Alienation and Interpretation

Much of the material I have read about the scriptures or modernity or early Christian thought (and much of what I have experienced in marriage) has led me to question some very basic assumptions of mine about the nature of things in the world, of the world, the nature of the scriptures, of God, of history, of meaning, and of the nature and worth of human beings in general.

Now, to question one's own assumptions is often very liberating, but in academia, and elsewhere, the alienation seems to be nearly a thematic mood driving the readings of texts and the interpretation of events. Alienation, of course, is not a new theme to grace the content of the modern world, either in reality or in texts. It is a bit curious, however, when a good reader is expected to be dogmatically "on their guard" against misreading, as though everything must be questioned, the mouth of every heretic must be ungagged to judge if there has been any overlooked truth. This aim of this method would seem to be the apprehension of truth and the securing of sound knowledge -- it would be clarity. But in the end it just seems another form of Nihilism, the great Void that always and everywhere seeks to uproot and break apart everything solid. Criticism has ascended to the throne of reason in this culture and become the only road to truth. It is even built into our scientific method -- experiment, experiment, experiment -- test everything, nothing is holy, all is provisional. This cthonic god never appears, but always lays concealed, expressing himself only in a mood. The effect of this mood, however, does not afford stability, for it is essentially a voiding of every certainty in the search for truth. It's effect is to undermine and destabilize.

Now, why do we tolerate the absolutizing of this mood? Can it be quarantined, so that it might be put to good use? Can this god be tamed by the Lord Christ, to serve the ends of his Kingdom? Not only in our own lives (though that is where it must start and end), but culturally, politically, economically?

Comments

[joe]

Our apprehension of the truth is not always a smooth process. Neither do we bounce between knowing everything and nothing. A great deal of uncertainty remains with us due to the imperfection, incompleteness, of our knowledge. Still, there is a lot that appears to be true, and that serves a useful purpose until our limited intelligence can generate a closer approximation of Truth. We sit, like the the living coral on top of a great reef, with the perspective of elves on the shoulders of giants.

[joe]

One further note on the original posting seems appropriate as we approach its first anniversary. Scientific knowledge and Revelation have different sources, and it is a mistake to conflate them. God reveals in perfection, but we perceive incrementally, imperfectly. Our construction of science must be tentative always because it is built imperfectly by imperfect beings. That does not render it useless, merely limited. As in mathematics, with "successive approximations," we edge our way towards Truth by chewing on bits of truth and digesting them ever so slowly. Yesterday marks the four hundredth anniversary of Galileo's discovery of some of Jupiter's moons. Later in the month, he discovered more. Some he never discovered at all. At the risk of borrowing a metaphor I may not have earned, I could say that Galileo saw through a glass darkly, but he moved us along a lot further to knowing the true situation of Jupiter.