Therefore Having Gone

Therefore Having Gone

Friday, June 9, 2023

AN UPSIDE TO POSTMODERN "SCHOLARSHIP"

I find it interesting that biblical scholars are all forced to deal with the postmodern mindset. The same twisted ideas and tortured (il)logic that show up in various "theories" like Critical Race Theory, Queer Theory, and Fat Theory have been set loose on the Bible as well. 

Both of the books I read for my latest paper addressed to what extent something can be known and whether the meaning of a text is centered more in the author or in the reader. 

(For those who have been fortunate enough to avoid these conversations so far, the postmodernists believe that nothing can be known with certainty and that the meaning of a text lies chiefly with the reader.)

You can guess what postmodernists do to the authority of Scripture! (Especially since religion is considered the enemy of the individual.)

Still, author N.T. Wright finds at least some use for the "studies" of the postmodernist "scholars". They can serve as a counterbalance to those evangelicals who are a little too confident that the Scriptures can be fully known and that we can have 100% certainty in our grasp of the message of every page. 

In other words, the postmodernists are kinda right in their outlook on the limits of knowledge and the result for the serious interpreter of the Bible should be a renewed humility. 

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