Loosening the Grip 8<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We are committed to fighting racism on the Jesus Creed blog, and that means reviewing the best books available today about racism. This series deals with\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/20\/loosening-the-grip-8\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Loosening the Grip 8\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We are committed to fighting racism on the Jesus Creed blog, and that means reviewing the best books available today about racism. This series deals with\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/20\/loosening-the-grip-8\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-11-20T05:20:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0195152794\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/20\/loosening-the-grip-8\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/20\/loosening-the-grip-8\/\",\"name\":\"Loosening the Grip 8\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-11-20T05:20:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-11-20T05:20:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"We are committed to fighting racism on the Jesus Creed blog, and that means reviewing the best books available today about racism. This series deals with\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/20\/loosening-the-grip-8\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/20\/loosening-the-grip-8\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/20\/loosening-the-grip-8\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Loosening the Grip 8\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Loosening the Grip 8","description":"We are committed to fighting racism on the Jesus Creed blog, and that means reviewing the best books available today about racism. This series deals with","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/20\/loosening-the-grip-8\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Loosening the Grip 8","og_description":"We are committed to fighting racism on the Jesus Creed blog, and that means reviewing the best books available today about racism. This series deals with","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/20\/loosening-the-grip-8\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2008-11-20T05:20:05+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0195152794"}],"author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scot McKnight","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/20\/loosening-the-grip-8\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/20\/loosening-the-grip-8\/","name":"Loosening the Grip 8","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-11-20T05:20:05+00:00","dateModified":"2008-11-20T05:20:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252"},"description":"We are committed to fighting racism on the Jesus Creed blog, and that means reviewing the best books available today about racism. This series deals with","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/20\/loosening-the-grip-8\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/20\/loosening-the-grip-8\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/20\/loosening-the-grip-8\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Loosening the Grip 8"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252","name":"Scot McKnight","description":"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":4955,"date":"2008-11-20T00:20:05","date_gmt":"2008-11-20T05:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/20\/loosening-the-grip-8\/"},"modified":"2008-11-20T00:20:05","modified_gmt":"2008-11-20T05:20:05","slug":"loosening-the-grip-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/11\/20\/loosening-the-grip-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Loosening the Grip 8"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Karl Rahner was a German Jesuit (1904-1984) who was arguably the best
\nand most well-known Catholic theologian of the 20th century.\u00a0
\nFoundational to Rahner\u2019s entire system of thought is his assertion that
\nthe human being has a fundamental and pre-thematic openness to and
\nawareness of absolute mystery.\u00a0 What he meant by this is that every
\nperson is aware of and in some way encounters God whether or not this
\nis consciously recognized.\u00a0 For Rahner, even the avowed atheist is
\nsomehow in contact with God, even if that person does not realize it.<\/p>\n

\nThis assertion underlies every other theological claim made by Rahner and it is ultimately rooted in his readings of Thomas Aquinas, Immanuel Kant and Martin Heidegger.\u00a0 Many people who have read and studied Rahner\u2019s work have had strong reactions to it.\u00a0 He has been the subject of much praise and the subject of much criticism.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

One of the strongest critiques made of his work was by his student, Johann Baptist Metz.\u00a0 Metz was a German theologian trained by Rahner, but he ultimately disagreed with his teacher on the question of the context of theology.\u00a0 Metz objected to Rahner\u2019s failure to consider the context of individual human beings and the reality of their life experiences.\u00a0 Coincidentally, towards the end of his life, Rahner said that of the many critiques of his work, the critique of Metz was the one that he took particularly seriously.\u00a0 He seemed to acknowledge that the problem identified by Metz in his work was a significant one
.
In the fifth chapter of the book, Race: A Theological Account<\/a> $\"\"$
\n<\/strong><\/em>, J. Kameron Carter notes Rudolph Otto\u2019s Idea of the Holy<\/i>, which asserts that \u201c\u2018the category of the religious [is an] a priori in the human consciousness'\u201d (204).\u00a0 In other words, \u201c\u2018formally speaking, the religious experience is the same for the earliest man as it is for the mystics in the highly developed religions of Judaism, Christianity or Hinduism'\u201d (204).\u00a0 This view is very similar to Rahner\u2019s:\u00a0 each person has an experience of God that is common to all people and thus universal.
\u00a0
A friend of mine was present during the interview of a candidate for a position teaching theology in a seminary.\u00a0 The candidate, a woman originally from Latin America, taught a class of students that were very receptive to her and asked her a number of questions after her lecture.\u00a0 One of the questions asked of her was whether or not her personal context as a woman from Latin America in any way informed the way in which she approached the theological task.\u00a0 She replied that it did not, which seemed to disappoint some of the students.<\/p>\n

Rahner, Metz, Otto and my friend\u2019s experience all approach a question that Carter seems interested in addressing in this chapter.\u00a0 Does context matter?\u00a0 Does the theology or biblical interpretation we do look different depending on our own personal location?\u00a0 Does it matter for my own work (for example) that I approach the theological task as a woman?\u00a0 Does it make a difference if one approaches the theological task from a cultural background and context than is different than the dominant one?\u00a0 Of course it is clear that whether or not context should matter that it does matter.\u00a0 To grossly oversimplify the hermeneutical work of Hans Georg Gadamer, each of us has a tradition or a context out of which we operate.\u00a0 The only major question is whether or not we are honest about it<\/i>.<\/p>\n

The question that still needs to be addressed is whether or not context should\u00a0 matter and whether or not we should be intentional about considering context in our theological work and in our readings of scripture.\u00a0 Should the contemporary context inform what we do in this arena?\u00a0 If Otto is right, as Carter depicts him, and \u201cthe religious embraces the totality of human existence\u201d (206), does the particularity of one person or one group\u2019s human existence have a role to play?<\/p>\n

Carter tells us in this chapter that Charles H. Long\u2019s critique of modern theology holds that wealth, fullness and Western culture are aligned with Christianity (which is seen as the \u201cabsolute religion\u201d) while poverty and marginalization is associated with the non-Western and non-Christian other (207).\u00a0 As a result, Long sees theology as inherently tied up with the Western philosophical tradition.\u00a0 Responding to this, Carter writes, \u201cLong\u2019s reduction of Christian theology to its [Western] performances does not allow him to reckon with other types of Christian theological performances, both within and on the underside of the West, performances that might actually be consonant with and perhaps even radicalize his own brilliant insights into the poverty and wealth of existence\u201d (208).\u00a0 Carter seems to think that context should matter.\u00a0 What do you think?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"