Why do I so challenge the contemporary Western fixation upon race and gender in theology? Why am I not just nice, polite, and inclusive? The following are a few of the many things that particularly concern me about the new woke theologies:
Something terrible has happened to people's perception when, whether they see Gregory of Nazianzus, Anselm, Aquinas, Calvin, Schleiermacher, Kierkegaard, or a host of others, they can increasingly only perceive various expressions of 'whiteness' and/or the 'patriarchy'.
The voice of history is increasingly effaced, as ancient texts are increasingly repurposed as screens upon which we are to project and play out our contemporary sociopolitical psychodramas. A sort of insipid parochialism is metastasizing under the mask of 'diversity'.
There is a troubling preoccupation with second-rate and/or unorthodox yet cosmetically diverse writers, while the vast treasures of the Christian tradition lie neglected and unexplored as they aren't as 'diverse' as some folk who all went to the same small set of universities.
There is a growing incuriosity about, inattentiveness to, and ignorance of the wonderful world of the Scriptures, with its indifference to so many of our cultural preoccupations.
There is a curtailing of the critical work of theology, as certain persons and ideologies are treated as if our theological discourse existed to validate, rather than challenge and test them.
The criteria of foregrounding or backgrounding voices in our conversations is increasingly skin colour and sex, not actual theological acumen and insight, producing a community of theologians narcissistically focused on their community, rather than on the vision of God.
For me, the excitement and the challenge of theology has always been found in the way that it breaks open our closed worlds to the Word of God and to the truth of God over all, forging a profound shared conversation across cultures and ages.
To see this being compromised or lost is a source of deep concern and genuine sorrow to me.
What do I think we should do about this? A few things, for starters:
Spend much more time in the Scriptures, especially in those parts that are strange and unsettling to us.
Worship with the Church of all ages.
Spend more time in prayer.
Read more tried and tested old books.
Spend much more time in the Scriptures, especially in those parts that are strange and unsettling to us.
Worship with the Church of all ages.
Spend more time in prayer.
Read more tried and tested old books.
