Cultural widows?

I have just started reading Diana Butler Bass's Christianity after Religion, and it is proving to be an interesting read so far, However, there was a well known quote that gave me some insight into other events this week.

"Those who marry the spirit of the age will find themselves widows in the next." GK Chesterton.

Within church circles, this is often used to critique those who define their faith in terms of the current society - the postmodern paradigm that is predominant across most of the world today. They are right, in that if you define your faith in terms of a single worldview, it will be difficult when that worldview is challenged, because that will be seen as a challenge to your faith. In fact, in many cases, I see this when trying to interpret Christianity in post-modernist terms to those with a modernist worldview.

Most of the time, interpreting the historical faith in terms of a new perspective is exactly the right thing, even though it is often difficult. What is more, people do not always get it right, and fresh expressions of faith seem to come under far more scrutiny than old expressions.

This is not to to dismiss this quote as irrelevant or meaningless. It is a very important and significant statement and idea, that is just too often used in the wrong direction. The truth is many church people are stuck in a modernist paradigm, and what they see, when there are new ways of interpret church, is their own faith becoming irrelevant. they are the ones who are becoming widows in a new age, because their faith has married the spirit of the age we are leaving.

And yes, the majority of Christian theology and ecclesiology is very distinctly modernist in its approach.

But the Christian faith historically needs to be interpreted for different cultural environments. Whether this is modernist or post-modernist, Western or Eastern, it is important that the faith is appropriately interpreted for the cultural milieu that it is being expressed in. The fact that this will reject or challenge other interpretations is part of the nature of a culturally interpreted faith. So yes, I firmly believe that the full range of properly interpreted Christian faith will include paradoxes and contradictions. What is more, that is an important part of it.


What of this weeks news? Well I have already put my views down, and there is a whole lot more that has been said that it doesn't seem worth saying any more. But I have been particularly distressed by the lack of leaders who have been prepared to stand up and be critical of Margaret Thatchers legacy. Bishop Pete Broadbent and MP Glenda Jackson have stood out as a very few who reflect the negative side of her legacy. This is not to support some of the viciousness that has been shown against the person herself, and that is a worrying sign, But the truth is that, when in power, she did earn a whole lot of hatred, and her legacy is not a positive one for everyone.

Some people seem to have been taken by surprise at the vehemence of the feeling expressed against her. I am not sure why - it was always clear to me that when she died, many people would shout "ding dong, the witch is dead" - which doesn't mean I agree with it.

The problem is that most MPs and most church leaders seem not to be in touch with society, the society that Baroness thatcher polarised so much. To ignore this, to simply talk of her strength and leadership, just the positive aspects of her personality and leadership is to miss the zeitgeist. For many people - myself included - the legacy of the Thatcher years is damaging and negative, as I have expressed elsewhere, and this perspective of her time in office should be reflected as we reconsider her life.

 That so few of our leaders have accepted this and been prepared to address this tells us something about them, and just how widowed they might be.