Breakthroughs!

Today I am wrapped up in kairos time -- for me, a surreal experience of things I've been wresting with all of a sudden coming together all at once and becoming clear. I now understand existentially what it means to yell out "eureka!". It's like an orgasm of insight.

Breakthrough #1

How is it that I consider myself to be a postmodern theologian and yet can't name a single postmodern theologian I like? For many years now I've been wondering why I'm so interested in postmodern theology and yet every time I read a theologian's so called postmodern theology I think it stinks. I discovered why this is.

Typically, theologians lay out the priniciples of postmodernity then use these principles as a methodology to guide their theology. Yet using prescribed principles is the modern method. They're simply doing modern theology in an attempt to be postmodern. What typically results from this trajectory is a revisionist theology, often throwing the baby out with the bathwater, being more faithful to societal trends than to the gospel.

Posers. (I won't name names.)

Instead of being a theologian who tries to speak to a postmodern person, be a postmodern person who does theology. There is no such thing as principles of postmodernity, because we each experience and understand it differently. The phrase "postmodern principles" is an oxymoron. Does this mean then, that if we can't describe our guiding principles that we have no method for doing theology? No. The method is simply to be a postmodern person who does theology, not a person who tries to do postmodern theology. In other words, simply be postmodern, and read scripture and the church's tradition, then share how your reading helps you follow Jesus.

Breakthrough # 2

In my academic work, I've been frustrated for years . . . feeling like I was all alone in my theology. Specifically regarding salvation as cosmic communion in God. I have struggled to find a way to communicate my thoughts to my professors and peers. Then, I picked up Jean-Marie Tillard's theology. Here's a man who said everything I've been trying to argue for, but did so 40 years ago, and did it in a way that my Roman Catholic colleagues understand and often affirm. How did he steal my theology before I was born?

It's amazing that I came to the same positions as Tillard by very different paths. It's like I've found in Tillard my theological Rosetta Stone for translating my theology so others can understand me. I now have a whole Tillard diamond mine to explore. Perhaps this discovery will steer my future theological work.

Breakthrough # 3

In my ministry, I have been exploring the possibility with pastors in our synod that God may be calling us into a new kind of collaboration for a mission effort directed toward those with a postmodern worldview. Today, I had conversation with a great church leader who is excited to get started on this. It's time to take the next step.

EUREKA! What a day.

(Image "Sixteen Mirrors 03 Divine Light" by Halfdan Larsen: http://www.lycaeum.org/graphics/art/halfass/index.shtml )