God’s Distinctive Alternative – Part 3B

Paul writes - Again, the Volf quote I first cited here [part 2 above]:

 

“Christian difference is always a complex and flexible network of small and large refusals, divergences, subversions, and more or less radical alternative proposals, surrounded by the acceptance of many cultural givens. There is no single correct way to relate to a given culture as a whole, or even to its dominant thrust; there are only numerous ways of accepting, transforming, or replacing various aspects of a given culture from within…”

 

Volf concludes his essay with four implications:

 

1. To live as Christians “means to keep inserting a difference into a given culture without ever stepping outside of it to do so (p. 233). We are able to change and modify symbols, practices and values. Elsewhere Graham Ward illustrates this nicely “...I think that people’s lives are transformed on a micro level as well as on a macro level. Let’s think of managers working at a store as an example. Yes, the money is a big and powerful driver, but what if we sit around and say, “Yes, but the most important thing is life satisfaction, and we want people to actually enjoy coming to work.” The micro modifies [and] ameliorates some of the dehumanizing aspects of the macro forces...”

 

2. “All transformations are piece-meal – transformations of some elements, at some points, for some time, with some gain and possibly some loss” (p. 233 / italics mine for emphasis). Isn’t this true too of God’s action in Christ in the world? We experience something of God’s eschatological intention now, but the end is not yet fully consummated. We are what I like to call “renovators”, because, as Volf writes, “these transformations are reconstructions of the structures that must be inhabited as the reconstructions are going on” (p.233).

 

[As an aside (and Catholic’s might appreciate this) Catholic theologian Tom Beaudoin interestingly talks not of (cultural)“transformation”, but of “transubstantiation” – “The Catholic Church is”, he says, to use a priestly metaphor, the concelebrant (jointly with God by his Spirit) [acting] for the transubstantiation of the world.”]

 

3. “Accommodation cannot be part of the Christian project.” Instead we need to recover the stress on difference. “It is,” Volf says, “the difference that matters” (p.234). Volf reminds us that if we erase the difference and literally nothing will remain that could matter and could make a transformative difference for the sake of this world of which we are a part (p.234). Importantly this need for difference is exactly why theology needs to be fresh, needs to be engaged with and in conversation with the ordinary and everyday realities of our lives in culture(s). And so to Graham Ward again for an illustration:

 

“I sit on a research panel for the British Government, and I recently had to evaluate a proposal that came forward for research funding on resurrection and the afterlife in contemporary film. And I thought, “Yes! Someone is realizing how much that is happening culturally is shot through with religion.” Look at The Matrix or the Harry Potter phenomenon.

 

Look at the popularity of Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials and the recent film The Golden Compass based on the first part of his trilogy. Or take the last part of the Bourne Identity series. Culture is playing with books, themes, and symbols that are part of a Western Christian heritage. Just as they are playing with themes and symbols from Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism. And so theologians can re-enter the public sphere now and say, “Look! What’s happening? How are you using this? Do you understand where it comes from and what the rest of this is about?”

 

To be continued.

Comments

[Merv]

Hi Paul,

As I read point 1 above, I thought of Alice Cooper [who's bringing his 'Theatre Of Death' show to NZ in September].

Perhaps here is a Christian who, as Volf says, keeps "inserting a difference into a given culture without ever stepping outside of it to do so"?

cheers,

[Sue]

According to Christian doctrine we are inherently sinful and separate from God, and therefore cant even begin to really know anything about the Divine Reality.

Put in another we all have the fragmented perspective of a minute fraction of Humpty Dumpty's broken shell. How then can anyone possibly even begin to know or understand anything about the Indivisible Divine Reality which was (and is) the case before Humpty "fell" into broken fragments.

Plus to make the claim that you know what God's alternative is, is to presume that one is intimately familiar with the extraordinary power and intelligence that wields the entire cosmos, and thus all of cosmic history, and all of the possible space-time paradoxes that constitute manifest existence altogether.

And what about all the other god's and goddesses from all of the other faith traditions? The details of which are now freely available to anyone with an internet connection. There is a book in my local library with a brief description of 2000 names of God from all times and places.

Why then is the Christian narrative and ideology the only one that counts or makes any difference?
Especially as two thirds of the worlds human population are not Christian.

And what if the Christian narrative is completely false and/or really about the human motive to control everything that is presumed to be "other".