The Problem With Postmodern Theology
This is an example of why theological claims ought to be taken seriously as objective truth claims and not, as the counselor in this scene suggests, as simply matters of perspective ("It's up to each one of us to interpret what God wants").
Francis Beckwith's comments on this scene are apt:
He is guilty, and he knows it. What he fears is that God will give him what he deserves. What he fears is that God is fair and just and has not condescended himself to provide grace for our forgiveness. The chaplain tried to dupe him into believing that the guilt is not real and that he can save himself. She patronized him and then was offended that he didn't think it was a favor. She is a counselor for what C. S. Lewis called "men without chests."
She should have offered to him the opportunity to reach out to Christ. Instead, her prescription was postmodern pablum. He saw right through it.
He wanted to fall naked before a just God and ask humbly for his grace. She thought it was beneath the dignity she doesn't believe he really has. She handed him gobbledy-gook, and he refused it.
posted by Alan Rhoda @ 6:59 PM
2 comments
links to this post
2 Comments:
Hi, I just came across your blog randomly from the Prosblogion, and I just wanted to comment... hope that's ok! :-)
I'm really not sure how the clip shows a "problem with postmodern theology" -- if anything, it suggests to me that (at least some) "postmodern" theologians are correct when they point out that, at the end of the day, none of us can ignore the fact that we really don't Know (with a capital "K") what's going to happen after we die. This fills us with all sorts of conflicting thoughts and emotions.
The man in the clip has a specific belief about the afterlife, and he's looking for someone to comfort him by confirming what he hopes is true... but also doubts is true (that God will forgive him). But sometimes the solution is not to offer blind comfort but to ask what the conflict of hope/doubt within each of us really means. I, for one, would ask what it says about traditional Christian theology (and ourselves) if we have to work so hard to convince ourselves that God will really forgive us.
I'm not saying that the chaplain character did a good job of helping with that, but I think it's a misunderstanding to simply say that this is a reflection a "postmodern" theological failure... it may point to the need for a re-examination of how people develop their beliefs in the first place, which is very "postmodern" (aside: I really don't like using that word, since it's so vague and can be used in so many different ways... but it's trendy now, so... hehe).
Thanks,
Geoff
Hi Geoff,
Thanks for the comments. Sorry for my delayed response.
I agree with much of what you say, but I would like to clarify what I mean by "postmodernism".
I don't understand it to mean merely "fallibilism" or a modest, post-Cartesian epistemological stance. Rather, I take postmodernism to be a rejection of the correspondence theory of truth and an objective ultimate reality, and its replacement with a thoroughgoing perspectivalism.
What I take to be going on in the clip is that the patient has serious questions about whether God will forgive him or not and he wants a straightforward answer. He's a theological and metaphysical realist and wants any answer along the same lines. The counselor, on the other hand, is only interested in exploring the patient's subjective feelings. To her, the objective truth about God and forgiveness doesn't seem to
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home