My way is the right way...
Maybe it is merely a human characteristic, to have THE right way/means/action/thought/expression rather than just A way/means/action/thought/expression... maybe there is differening degrees of it that reflect not so much our philosphy but more our personality or social position, meaning some of us will insist on being right louder than others or have the means to be heard/listened too...
Post-modernity is meant to rejects this polarity, having lost confidence in THE next big idea/answer that will cure the worlds ills, delusioned by the fall of political systems, of social princples, of science and religion, now no one is believed to have the truth - like the boy who cried wolf, anyone who does may well be tolerated but one quick listen will hear many voices calling out their own version...
Life thru polorised lens
In that sense maybe even post-modernity is a polarised reaction, the idea that it is against something, that you can draw a line marked 'Truth' and have a sliding scale from it is possible to possess/know/have full truth on one end [maybe modernity in brackets] and lots of valid truths/impossible to fully know truth on the other [call it post-modernity].
Per wiki, in communications and psychology, polarization is the process whereby a social or political group is divided into two opposing sub-groups with fewer and fewer members of the group remaining neutral or holding an intermediate position.
So in the religious sense we may have...
catholics {pope}__________protestants {all popes}
conservatives____________liberals
church_________________post[no] church
est church______________emerging church
personal piety___________social action
paid clergy______________all clergy/voluntary
Faith__________________ works
etc...etc...etc :)
In fact the more i think about it the less christians disagree with what they believe is the core of faith and more about how it should be practiced, what it should look/sound like, the relative importance of different aspects/doctrines etc etc. In other words we dig in somewhere on the line of an issue and that makes us for some things which are good but also sets us against other things which we might otherwise be for/fine with.
Transcending the line...
For example, in chapter 6 of a New Kind of Christan, Brian McLaren talks about conservatives - who have done an excellent job to be faithful to the ancient traditions of the bible but have have failed to really translate it into 21st century and liberals who have done well on the translation part but often by forgetting the ancient of the bible where it makes such translation difficult. Ignoring the crude stereotypes both sides of the line are doing something right but also both are doing something that is not helpful. Brian talks about transceding the line and the character Neo draws a diagram a bit like this...
The line with the blue circles respresents a position that we choose to take on a particular issue, thus digging in/defining ourselves on/by what we are for and against.... or as the character Neo explains:
"Now, almost all debate in the church takes place on the line. The issue is where the right point on the line is. So people pick and defend their points. Each person's point becomes THE point in his or her mind. Here's what I am suggesting: what if the point-defending approach is pointless. What if the position God wants to take isn't on the line at all but somewhere up here? [the line with the green circle].
Dan then responds...
"So you are saying that we need to transcend the normal level of discourse. That makes sense to me. I mean, Jesus did that sort of thing all the time. Like with the woman at the well in John 4. The big debate is over where people should worship, on this mountain or on that mountain. Jesus doesn't choose one point or the other; he says that the answer is on this higher level, that what God wants is for us to worship him in spirit and truth, where ever we are. Both mountains are good places to worship, so in that way both sides are right. But where you worship isn't the point at all, so in that way both sides are wrong..."
Back to the will/wish of God
In that sense many things don't matter, as my bro said recently to me, most things in christianity just seem to be about pointless arguements that miss the point - Jesus. He's a wise man!
How often am I caught up in the scribbles about my way better when when what I should be doing is just being/doing/searching/seeking God's will - which may mean i needto spend less time on digging into my points and more time being generous, gracious and loving to those who I may disagree with. It becomes less about my church ideal and more about an apprecition of deep church, of the whole body in all its many diverse expressions. It becomes about thinking the best of people, of limiting my freedoms to help others and to reach out to those who are in need, not of THE answer but of an invitation that they are loved, valued and have a purpose and life beyond anything i can imagine for them...
And that excites me, an invitation to follow Jesus in the big picture of the good news story, both personal and public, both faith and works, both in the culture of my faith community and in all the communities i find myself in is worth a lil pain in weaning myself off my polarised, i'm right ways...
Soundtrack/playlist for this chapter
This week 2 REM choices:
Wow, good stuff. I need to read that.
I think you're right on.
Unfortunately I can't remember the source, but someone (yah, that's credible!) studied Christian messages from all different denominations, over a period of time and he came to the conclusion that we're all teaching pretty much the same thing!!
So what's up with all the aruging. ;-)
Maybe we should do as Paul said and 'avoid vain and foolish arguments'.
Healthy debate is good. Dividing arguments it not.
That's my philosophical depth of the day.
Posted by: David | 22 January 2007 at 05:30 PM
Wow, good stuff. I need to read that.
I think you're right on.
Unfortunately I can't remember the source, but someone (yah, that's credible!) studied Christian messages from all different denominations, over a period of time and he came to the conclusion that we're all teaching pretty much the same thing!!
So what's up with all the aruging. ;-)
Maybe we should do as Paul said and 'avoid vain and foolish arguments'.
Healthy debate is good. Dividing arguments it not.
That's my philosophical depth of the day.
Posted by: David | 22 January 2007 at 05:32 PM
I like it so much I posted twice.
LOL
Posted by: David | 22 January 2007 at 05:34 PM
Lol, well if you repeat the stuff about a "credible" source enough times i'll think it was my idea and be quoting it as fact :)
I think most christians are orthodox as within the creeds of the church, we're often not talking about whether Jesus was God or not but when to have communion (eucharist/Lord's supper et al) and what precisely does or does not happen in a literal or metaphorical sense etc etc
Posted by: Paul | 22 January 2007 at 05:40 PM
I think the problem is that often we see a distinction between things (eg. light from darkness ... we can only understand light if have darkness). But that helpful distinction, hardens into a dualistic way of viewing the world ... everything is light or dark, and we forget the dawn, twilight, cloudy days, sunny days, eclipses etc etc. Not everything falls nicely into our dualistic way of viewing the world. I think we do this a lot with many many theological issue ... baptism, gifts of the spirit, evangelism, etc etc etc.
There is a real danger of this, even for those in the postmodern camp (which i would say i am in) that we see anything modern as bad, wrong, old, in the past etc.
One of the things that i am learning from mclaren and others is that AND language is much more helpful than OR language. I think that is probably part of what he is talking about when advocating a new level of discourse.
Good stuff Paul. Read the book a long time ago, so good to be reminded of its content.
Posted by: Rupert | 23 January 2007 at 07:43 PM
Thanks Rupert. I often think there is a book about emerging church out there to be written entitled 'Both/and' :)
We are reflecting on the book in our small group meeting, doing a chapter each week, so for my learning/reflecting pleasure i thought i'd blog about it as we go along. If you want to see more just click on 'new kind of christian' or birian mclaren in the categories cloud.
My growing appreciation for deep church is helping temper my own polarising tendencies although as my wife will tell you, i still love being right :)
Posted by: Paul | 24 January 2007 at 01:53 PM