately involved in studying and participating in evangelicalism for a long time can easily see that there is tremendous gain to be had in terms of power, prestige and even money by controlling evangelical thought. Some evangelical spokesmen (always self-appointed, of course) jockey for status as pontiff of evangelicalism in public opinion. Such people sometimes change their views in order to gain greater support. Whole groups of evangelicals attempt to throw others out of the movement by marginalizing them, often by misrepresenting their views. (I can prove that has happened to me and I know of others to whom it has happened in the most cynical ways.) Evangelicalism has become respectable and prosperous and worldly in terms of power and prestige and whoever has the ability to convince the movers and shakers of evangelicalism (administrators, publishers, etc.) that he is its true representative wields great power.
Evangelicalism began (at least in modern times) as a movement of the margins. In some circles it
is in danger of becoming a movement of elites who delight in marginalizing other evangelicals to prove they have the power to do it.
Finally, I will add the principle of obligation to the “other”–the principle of alterity [a state of being different. "Otherness"]. Postmodern deconstructionism elevates obligation to the “other”–the outsider, the outcast, the invisible–as a primary ethical norm. Ideologies are belief systems that create otherness and thrive on exclusion under the guise of providing an all-encompassing explanatory scheme. Evangelical theologian Miroslav Volf writes about “willingness to embrace” the other–a Christian version of postmodern Jewish philospher Levinas’ obligation to the “face” of the other.
In the aftermath of the 20th century–a century of genocidal ideologies–we all need to be careful not to create or embrace or follow new ideologies that exclude and refuse even to hear the voices of those who do not fit in or who disagree. These days conservative evangelicalism is a monologue, a choir singing only in melody without harmony, a movement aiming at conformity.
Not long before he died I corresponded with conservative evangelical theologian (to many the “dean of evangelical theologians”) Carl F. H. Henry about inerrancy and other matters of concern. I mentioned to him that evangelical theologian Donald Bloesch, in his developing Foundations series, denied inerrancy except in the broadest sense possible. Henry dismissed Bloesch as a “mediating theologian” by which he clearly meant “not evangelical in true sense” (as defined, of course, by Henry). Anyone who knew Bloesch knows what a great evangelical spirit he was.
Rather than practicing hospitality through dialogue and consensus-building, today’s conservative evangelicals are too concerned with excluding people. In some cases this lack of value placed on alterity borders on violence. Not physical violence but spiritual abuse which is another kind of violence.
The upshot is that today’s self-appointed (but very loud and influential) establishment evangelicalism is in danger of turning the liberating evangelical movement that is gospel-centered, generous and loving into an ideology and thus [into] an idol. There is the danger of God being effectively pulled down out of transcendence and made into a prisoner of a propositional system (and perhaps even a servant of a political agenda).
The great German pietist Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf often said that whoever puts Christianity into a system kills it. He didn’t mean, of course, that doctrine is bad. He was a great defender of basic Protestant orthodoxy, but he recognized the grave danger of giving too much importance and power to human systems of thought that imprison the Spirit of God who always transcends our humanly constructed houses of authority.
