The Logic of Intersubjectivity. Darren M. Slade

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ study, for example, it was revealed that those who accept the divinity of Christ, when presented with disconfirming information, paradoxically intensified their conviction in Jesus’ divinity once they also accepted the truthfulness of the dissonant information (Batson, “Rational Processing or Rationalization?,” 176‒84). See also the numerous studies cited in Harmon-Jones, “A Cognitive Dissonance Theory,” 192.

      101. Cf. Aronson, The Social Animal, 185 and Harmon-Jones, “A Cognitive Dissonance Theory,” 185‒211.

      102. McLaren comments, “Show me a person who has rejected faith, and nine times in ten I will show you a person or group nearby who turned him or her sour with their example of bad faith.” He also remarks in the same book, “The search for a faith that makes sense has been the most challenging and life-changing quest of my life” (FFS §Intro, 18; §1, 46). As Roger Olson explains, theologies do not develop spontaneously. All arise from the experiential challenges to the church as perceived and felt by particular theologians (Olson, The Story of Christian Theology, 15).

      103. See for example, Garff, Søren Kierkegaard, xvii‒xxi.

      104. Accordingly, as McLaren developed an interest in science, he grew weary of hearing anti-evolution rhetoric (NS §1, 7). He recounts, “When I was 13 my Sunday school teacher said: ‘You can either believe in God or evolution’, and I remember thinking: ‘Evolution makes a lot of sense to me’” (McLaren, “Changing Faith, Staying Faithful,” 14). Elsewhere, he comments that evolution “seemed elegant, patient, logical, and actually quite wonderful to me, more wonderful even than a literal six-day creation blitz” (GO §1, 44).

      105. McLaren describes this period as “a full-dose, hard-core” style of fundamentalism that compelled its congregants to attend numerous church services, revivals, prayer meetings, youth programs, Bible studies, and devotionals. For more details on his personal life journey, see Brian D. McLaren, “How I Got Here,” Progressing Spirit (blog), April 11, 2019, https://progressingspirit.com/2019/04/11/how-i-got-here/; AMP §16, 245; FFR §9, 180‒81; FFS §3, 87; MRTYR §Intro, 11; and NS §1, 5‒6. Elsewhere, however, McLaren labels the Plymouth Brethren as only “mildly fundamentalist” (FOWA §6, 56).

      106. McLaren explains, “To a teenager in the early 1970s, church culture seemed like a throwback to the 1950s—or the 1850s, or the 1750s, take your pick” (NS §1, 7). Developmentally, it is common for teenagers to question the religious beliefs of their chronosystem, especially as their cognition expands to include more analytical discernments. See King and Roeser, “Religion and Spirituality in Adolescent Development,” 435‒78.

      107. Cf. Jones and Gerard, Foundations of Social Psychology, 191.

      108. See also, McLaren, foreword to Generous Orthodoxies, xiv.

      109. Like McLaren, few adolescents actually reject the religion of their childhood, particularly if they have a good relationship with their parents. See Kim-Spoon et al., “Parent-Adolescent Relationship,” 1576‒87.

      110. See the multiple polling data in Kinnaman and Lyons, Unchristian, 26‒30 and Wright, Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites, 14‒15, 186‒90, 200‒202.

      111. McLaren, preface to Blue Ocean Faith, xiv.

      112. McLaren states, “I became a committed Christian during the Jesus Movement in the early seventies, a context in which being a Christian felt more like following a leader than accepting a code or creed” (COOS1 §13, 207). He describes the experience elsewhere, “It was a movement known for being hip, not ancient; contemporary, not contemplative; and oriented around evangelistic practicalities, not spiritual practices” (McLaren, “Everything Old Is New Again,” 23). For a history of the Jesus Movement, see Hubery, “Jesus Movement,” 212‒14 and Lyra, “Rise and Development of the Jesus Movement,” 40‒61.

      113. Cf. McLaren, foreword to A New Kind of Youth Ministry, 6‒8.

      114. For McLaren, his exposure to deconstructionism was not an accident. Instead, much like the prophet Moses, whose Egyptian education prepared him for revolution, McLaren believes God had directed his graduate studies in order to prepare him for ministry during Christianity’s epochal shift (COOS1 §12b, 187‒88).

      115. Developmentally, young adults will often attend religious services less but, paradoxically, also develop more religious convictions throughout college. See Barry et al., “The Role of Mothers,” 66‒78.

      116. Streett, “An Interview with Brian McLaren,” 6. McLaren comments that Percy’s essays in The Message in the Bottle (1954) were especially influential to his theology (McLaren, “What I’m Reading,” 21). Here, Percy helped McLaren dialogue to himself about sensitive and problematic issues of faith while recognizing the limitations of people’s culturally embedded perspectives (FFS §3, 92‒94; GO §1, 52‒53).

      117. See McLaren, “Becoming Convergent”; “Ruining Your Ministry for Good,” 56; foreword to What Would Jesus Deconstruct?, 9‒12; foreword to Renewing the Center, 7‒14; foreword to Manifold Witness, xi‒xiii; forward to Life at the End of Us Versus Them, xxi; “What I’m Reading,” 21; and Streett, “An Interview with Brian McLaren,” 6‒7. For an exploration of Leslie Newbigin’s influence, see Stewart, “The Influence of Newbigin’s Missiology,” 86‒111 and McLaren, “Brian’s Annotation.” For Walter Brueggemann, see McLaren, “Brian McLaren on Walter Brueggemann.”

      118. Streett, “An Interview with Brian McLaren,” 6. In fact, McLaren even credits Kierkegaard for his postmodern ethos (Christy, “Neoorthopraxy and Brian D. McLaren,” 97‒99).

      119. This Percyean-Kierkegaardian influence is more evident as McLaren mimics both of their writing styles, tactics, and religio-ethical conclusions. In fact, the three iconoclasts often have similar syntax and vocabulary. McLaren especially imitates Kierkegaard’s use of irony, humor, satire, hyperbole, and pseudonymous story-telling (cf. §5.4.1). As Carl Raschke remarks, “Postmodern thinkers have adopted Kierkegaard as their prime mentor” (Raschke, The Next Reformation, 163). Kyle Roberts also comments, “In many ways, the concerns that give rise to emergent Christianity parallel Kierkegaard’s critique of Christendom in his own context” (Roberts, Emerging Prophet, 6). For more on Kierkegaard’s influence on postmodern thought, see Best and Kellner, The Postmodern Turn, 38‒78.

      СКАЧАТЬ