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Class Prep
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Postmodern Challenges to Religious Narratives
 - Today, we consider a tendency in our postmodern moment symbolized by the clever atheist symbol to the right (it adapts the original graphic for "Ghostbusters" by replacing the ghost with Jesus, then subtitling the cartoon "Atheists: The Original Ghostbusters"). This meme is taken quite literally by some who argue that Jesus was entirely invented by early Christians on the model of other dying and rising gods of antiquity (see the Ehrman book below if you're interested in that debate). The tendency in our postmodern moment is not only to recognize that we each create our own meanings or interpretations, but to reduce all reality to things we can create, control, count or measure. This yields not only a fascination with our own creative possibilities and a license to play at new meanings, but also a cynicism or at least a skepticism about any claims to universal truth or any grand narratives like the account of salvation history in the Bible—indeed, to anything that transcends the material world at all. We realize that texts and art that we produce are more the products of human thought than of divine authorship, we know there are many other such accounts out there to consume, and we are rightly suspicious of how others might manipulate truth claims to serve what in the end might be their own interests (rather than "God's"). This leads ultimately to a skepticism about whether "God" exists at all (atheism), or at least to a skepticism about whether we can know that in any real way (agnosticism), given that, in our cultural context, many people think that anything we can imagine is something we ourselves have created.
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- Gerard Loughlin embraces this postmodern moment in our reading today, but he does so from within a Christian belief system. As you read his article, be able to answer the following questions:
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- Define, then contrast, the modern and the postmodern ideas/sensibilities. What characterizes each, and how do they differ from each other? (pp. 301-306, 314)
- What does it mean to say that the Bible is "inspired," in an era when we recognize that it is a thoroughly human invention, marked by the (limited and sometimes offensive) cultural sensibilities of its authors' worlds? Is it "revelation"? (pp. 306-310, 315, 319-21)
- Is the Bible history or fiction (or both)? Are our interpretations of it fact or fiction? What is the difference between fact and fiction in a postmodern world? (pp. 311- 14)
- Reflect on the following quote on p. 320 in light of your initial efforts to define what is sacred for you. Have you ever had an experience like this?
Revelation is...encountered as a moment of liberatory perception, when the world ceases to bear down upon us and opens to us as a gift from an unknown but utterly intimate reality that produces a space for our ascending.
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- Assigned Readings
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- Secondary: Gerald Loughlin, "Postmodern Scripture," in Christian Theologies of Scripture: A Comparative Introduction (ed. Justin S. Holcomb; New York: New York University Press, 2006) 300-322 (Camino); online class prep
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- Slides for Lecture
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- Today's Author
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Gerard Loughlin is a professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University in England. He specializes in
narrative theology,religion and film, and more recently, queer theology. |
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- Further Reading
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- Adam, A. K. M. Faithful Interpretation: Reading the Bible in a Postmodern World. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2006.
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- Adam, A. K. M., ed. Postmodern Interpretations of the Bible: A Reader. St. Louis: Chalice, 2001.
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- Aichele, George, et al. (The Bible and Culture Collective). The Postmodern Bible. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1997.
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- Brook, Vincent, ed. "You Should See Yourself": Jewish Identity in Postmodern American Culture. Piscataway, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2006.
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- Ehrman, Bard D. Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth. New York: HarperOne, 2012.
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- Green, Arthur. Radical Judaism: Rethinking God and Tradition, The Franz Rosenzweig Lecture Series. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2010.
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- Kepnes, Steven, ed. Interpreting Judaism in a Postmodern Age, New Perspectives on Jewish Studies. New York: New York University Press, 1995.
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- Lakeland, Paul. Postmodernity: Christian Identity in a Fragmented Age. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1997.
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- Lofton, Kathryn. Consuming Religion, Class 200: New Studies in Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017.
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- Miller, Vincent J. Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture. New York: Continuum, 2005.
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- Links to Major Religion Blogs
- Jewish, Christian and secular; adapted and updated from
Appendix II. Religion blogs, on The Immanent Frame
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- FaithWorld- Reuters religion reporters post on items they're covering in international news.
- The God Blog -Christian Brad A. Greenberg blogs on the Los Angeles-based Jewish Journal.
- The Immanent Frame - interdisciplinary perspectives on secularism, religion and the public sphere from academics writing in a more popular vein.
- Religion and Culture Web Forum - Scholars at the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School write brief essays bringing their research to bear on current issues in religion and public life.
- New Humanist Blog - the Rationalist Associations' take on current events, aligned with the perspective of the New Atheists
- Religion Dispatches - a secular, independent online magazine that stands at the intersection of religion, politics and culture, with posts from both academics and journalists. SCU Professors Elizabeth Drescher and Bill Dohar are regular contributors.
- The Revealer - Published by New York University's Center for Religipon and Media; a daily review of religion in the news and news about religion.
- South Jerusalem - Jerusalem-based journalists Gershom Gorenberg and Haim Watzman maintain this "progressive, skeptical blog on Israel, Judaism, culture, politics and literature.
- Spiritual Politics - religion and media scholar Mark Silk blogs on religion and American political culture. Silk is director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Public Life at Trinity College.
- Tikkun Daily Blog - daily posts from a progressive Jewish perspective, written by Tikkun magazine editors including SCU Professor Akiba Lerner.
- Trans/missions - Diane Winston (Knight Chair in Media and Religion at USC), publishes this blog about religion in the media—news, television and film.
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- Acknowledgements
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