Let us fire our first salvo and let us do it in an unashamed manner: nothing more pitiful, nothing more sorrowful, nothing more telling about the dreadful state of affairs amongst so-called progressive Christians than to listen to most of them reciting a short list of their favourite "radical" theologians and/or religious authors. My heart sinks and my ears begin to bleed as soon as the first names are pronounced: John Dominic Crossan, John Shelby Spong, Marcus Borg, Karen Armstrong, Don Cupitt...(if they want to add an interfaith edge to it they will also mention the ineffable Tariq Ramadan and if they are Roman Catholic it seems it has become compulsory to refer to Hans Küng). If you have read one or more books by any of these authors our Seminar for Radical Political Theology is definitely meant for you!!! It will help you discover the difference between liberal and radical theology and might even set you in the path to become the person you have spent years telling your friends you are: a radical Christian!!!
I remember having read as a teenager in a work either by Seneca or Marcus Aurelius that a philosopher had only two options regarding his fellow human beings: to educate them or to suffer them. Well, the suffering has become unbearable so we have decided it is time to reclaim the label "radical" from the misuse it has been subject to by our trendy liberal friends and we are making no prisoners. If you hadn't heard of Thomas J.J. Altizer, William Hamilton, Harvey Cox, Dorothee Sölle, Jon Sobrino, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Hugo Assmann, Leonardo Boff, Cornel West, Ernst Bloch, James H. Cone you had an excuse to waste your precious time reading Spong and thinking you are a radical. But it is our aim to make sure that you cannot carry on doing that with a clear conscience...This Seminar is a challenge as much as an invitation. We are in a time of crisis and liberal theology has never delivered the goods in similar situations in the past, so let us be radical once again. Ubi Spes, ibi Deus.
Post by David Mieres
Post by David Mieres
This is a bit harsh. Your second list of theologians (or some of them at any rate) would argue that context is everything. The theologians in the first list are mostly Americans. They are writing in the context of right-wing fundamentalism where liberals are vilified. This is their fight back and it is fascinating to observe the anti-fundamentalist movement attempting to find theological tools in a world where the fundamentalists seem to dominate every argument. But yes, I've found most of these speakers in the end a bit tepid - it's a bit like eating somebody else's cucumber sandwiches - they're not writing for us in Britain and we need to find our own way. We need to take a critical stance to their writings in order to help them in their theological struggle.
ReplyDelete2 exceptions - I think Crossan has done some good work on Paul. Cupit is British and has no excuse for being dreadful - and don't get me started on the Sea of Faith!