Commentary: Christ and postmodernity's many gods
Friday, 2 February 2001 16:22 (ET)
Commentary: Christ and postmodernity's many gods
By GERALD R. MCDERMOTT
(Editor's note: This is the 10th installment of the UPI series, "Christ and
postmodernity," where authors propose theological solutions for this era's
most daunting problem: the profusion of subjective "truths.")
SALEM, Va., Feb. 2 (UPI) -- The most compelling question of the new
millennium is which god to serve. Never before has there been such a
cafeteria of religions from which to choose.
Spirituality is no longer taboo, but in fact quite chic. The only problem
is deciding which among the dizzying array of divinities to revere.
The postmodern answer to the problem is "pluralism." By this is meant not
the mere fact of many religions, but the philosophical conclusion that there
is no right way to the divine, no final Truth, no definitive knowledge of
what is Real.
Therefore one should think of many roads to salvation, indeed many
saviors.
Philosopher John Hick has articulated the best-known version of religious
pluralism. He, and postmodernists generally, insist that it is presumptuous
to think of one true religion because we humans can never know Ultimate
Reality without prejudice and distortion.
They claim that our understanding of the world outside of us is always
colored and twisted by our particular experiences, which differ from
everyone else's experiences. Therefore, when religions use precise and
concrete language (such as Jesus' bodily resurrection or the existence of
heavenly Buddhas), they are actually using humanly-devised myths to sketch
more abstract and imprecise realities.
Since we humans can never relate directly to Ultimate Reality and there is
no real knowledge in faith, they aver, it doesn't really matter which
religion we choose. They all point with more or less equal indistinctness to
the only religious reality: the transformation of human existence from
self-centeredness to Reality-centeredness.
The problem with postmodern pluralism, however, is that it is anything but
pluralist. It implicitly denounces all the world religions as false in their
particular beliefs (and therefore their billions of believers as deluded)
and pronounces its own view of reality as the one true religion.
While rejecting any "God's-eye view" as impossible and all religions as
partial, it suggests that its own view transcends all others and is the only
complete view available.
Postmodern pluralism is as arrogant and intolerant as the fundamentalists
who consign to hell all who disagree with them. It fails to affirm the
validity of any religion that violates postmodern presuppositions, and
condescendingly suggests that non-postmoderns are saved by means only the
postmodern knows.
Postmodernity celebrates universalism and condemns particularity, yet its
gospel is a narrowly particular blend of late Western ideology: the ideas
that individuality is the essence of human being, technology is neutral,
democracy is an absolute, and social Darwinism is a fact.
Postmodern pluralism may be an appropriate religion for the marketplace,
but it will never be accepted by the billions of devotees of the great world
religions. For it dismisses as irrelevant the very particulars of belief and
practice, which they know to be the source of their power.
It worships at the altar of moral disposition, which Buddhists and Muslims
and Christians know is dead apart from (respectively) Allah, Dharma and
Jesus.
Despite their own suspicion of the existing religions, postmoderns reject
Christianity because, among other things, they think it shows contempt for
all other religions.
But the Bible tells a different story. It shows the Old Testament God as
wanting all the world to know Him. He said He would harden Pharaoh's heart
"so that the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord" (Exodus 14:4).
The Bible acknowledges knowledge of God outside of Judaism and
Christianity: Abraham recognizes the Canaanite priest Melchizedek's god as
the true God under the name of a Canaanite deity (Genesis 14: 22).
Even Jesus praised the faith of two "pagans" and told the Jews in his own
hometown they should learn from them: a widow from Zarephath, notorious for
its Baal-worship, and a Syrian general (Naaman) who worshipped a foreign god
(Luke 4:24-29).
The apostle Peter learned from Cornelius the Roman centurion, before
Cornelius had heard the Gospel about Jesus, that "God shows no partiality
but accepts those from every nation who fear God and do what is right" (Acts
10:34-35).
Postmoderns may be surprised to learn that historic but humble Christian
faith affirms that other religions contain truth. Islam, for example, is
true when it professes that God is one and greater than anything we can
imagine.
Jews speak truly when they confess that God is holy and demands conformity
to His moral law. Pure Land Buddhists and bhakti Hindus teach truly when
they explain that salvation comes not by human effort but divine grace.
Christians can also say that other religions teach similar moral
principles. They agree, for instance, with Confucius' Silver Rule, "Don't do
anything you don't want done to you." They affirm the Buddha's precepts
forbidding lying, stealing, murder and sexual sin. They see the Bible's
ethical teachings echoed in the Koran.
At the same time, however, Christians rightly say that Jesus Christ is
unique. No other religious founder claimed to be God in the flesh (even
Hindus concede their avatars only appear to be human). While the Buddha
stated that he was no more than a man and said that we must be lamps unto
ourselves, Jesus said that to see Him was to see God, and that He is the
light of the world.
Christianity's central claim, that Jesus rose from the dead, is remarkably
well-attested, though not proven. Even secular historians admit that Jesus'
disciples testified that they thrust their fingers into the holes in the
body of the risen Christ and shared with Him a breakfast of fish and bread.
Jesus also gives unique answers to the problem of pain. The Buddha taught
his followers to escape suffering, whereas Jesus showed a way to conquer
suffering by embracing it.
This is why Buddhists look to a smiling Buddha seated on a lotus blossom
while Christians worship a suffering Jesus nailed to a cross.
The Tao Te Ching, the bible of philosophical Taoists and many postmoderns,
portrays Ultimate Reality as an Impersonal Something requiring resignation
and accommodation to minimize, or perhaps escape, suffering.
In contrast, Jesus said Ultimate Reality is a Person Who took up suffering
into Himself. So the Christian God does not stand at a distance while we
suffer, but comes down and enters into our suffering with us. In fact, God
Himself suffered the ultimate evil of death and somehow overcame it, and
promises to take us up into that victory.
Muslims rightly believe that God is great. The Christian story of Jesus,
however, reveals two kinds of greatness. One is illustrated by the emperor
who sits high on his luxurious throne, far removed from the daily cares and
pains of his subjects. He is surrounded by servants who see that his will is
obeyed throughout his kingdom.
But there is also the greatness of a brilliant student who comes to the
university and works hard to study medicine. After graduating, he does not
set up a lucrative practice among the wealthy, but goes among the country's
poorest people to heal them. This is what God in Jesus Christ did. He
revealed His greatness by stooping to save.
Finally, Jesus unveils an unparalleled intimacy with God. The Koran
relates that God is closer to us than our jugular vein, but it never calls
God "Father." Jesus, on the other hand, addressed God as "Daddy" (the best
translation of the Aramaic "Abba"), and promised that He would draw
believers up into that same intimacy.
In sum, Jesus Christ resolves the postmodern religious dilemma in ways
that the world religions do not: we no longer have to despair of our ability
to find Ultimate Reality through reason and experience because final Truth
and Love have broken into history in a Person we can apprehend.
And while this Person does not denounce all that the religions offer, He
promises to be their fulfillment.
(Gerald McDermott, a prolific author, teaches religion and philosophy at
Roanoke College in Salem, VA. His most recent is titled, "Can Evangelicals
Learn from World Religions?") |
