by George Elerick writing for The Love Revolution
This is a project I am working on. I am a post-structural idealist. Feel free to dream out-loud with me.
A post-structural Christianity (PSC) doesn’t seek for new ways or systems to explain the unknown. It seeks ways for the unknown to remain unknown. PSC is counter-cultural to rational Christianity that seeks to create answers where there should be none.
Post-structural Christianity is a new way of seeing Christ and his universal message. It is proclamation that without the structures in place, we simply encounter Jesus. Without the structure we invite the other that might have been labeled before as outsider or even more pervasively so as sinner to be brother and sister. We see love as the highest ethic. We see the death of Jesus still as an important transcendent contribution to our development as people. It demonstrates that like the Samaritan we too can atone for the ‘sins’/mistakes of another. That compassion is salvation. That Jesus came to show us who we could be.
That truth is everywhere and can be found in many things other than Christianity.
Accepts that god is bigger than one faith expression. Believes that all people have value no matter their lifestyle. That all people have a voice in the conversation on god. Rather than being informed by one book of holy writ, it is the belief that as important as these structures are that there is a much larger measure, where we measure god not against the bible. But we measure god against god. We do not deny the creeds, but see them as a good starting point, but do not rely upon them to define the ever-evolving space that is god.
Prayer is an action. Justice is one of the multi-centers that help inform how we act to one in need. History isn’t the patristic overlord to our development, but rather an ethic we get to create and perpetuate.
God is still very much the center.
The god beyond god informs us of god. Others outside of our expression have equality in conversation. Post-structural Christianity continuously looks for ways to self-parody itself. There is redemption in the demolition. There is shalom in the wake of our dismantling.
It embraces god as father of humanity than just one religion. It is not a religion in the sense of an institution or structure, but it is a religion in the sense of an open-ended way of life. The ethics of the ancient Torah still inform how we treat those in need, our neighbor/enemies and ourselves.
Post-structural Christianity is an endeavour that evolves and out of its own evolution that stems from evolution. So where does this lead, it leads to us learning how to define god without the need for structure.
These are a few thoughts. Feel free to add or take away.
[...] See the rest here: Post-Structural… [...]
looking forward to how you play this out
Thank you for the comment Tripp!
I thought this (George Elerick’s) position was interesting. Hadn’t considered it previously.
What are your thoughts?
cool. thanks bro. still fleshing it all out. but wanted to make it part of the ‘commons’ and see what kind of other ideas can be added. got any?
I’m working on them, George. Might include them in a seperate post.
That’s a very good point that you have pointed to. This could be a very debatable topic on how Christianity shapes up on post-structural ideologies. We live our lives and so it is us who has to decision to move ourselves towards the betterment or towards the other end of the road.
Where is the need for God in any of this?
What do you mean, Chad?