Here’s a good taste of what Terry Heaton expressed today in the FaithBased Blogger session:
What these theologians don’t see is that they’re operating within that which is known, and that is limiting to the Postmodernist. I don’t think Pomos reject logic and reason; they just see that life — and especially God — is bigger. Chaos is bigger, and that, too, should give us all pause.
Pomos have difficulty with God, the Father, but welcome the concept of God, the Holy Spirit. The former is authoritative and hierarchical, while the latter is in us, among us, and experiential.
One quote in this article is especially revealing:
“When it comes to issues such as the exclusivity of the gospel, the identity of Jesus Christ as both fully human and fully divine, the authoritative character of Scripture as written revelation, and the clear teaching of Scripture concerning issues such as homosexuality, this movement simply refuses to answer the questions,” Mohler (R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY.) writes.
“A responsible theological argument must acknowledge that difficult questions demand to be answered. We are not faced with an endless array of doctrinal variants from which we can pick and choose.”
With all due respect to Mr. Mohler and theologians everywhere, some difficult questions just can’t be answered, and this IS a core principle of Postmodernism. It’s what allows the new culture to fly beyond the old, because we’re no longer blocked by the artificial barriers of human logic and reason.
I couldn’t agree more , Terry. When Al opens his mouth, too many people get to hear what’s wrong with the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention, and how irrelevant they are quickly becoming to this culture. But maybe that’s a good thing. When I was a student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (MDiv 1978-1981), most of my friends there were seeing this sort of fundamentalist shift coming from the undercurrents coming from the extreme-conservatives in the denomination.
McLaren , whom I’ve also had the chance to meet and chat with at some length, is an impressive thinker, and a really good guy, too.
I have a bit of disagreement with this:
“Pomos have difficulty with God, the Father, but welcome the concept of God, the Holy Spirit. The former is authoritative and hierarchical, while the latter is in us, among us, and experiential.”
God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit isn’t hierarchical– it’s relational. Our God is one, triune God. I think, however, pomos have difficulty (and rightly so) with how God gets turned into something that God is not.
Yeah, when you put it that way. My “couldn’t agree more” is more for the final paragraph, where he takes Mohler to task for the black-white problem Mohler has.
I have a hunch that Terry may agree with much of what you said, though. I think he may talking about “gut reactions” rather than the theological relational connection you made. He might just say that people gravitate to the Holy Spirit aspect of God more easily (and via this route, come to appreciate the relational complexity of God)