The Craft of Innovative Theology. Группа авторов

The Craft of Innovative Theology - Группа авторов


Скачать книгу
by a web of reference to both their horizons of language and to their corresponding aspects of lived experience, what metaphor brings together are not individual elements of language – semantic sound bites so to speak – but connected aspects of life. Pluralistic theology thus brings into creative tension interrelated webs of belief and practice in the same way as when holding together two corners of a seamless fabric what is connected to the corners is also brought together. This is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, for a metaphor to be fertile, its terms’ associated commonplaces must be readily summoned. Only then can metaphor engage the imagination so that the statement evinces a “semantic twist” (in Monroe Beardsley’s words) such that novel interpretations are created. Secondly, this aspect of metaphor also guards against the decontextualization which naïve comparisons often effect. Pluralistic theology doesn’t simply substitute an emic term or idea for its etic counterpart, but rather seeks to knit together the webs of reference contextualizing those terms. By leveraging the action and structure of metaphor in the ways which I shall shortly describe, pluralistic theology seeks to bring into conversation fuller and more detailed areas of lived religious experience to create a more robust hybrid theology.

      This model of metaphorical dialectics explains how novel, hybrid significations are formed de novo. Theology, as alluded to at the beginning of this chapter, is inherently hybrid – a nexus of multiple narratives and sources continually reacting to changes in the environment, as well as its inherited tradition of interpretation. A thoroughly pluralistic theology, like metaphor, is also a tense nexus of intrinsic and extrinsic sources redescribing each other according to the inner dialectic of metaphorical predication, but also guided by the frame in which theologizing takes place. Importantly, the dialectics of metaphor succeed in revealing the frame since metaphor begins in semantic rupture. This disruption allows us to see the otherwise hidden frame, making a hybrid, pluralistic theology potentially a corrective for negative pressures underlying the frame. What I am suggesting is that the dynamics of consciously hybrid, pluralistic theology can be leveraged for revelatory and liberative ends. Not only can this happen; I argue that it should happen. Pluralistic theology here makes possible a prophetic voice, illuminating injustice and revealing the scars and cracks long hidden under the carapace of doctrine and accepted religious tradition.

      As I stated at the outset, I contend that all theology is inherently hybrid. Pluralistic theology reveals this feature more clearly in order to better use this creative source. As bricolage, pluralistic theology draws attention to the contingent, diverse nature of its components and contexts, while at the same time celebrating the metaphorical, expansive, and revelatory power of its compilation. Married to this centrifugal force, however, is the centripetal, particularizing, and poetic force which gives shape to pluralistic theology’s eventual results. The workings of this force can be seen through the issues of criteria and poesis, that is, if metaphorical predication gives rise to a plethora of possible forms of bricolage, how is one to choose which possibility is excellent and worth pursuing? Are all such instances of hybrid bricolage equally valid, valuable or effective? By what criteria is the centripetal force guided? Moreover, what is the role and responsibility of the theologian in creating a thoroughly pluralistic theology?


Скачать книгу