Re: question

On 6/7/06, David Opderbeck <dopderbeck@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Another interesting resource that I've just about finished: John Franke's
> "The Character of Theology: A Postconservative Evangelical Approach."
> Franke writes from a Reformed perspective, but also as an evangelical who
> wishes to engage the "postmodern" turn. Interestingly, Franke's book has a
> back-cover blurb from Enns -- I wonder if Enns would identify with the
> "postconservative" movement in evangelicalism. Franke and Enns certainly
> seem to make some similar arguments. Many I'm sure will disagree, but I
> think the "postconservative" stream of evangelicalism is promising and that
> the rethinking of foundationalist epistemology is a good thing. So here is
> what Franke (a Prof. at Biblical Seminary) says about accomodation, with a
> "postmodern" twist:
>
>
> We begin by asserting that God does not break through language and
> situatedness. Rather, he enters into the linguistic setting and uses
> languge in the act of revelation as a means of accomodation to the situation
> and situatedness of human beings This position arises out of theological
> commitments that are Christian and Reformed. The church has long maintained
> the distinction between finite human knowledge and divine knowledge. Even
> revelation does not provide human beings with a knowledge that corresponds
> to that of God. The infinite qualitative distinction between God and human
> beings suggests the accomodated character of all human knowledge of god.
> For John Calivn, this means that in the process of revelation God 'adjusts'
> and 'descends' to the capacties of human beings in order to reveal the
> infinite mysteries of divine reality....
>

This appears to be moderately postmodern. Accomodationism presupposes
that some of the so-called meta-narrative gets through because God
makes it so. Full-blown postmodernism claims that such meta-narratives
are not even possible. In such a scheme, God does not accomodate us at
all and we are on our own trying to find truth. I agree that this has
promise IF the postmodernism latent in this is as moderate as it
appears at first blush. Some of the emerging church philosophies don't
stop here so be looking for that in the book.
Received on Wed Jun 7 09:49:09 2006