It is time that we recognized this foundationalist way of thinking for what it is. In its Christian guise, it represents not the strength of faith but the result of a faith that has lost its nerve. The Christian Scriptures set themselves up not so much as truth claims to be defended by philosophical foundations but as witnesses to the transforming power that no truth claim itself can contain. The gospel is not a “foundation” to render our traditional notions of rationality secure but a remaking of everything, including rationality itself.
“Reading the Scriptures Faithfully in a Postmodern Age”, in Davis, E.F. and Hays, R.B.(eds.), The Art of Reading Scripture, 112
Comments
This quotation would make a good springboard for a discussion on the contrast between the modern and postmodern as methods of enquiry, and how theology has adapted itself to each, or perhaps has at times been taken captive by each.
An evaluation of this adaptation might be “not very well”. It takes a far-sighted person who is able to reflect on the influence of culture in moulding theological discourse with the distance and critical awareness needed to bring adequate perspective, and without simply reflecting the bias of one cultural perspective or another.
While theology needs to enter the world of cultural discourse and adapt itself to the modes of enquiry which culture presents, the tendency will always be for theology to be taken captive by culture, confusing the merely contingent for the permanent, and absolutising an apologetic perspective in a prison of dogma.
The gospel of freedom from sin and new life in Christ can enter successfully the world of modern and postmodern thought, but needs to evade being taken captive by either. There are truth claims that it can make, because of the truth claims made by Jesus himself - both of himself, and of the message he came to proclaim, embodied in who he was and what he did. In this sense, it offers a firm foundation for our lives, because of the firm foundation of who Jesus was.
At the same time, this is not an invitation to construct entire systems of thought on the basis of the existence of supposedly irrefutable proofs. The gospel of Christ is more inward than this, resting on knowledge which is more than mere proof-based certainty. It is about an inward knowing of God, resting on communication which only God can give.
In the postmodern world, which rightly casts doubt on unchanging proof-based explanations of the universe, history and our place in it, another challenge arises. In what sense can the gospel be trusted, if all else is subject to mistrust and doubt? Within this world, Jesus also shines, as one who encouraged not simply truth as absolutism of belief in the objectively provable, but truth as personal authenticity, as a person who said “I am the truth”. Such a claim demands more than secure knowledge resting on objective criteria alone. It requires the more challenging criteria that are brought into play in the judgements formed by any relationship based on trust.
The continuing relevance of the Christian faith is not in its absolutism, but in its ability to enter cultural worlds, to show that it can be relevant in any world of enquiry and belief, but be able to rise above each. Cultures change, faith remains.
The Christian faith does not dispute the existence of foundational truth - but asserts that this is to be found in the foundational nature of God as the author of all things, and the foundational reality of the gospel in our lives, not as a means of an all-embracing objective explanation of everything (God included), but as a means of coherent being and living.
The same scriptures are also not undermined by the scepticism of the postmodern, since the truth claims they make are couched within a particular historical narrative, whose focus develops not on a system or statements of belief, but on a person in whom and through whom God reflected what he wanted to say and who he wanted to be. These truth claims are also couched in the reality (or otherwise) of the embodiment of that story and that person in the lives of those who claim to be influenced and changed by it.