Haven’t posted in a while and I’m feeling a bit guilty about that (especially since some of my other good Baptist buddies have been quite active with their blog …). I recently read Fiddes’ Participating in God, and still intend to write about that, but not today. So I give you good intentions, knowing how much that is worth. Currently I am working through McClendon and Smith’s Understanding Religious Convictions. Think Austin, Wittgenstein, Ramsey, and theology – are you getting bored yet? It is fairly technical and dry. While the work gives a great breakdown of McClendon’s methodological approach to theology, it is one of his less captivating works. Yesterday, while reading the book in my favorite coffee shop, Milkboy, a young woman working there (recent high school grad) asked me what I was reading, and what it was about. Hmm….. how does one describe a book on speech acts, utterances, convictions, and happiness in a way that can be understood and does not make you look like a total loser. I don’t think it is possible, and my “rep” went down a number of notches. Sigh.
Anyway, I’ll plan on giving a summary of the entire book when I finish it, but for now I have a thought. McClendon, Smith, and all the language nuts claim that one’s speech must reflect one’s experience or truth (a crass reductions\). This is how one discerns the convictions/truth claims of a religious community. Yet what if their heart is not with their words? What if someone says, “Jesus is Lord,” but doesn’t believe it? What if that person is in a leadership position, knows all the right words to speak, but does not really believe it. Dare I suggest that there might be pastors and evenbishops (“what’s a bishop?” says the Baptist) who are speaking without believing? I think all of these language folks are right in claiming that each community has its own grammar. This means that one can be immersed in a community and learn the language of the community. Is it possible to know the language, to know the grammar well enough to be fluent in the community without actually ascribing to the beliefs of the community? Turn on TBN, watch the slimly preachers offering hope and receiving millions and tell me what you think.
Anyway, I’ll plan on giving a summary of the entire book when I finish it, but for now I have a thought. McClendon, Smith, and all the language nuts claim that one’s speech must reflect one’s experience or truth (a crass reductions\). This is how one discerns the convictions/truth claims of a religious community. Yet what if their heart is not with their words? What if someone says, “Jesus is Lord,” but doesn’t believe it? What if that person is in a leadership position, knows all the right words to speak, but does not really believe it. Dare I suggest that there might be pastors and even
1 comment:
My undergraduate studies were in Literature at University of Southern Maine in Portland, at that time a strong deconstructionist school. One of the main points of deconstruction was that through a careful reading, one could deconstruct the apparent or proposed agenda of the writer so as to reconstruct what they really meant, assumed, presupposed.
Speech does tell us the beliefs and theology of a group, and if we are careful in listening and reading, we can discern that belief and theology even if they are trying to mask it.
those are my thoughts anyway, having never read those books and after your ringing endorsement, I think I'll just stick to your eventual 'crib notes.'
peace
ps. today sometime I will be posting (again) on what I think might be a topic related to this
like to see what you think
Post a Comment