Biblical Critical Theory
How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $26.99
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- $26.99
Publisher Description
*With a foreword from Tim Keller*
A bold vision for Christians who want to engage the world in a way that is biblically faithful and culturally sensitive.
In Biblical Critical Theory, Christopher Watkin shows how the Bible and its unfolding story help us make sense of modern life and culture.
Critical theories exist to critique what we think we know about reality and the social, political, and cultural structures in which we live. In doing so, they make visible the values and beliefs of a culture in order to scrutinize and change them.
Biblical Critical Theory exposes and evaluates the often-hidden assumptions and concepts that shape late-modern society, examining them through the lens of the biblical story running from Genesis to Revelation, and asking urgent questions like:
How does the Bible's storyline help us understand our society, our culture, and ourselves?How do specific doctrines help us engage thoughtfully in the philosophical, political, and social questions of our day?How can we analyze and critique culture and its alternative critical theories through Scripture?
Informed by the biblical-theological structure of Saint Augustine's magisterial work The City of God (and with extensive diagrams and practical tools), Biblical Critical Theory shows how the patterns of the Bible's storyline can provide incisive, fresh, and nuanced ways of intervening in today's debates on everything from science, the arts, and politics to dignity, multiculturalism, and equality. You'll learn the moves to make and the tools to use in analyzing and engaging with all sorts of cultural artifacts and events in a way that is both biblically faithful and culturally relevant.
It is not enough for Christians to explain the Bible to the culture or cultures in which we live. We must also explain the culture in which we live within the framework and categories of the Bible, revealing how the whole of the Bible sheds light on the whole of life.
If Christians want to speak with a fresh, engaging, and dynamic voice in the marketplace of ideas today, we need to mine the unique treasures of the distinctive biblical storyline.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This ambitious effort by Watkin (Thinking Through Creation), a senior lecturer in French studies at Monash University, Australia, positions the Bible as a cultural critique. He posits that Christianity's capacity to produce "recognizable and repeatable patterns and rhythms of behavior, of thought, of language" means that the faith can be used as a tool of social analysis. The author suggests that God speaking the world into existence renders moot discussions about whether language produces or merely describes reality because while language can shape reality, only God's language has such power. Tackling posthumanist thinkers' concern with augmenting the human body, Watkin posits that the Bible "endorses the use of technologies and practices... to improve human life," but adds that humans should only undertake major changes if they glorify God. Jesus, the author asserts, provides an alternative to Marxist and Hegelian conceptions of authority because his status as "sovereign servant" suggests that authority can come from deference to a higher power. Watkin's discourses with such thinkers as Nietzsche, Kant, and Derrida on the incarnation, apologetics, prophecy, and eschatology impress with their depth and complexity, though readers unfamiliar with these secular critical theorists may struggle to follow along. Still, Watkin largely pulls off this daring feat of scholarship.
