WHY WE REVOLUTIONARY BELIEVERS LOVE EXISTENTIALISM
(This is a guest post by Mark Manolopoulos on the current Existentialist revival in certain quarters of postmodern theory as a radical theology.)
WHY WE REVOLUTIONARY BELIEVERS LOVE EXISTENTIALISM
Mark Manolopoulos
Monash University
First of all, allow me to explain the ‘we’ in the title by way of a kind of hope or prayer: when I say ‘we,’ I mean ‘I,’ but I hope this ‘I’ may also be/becomes a ‘we’ or an ‘us’ . . . And when I say ‘revolutionary believers,’ of course I am playing with the double meaning of this phrase. On the one hand, a revolutionary believer is a non-traditional believer, one whose faith is radical, heretical, unorthodox in some sense. Take me, for example: I reject almost everything about Christianity, retaining a minimal, non-dogmatic, open faith; a believer who recognizes their faith as faith. A believer who retains Christianity’s radical core and abandons its credal, ecclesial, ritualistic and other overlays. A self-described ‘anti-Christian Christian.’ This is one sense of the phrase ‘revolutionary believer.’
On the other hand, there is also the ‘revolutionary believer’ in the sense of the committed political radical, such as the Marxist activist, of whom Che Guevara is perhaps the most iconic figure. And, yes, despite... Read More
Teaser: The Postmodern Fashion of Provisional Views
Prada, teaser for Candy, by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola “Ethical, juridical, or political responsibility, if there is any, consists in deciding on the strategic orientation to give to this problematic…for which truth, no more than reality, is not an object given in advance that it would be a matter of simply reflecting adequately.” Jacques Derrida, Without Alibi, 2002 (61) Postmodernity has continued a clash of absolute... Read More
Reflections on “The Future of Evangelicalism”
Yesterday I enjoyed hearing both Rachel Held Evans and Roger Olson hold forth before a full house at George Fox Evangelical Seminary, weighing in with their thoughts on the future of evangelicalism. They add their voices to an ongoing conversation (e.g., see this oft-referenced article; see this challenging book), and one that might be of interest to readers, so I thought I’d share here a few things that came up. Evans, in her trademark style,... Read More
With My Apologies
If studying theology has taught me one thing, then it is always to be prepared with an apology. By apology here, I mean to invoke both its technical and colloquial meanings. When introducing myself as a student of theology, I often am required to offer a defense of theology as a discipline independent of religious practice, to be followed shortly thereafter by a confession of guilt, at least inwardly, for having felt so defensive about being personally... Read More
Evangelicals and Capitalism: Cultural Despisers and Cultural Accommodators
Cultural Despisers William Connolly, in his 2008 work Capitalism and Christianity, American Style, sets out firstly to diagnose how the ‘capitalist project’ has been perverted and warped by its resonant relationship with conservative right-wing Christian religious beliefs.[1] The religious right within Evangelicalism in America in relation to capitalism has given rise to a variety of pathological behaviours. Central to this contention and diagnosis... Read More
