Subject: The Next Reformation, Why Evangelicals Must Embrace Postmodernity, by Carl Raschke
Available Through: Discerning Reader
In my first report I established two realities, 1) I’m not a scholar and 2) I’m interested in broad thematics. It’s important that these two realities be kept in mind by any readers, it’s also important to realize that I have a context. Much in the same way that one verse cannot be responsibly excerpted from scripture to create a theology, my words about a book cannot be responsibly exerpted from my life to create a characterization.
So here’s some broad thematic context: In my own struggle becoming a believer I found that it wasn’t the empiricism that convinced me of the reality of Jesus, it was the experiencing of a relationship.
Yesterday afternoon as I drove back from a meeting I called my supervisor, the Executive Director of the company I work for to report on the meeting. He was having a distracted afternoon and when I was finished reporting the outcome of the meeting he said, “Well, if you get lonely on the trip back give me a call, I’m not being very productive this afternoon.” Basically it was an invitation to shoot the bull. I said, “shoot, I’m lonely right now”, and we started talking. We ended up somewhere in the conversation telling the our stories of spiritual struggle…he and I are a lot alike in some ways, but different enough to be complimentary…one of the differences is that he grew up in a family in which Christianity was a core value, not just one of the pieces. We talked a bit about a committee that he was on with someone who was a bit of a baiter of Christians; I shared my own history of baiting Christians. I told him that one of my realizations about that time was that even then I had a relationship with God; I was angry with Him and arguing with His followers.
You just learned something else about the context of my life, I tell stories to make points. My point in telling that last story was to relay my reality that my conversion wasn’t an acceptance of one “biblical principle” after another finally culminating in an understanding that Jesus was truly the Truth. My conversion occurred the moment I turned the final corner wandering back home and saw my Father inviting me into His arms of love, acceptance and forgiveness.
Then I entered into a weird world, the modern church. Sort of a circus really to an outsider, which is what I was. Now I’m an insider that feels like an outsider. The reason it seemed a circus was that from my point of view there were hundreds of barkers standing around telling me that now that I believe in Jesus, for the best results I should believe in Jesus and ______ . Bark in the blank.
One Barker Said: Don’t go by experience, stand on the truth of scripture.
Another Barker Said: Come share this experience with me, then you’ll know the truth.
There were many more barkers, but the two paradigms I listed above fairly describe my dilemna, which is balancing scriptural truth with the deep emotional and spiritual experience of having a Father accept me into His arms. One barker said that a relationship with Jesus was quite rational, the other said that I should disengage the rational and simply experience Him. A false dichotomy was created, a schizophrenia of sorts, but I wasn’t mature enough in my walk with my hugging Father to discern the problem…so I hopped back and forth.
Where the heck is the book report I promised?
Here:
I’ve accomplished four pages of the first chapter, Dr. Raschke has already begun to address the threefold purpose of the book that he pointed to in the preface and I quoted in my opening post. To this point Dr. Raschke’s been painting the picture of postmoderism’s relationship with Christianity and giving some background for his contention that Christianity made its own unholy alliance with Cartesian rationalism and British evidentialism… Now I’ve got got to try to figure out what “Cartesian Rationalism” and “British Evidentialism” are…do any of you ever join me in thanking God for Google?
Already I see Dr. Raschke begin to describe the tension I feel standing between those two barkers, I’m excited…
