Thursday 27 March 2008

A Very Post-Modern Form of De-mythologising

It was popular in the 19th and early 20th Century to de-mythologise the Christian message and remove anything that could be construed as miraculous. I think the same thing happens now, particularly by pundits under the guise of names like Karl Barth and Tom Wright. It is a de-mythologising from within the evangelical camp.

This new de-mythologising is more a de-offensivisation. It's the removal of anything that our modern ear does not want to hear, that we think is unpalatable: the clear and terrifying judgment of God that will fall on many, and the call to repent (Karl Barth totally avoided that expression and actually argued against using it!). It is the failure to talk about anything negative as if it would actually happen, but only affirm what we deem to be 'good' and 'kind'. It pretends to do this in the name of grace and Jesus Christ, when as we know grace saves us from judgment, and Jesus warned about wrath.

Modernism hated the un-scientific, post-modernism hates the offensive.

The flood is coming. This de-offensivisation says:
In the end, no one will get hurt.
Or
At least I hope no one will get hurt. Let's not think about those things.

(I was going to write an apology for anyone who hasn't heard of Barth or Wright. But I'm not sorry for you. You're not missing much)

4 comments:

Paul said...

Hi Andrew

Tim Keller has an audio sermon that touches on a few points in your post:
"Literalism: Isn't the Bible historically unreliable and regressive?"
http://thereasonforgod.com/media.php

Giraffe Pen said...

Hi Andrew, I'd let to get a hold of you and catch up before we go to Korea. Do you have my number?

Cheers, Haydn

michael jensen said...

Sorry, I think I mistook your point here. Oh well!

michael jensen said...

You don't have to post this, but I was intrigued by your claim that Barth didn't speak about repentance. Do you have a reference? I do know that Barth once wrote:

'There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. But what is Repentance? Not the last and noblest and most refined achievement of the righteousness of men in the service of God, but the first elemental act of the righteousness of God in the service of men; the work that God has written in their hearts and which, because it is from God and not from men, occasions joy in heaven; that looking forward to God, and to Him only, which is recognized only by God and by God Himself.'

Karl Barth: The Epistle to the Romans.