Chapter 13 The Postmodern Religious Shift:
5 Case Studies
Discussion Guide for 5 Case Studies
Elaine Pagels
Pagels provides an excellent example of how postmodernists approach the
Bible. She uses many of the literary tools and concepts we studied in
chapter 7 to radically reshape the Christian message.
- How does the following passage illustrate the postmodern interest
in subverting the author's authority?
"When we examine its practical effect on the Christian movement,
we can see, paradoxically, that the doctrine of the bodily resurrection
also serves an essential political function: it legitimizes the authority
of certain men who claim to exercise exclusive leadership over the churches."
- How does the following quote from The Gnostic Gospels provide
an example of the postmodern spirituality that's so popular today?
"The resurrection, they (Gnostics) insisted, was not a unique
event in the past: instead, it symbolized how Christ's presence could
be experienced in the present. What mattered was not literal seeing,
but spiritual vision."
- What postmodern concepts are contained in this statement?
- Can you see why this kind of radical reconstruction of Christianity
is so popular?
- Discussion leader: It's popular because it leaves the individual
as the source of truth. No authority outside of the self is ever needed.
Joseph Campbell
Campbell teaches that the underlying structure of the unconscious mind
is based on "archetypes." These archetypes represent our connection
with our evolutionary past, and our connection to nature. Religious myth
is how we get in touch with this unconscious reality. Ultimate truths
about reality end up being truths about ourselves.
- How does the following quote from The Power of Myth explain the relationship
of myth to our true, unconscious self?
"All of these wonderful poetic images of mythology are referring
to something in you. When your mind is simply trapped by the image out
there so that you never make the reference to yourself, you have misread
the image . . . Now you can personify God in many, many ways. Is there
one god? Are there many gods? Those are merely categories of thought."
- For Campbell, myth is metaphor. There can be no objective or rational
grasp of ultimate truths. That's what he means when he says,
"The person who thinks he has found the ultimate truth is wrong.
There is an often-quoted verse in Sanskrit, which appears in the Chinese
Tao-te Ching [Taoist Scripture] as well: 'He who thinks he knows,
doesn't know. He who knows that he doesn't know, knows. For in this
context, to know is not to know. And not to know is to know.'"
- What's wrong with this statement?
- This statement is a self contradiction. How does he know that "he
who knows doesn't know?" He's claiming a kind of knowledge that
he says we can't have.
- Campbell insists that the biblical authors were aware of the mythological
nature of their writings. They wrote, Campbell insists, "as if"
their stories were literally true. What passages of scripture directly
reject his view?
- Several passages are relevant. Perhaps none more than this:
- "We did not follow cleverly invented stories [GK muthos =
myths] when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty." (2 Peter 1:16)
- see also I Corinthians 15:1-19. Go through the passage and identify
the statements that lay stress on the importance of the actual historicity
of Christ's death. Does this passage allow in any way for a metaphorical
or mythical understanding of the resurrection?
Feminist Spirituality
- The authors make a distinction between the legitimate concerns of
women in a rapidly changing culture and the ideological position taken
by feminists. Can you see how the legitimate concerns of women (or any
other definable social group) is different from a militant ideological
point of view? How is feminism different from the concerns of women?
- Clearly, feminism is a type of affirmative postmodernism. The ideological
approach to truth is clear in all of feminist literature, especially
among feminist theologians. They start from the perspective of what
they conceive to be "women's experience." Read the following
quotes from the chapter:
"By women's experience as a key to hermeneutics or theory of interpretation,
we mean precisely that experience which arises when women become critically
aware of these falsifying and alienating experiences imposed upon them
as women by a male-dominated culture."
"All women live with male violence . . ."
- Do you think that this is an appropriate place to begin forming an
approach to reading the Bible? Why, or Why not?
- Read the following quote carefully. What implications do you find
in the statement?
"Whatever contradicts those convictions [arising from women's
experience] cannot be accepted as having the authority of an authentic
revelation of truth. It is simply a matter of there being no turning
back. We can be dispossessed of our best insights, proven wrong in our
judgments. But as long as those insights continue to make sense to us,
and as long as our basic judgments seem to us incontrovertible, there
can be no turning back. So it is with feminist consciousness and the
interpretation of scripture."
- What do you think of the feminist discussion of Genesis 2:22-24 (the
creation of Eve out of Adam)? Does it justify male violence against
women, as feminist theologians argue?
John Bradshaw
- Bradshaw is the high priest of the inner child movement in popular
psychology. Do any members of the group feel they have benefited from
this school?
- What do you think of Bradshaw's loathing for so-called "patriarchy?"
Do you see evidence that people lose their ability to direct themselves
because they were raised under patriarchy?
- If my inner child is the true me, and I am "championing my inner
child," is this the same, or different than championing me?
- What do you think of entering the mindless state Bradshaw calls "the
silence?" Have you ever done this in connection with religion,
or have you seen others do so?
- The Bible teaches that meditation is good in passages like Psalms
1. What difference, if any, do you see between biblical meditation and
the sort of meditation Bradshaw advances?
Frederick Turner
- Read the section on Turner first.
- The authors claim, "Like some even in the evangelical camp today,
Turner discounts the importance of truth and theology in favor of ritualistic
experience." Have you seen this? Do you think the contemporary
churches are more, or less ritualistic than the New Testament church?
- What do you think of Turner's suggestion that ritual does not need
to be linked to any particular truth? Are you aware of any similarity
in the ritual of different religions?
- Could you see people from different religions coming together based
on ritual?
Facilitator's Guide, 5 Case Studies
Elaine Pagels
Pagels provides an excellent example of how postmodernists approach the
Bible. She uses many of the literary tools and concepts we studied in
chapter 7 to radically reshape the Christian message.
- How does the following passage illustrate the postmodern interest
in subverting the author's authority?
"When we examine its practical effect on the Christian movement,
we can see, paradoxically, that the doctrine of the bodily resurrection
also serves an essential political function: it legitimizes the authority
of certain men who claim to exercise exclusive leadership over the churches."
- How does the following quote from The Gnostic Gospels provide
an example of the postmodern spirituality that's so popular today?
"The resurrection, they (Gnostics) insisted, was not a unique
event in the past: instead, it symbolized how Christ's presence could
be experienced in the present. What mattered was not literal seeing,
but spiritual vision."
- What postmodern concepts are contained in this statement?
- Can you see why this kind of radical reconstruction of Christianity
is so popular?
- Discussion leader: It's popular because it leaves the individual
as the source of truth. No authority outside of the self is ever needed.
Joseph Campbell
Campbell teaches that the underlying structure of the unconscious mind
is based on "archetypes." These archetypes represent our connection
with our evolutionary past, and our connection to nature. Religious myth
is how we get in touch with this unconscious reality. Ultimate truths
about reality end up being truths about ourselves.
- How does the following quote from The Power of Myth explain the relationship
of myth to our true, unconscious self?
"All of these wonderful poetic images of mythology are referring
to something in you. When your mind is simply trapped by the image out
there so that you never make the reference to yourself, you have misread
the image . . . Now you can personify God in many, many ways. Is there
one god? Are there many gods? Those are merely categories of thought."
- For Campbell, myth is metaphor. There can be no objective or rational
grasp of ultimate truths. That's what he means when he says,
"The person who thinks he has found the ultimate truth is wrong.
There is an often-quoted verse in Sanskrit, which appears in the Chinese
Tao-te Ching [Taoist Scripture] as well: 'He who thinks he knows,
doesn't know. He who knows that he doesn't know, knows. For in this
context, to know is not to know. And not to know is to know.'"
- What's wrong with this statement?
- This statement is a self contradiction. How does he know that "he
who knows doesn't know?" He's claiming a kind of knowledge that
he says we can't have.
- Campbell insists that the biblical authors were aware of the mythological
nature of their writings. They wrote, Campbell insists, "as if"
their stories were literally true. What passages of scripture directly
reject his view?
- Several passages are relevant. Perhaps none more than this:
"We did not follow cleverly invented stories [GK muthos =
myths] when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty." (2 Peter 1:16)
- see also I Corinthians 15:1-19. Go through the passage and identify
the statements that lay stress on the importance of the actual historicity
of Christ's death. Does this passage allow in any way for a metaphorical
or mythical understanding of the resurrection?
Feminist Spirituality
- Leffel makes a distinction between the legitimate concerns of women
in a rapidly changing culture and the ideological position taken by
feminists. Can you see how the legitimate concerns of women (or any
other definable social group) is different from a militant ideological
point of view? How is feminism different from the concerns of women?
- Clearly, feminism is a type of affirmative postmodernism. The ideological
approach to truth is clear in all of feminist literature, especially
among feminist theologians. They start from the perspective of what
they conceive to be "women's experience." Read the following
quotes from the chapter:
"By women's experience as a key to hermeneutics or theory of interpretation,
we mean precisely that experience which arises when women become critically
aware of these falsifying and alienating experiences imposed upon them
as women by a male-dominated culture."
"All women live with male violence . . ."
- Do you think that this is an appropriate place to begin forming an
approach to reading the Bible? Why, or Why not?
- Read the following quote carefully. What implications do you find
in the statement?
"Whatever contradicts those convictions [arising from women's
experience] cannot be accepted as having the authority of an authentic
revelation of truth. It is simply a matter of there being no turning
back. We can be dispossessed of our best insights, proven wrong in our
judgments. But as long as those insights continue to make sense to us,
and as long as our basic judgments seem to us incontrovertible, there
can be no turning back. So it is with feminist consciousness and the
interpretation of scripture."
- What do you think of the feminist discussion of Genesis 2:22-24 (the
creation of Eve out of Adam)? Does it justify male violence against
women, as feminist theologians argue?
John Bradshaw
- Bradshaw is the high priest of the inner child movement in popular
psychology. Do any members of the group feel they have benefited from
this school?
- What do you think of Bradshaw's loathing for so-called "patriarchy?"
Do you see evidence that people lose their ability to direct themselves
because they were raised under patriarchy?
- If my inner child is the true me, and I am "championing my inner
child," is this the same, or different than championing me?
- What do you think of entering the mindless state Bradshaw calls "the
silence?" Have you ever done this in connection with religion,
or have you seen others do so?
- The Bible teaches that meditation is good in passages like Psalms
1. What difference, if any, do you see between biblical meditation and
the sort of meditation Bradshaw advances?
- Biblical meditation is not contentless meditation, where we seek
to empty our minds, but contentful meditation on the Word of God, as
indicated in Psalms 1.
Frederick Turner
- Read the section on Turner first.
- McCallum claims, "Like some even in the evangelical camp today,
Turner discounts the importance of truth and theology in favor of ritualistic
experience." Have you seen this? Do you think contemporary churches
are more, or less ritualistic than the New Testament church?
- What do you think of Turner's suggestion that ritual does not need
to be linked to any particular truth? Are you aware of any similarity
in the ritual of different religions?
- Rituals differ in details, but are remarkably uniform in type among
religions the world over. Key areas of ritual are:
- Fertility-- rituals intended to encourage deities to grant fertility
to fields and human women through sympathetic magic
- Penance rituals that focus on self-punishment, self-sacrifice, or
animal sacrifice
- Possession phenomena-- rituals leading to spirit possession, either
for worshipers or for their shamanistic leader. Possession often is
sought in order to communicate with the spirit world for the sake of
divining the future, or determining when to do key things.
- Healing-- Shamanistic rituals intended to drive away evil spirits
that cause illness
- Rites of passage-- rituals which formalize and commemorate key transitions
in life such as from childhood to adulthood.
- Community belonging-- rituals that signify membership in the community
- Why are rituals so similar, and why do some Christian churches have
rituals that could be viewed as similar to those in other religions?
Consider different possibilities such as:
-the similarities are superficial and partial (sacrifice)
-the churches practicing similar rituals have borrowed them from other
religions rather than from the Bible
-man-made religion reflects features in human nature that are universal
only because the humans are at the center of each religious system.
This would argue that revealed authentic spirituality should be different
from other religions.
-Satan may counterfeit true religion with ritual practice that is similar
to that in Christianity but with key differences that keep people in
his power.
- Could you see people from different religions coming together based
on ritual?
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