Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site cbscc.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!cbsck!cbscc!pmd From: pmd@cbscc.UUCP (Paul Dubuc) Newsgroups: net.religion.christian Subject: Re: Contemporary Theology and its flight from the church. Message-ID: <5764@cbscc.UUCP> Date: Tue, 20-Aug-85 09:40:19 EDT Article-I.D.: cbscc.5764 Posted: Tue Aug 20 09:40:19 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 24-Aug-85 01:48:32 EDT References: <1008@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus Lines: 50 Well, I've known some who have paid their dues in seminary and I'm glad to say that they don't all indulge in the inellectual snobbery that Gary does. I've never seen a better example of a modern day Pharasee. The gaurdians of truth are those who have paid their dues in the study of modern theology. Salvation belongs to the "educated". And people chide fundamentalists for acting like they have a corner on spiritual truth! Pigheadedness seems respectable if you've studied at the right seminary. Gary likens the craft of theology to secular professions like law and medicine. I suppose we should have a requirement that ministers be licensed by the state too? Doctors and lawyers deal with fairly objective and technical goals with regard to their clients. Apparently Gary views the obtaining of knowledge of God in a similar light. Could you describe that goal, Gary? I don't think you'll get much help from Schleiermacher there. You seem to espouse ideas similar to those of Harvey Cox in "The Secular City" but also seem to fall into the trap (Cox himself warned about) of championing "secularism". (Cox distinguised between the terms "secular" and "secularism"; maybe not too adaquately). One thing I couldn't figure out about Cox's book is: What use does the secular city have for secular theologians? Cox seems to have spent all his time importing theology into the secular world. Surely "secular man" can get along fine without the theological trappings. The only use I can see that secular society has for secular theology is clerical hedge against the criticism of more conservative Christians like the fundamentalists and evangelicals. The liberal "secular" theologians are the flatterers of secular society and society does not exile its flatterers. Once the usefulness of the clerical hedge is past, however, I'd expect secular theology to quickly fade from existance itself. It's basis for authority is in secular society itself. It has no basis for authority from which it may criticize that society that I can see. Adults, for all their maturity, often learn important lessons from their children. So it is that I find some of the most "theologically crude" Christians display more evidence of having internalized the character of Christ than the most learned theologians. As long as today's modern theologians act as if their heady knowlege is all that applies to the biblical concept of truth, they are going to fail to learn some important lessons. Truth has as much to do with personal integrity (of God or persons) as it does with true or false propositions, maybe even more so. -- Paul Dubuc cbscc!pmd