Be Careful What You Say

I’ve just finished reviewing a number of articles and chapters concerning James Wm. McClendon, Jr. His theology is based largely on speech, specifically the thoughts of Austin and Ayer. Speech carries meaning which can vary depending upon the context and the culture of the speaker/listener. McClendon tries to pull out what he calls the “narrative” of the local community in his own work. Some may claim that such an approach is non-foundational (foundationalism being a theory of knowledge which claims that how one knows can be justified and the claims of justification must stop somewhere). McClendon comes from the school of thought which claims that language is a mirror of reality, and that community/reality will vary with context.
Why would I use such a theologian? Because Baptists are low church folk. Baptists are folk who look to the local church and the individual as the source of theology. Some may claim they look to the Bible, but they approach the Bible out of a specific context and within a specific community. Thus the scriptural interpretations one arrives at are influenced by that community. So we need to find out what Baptist are saying and have been saying to discern the reality of a Baptist theology.
This is still a little bit vague, but that is because I am still mulling over what I have read. Today I am going to start to work on an outline – the process of doing this will help to focus my thoughts.