The Gagging Of God
By D.A. Carson
Apollos/IVP. £14.99. 640 pages
ISBN 0 85111 767 8
At the Enlightenment Western intellectuals rejected God and his revelation as the source of truth and frame of reference for understanding life. The 'modern' approach which emerged believed that pure reason and scientific method were all that was needed. But this has proved fallacious.
To our observations and logic we bring the baggage of our personal and cultural conditioning which skews our every perception. Hand in hand with this realisation, out of the discipline of literary criticism has also arisen the phenomenon of 'deconstructionism'. This claims that language functions by making distinctions, but is never precise enough to make our distinctions hold under the closest scrutiny and so the logic of any discourse can always be undermined. Without the rock of God's truth we find ourselves all at sea in the post-modern world where all is relative, all is only in the eye of the beholder.
Flavours of pluralism
Don Carson explains that this post-modern mindset provides what is seen as the ideal justification for the pluralistic society of today with its virtues of multi-culturalism and the atomistic fulfilment of the individual. At the outset of the book Professor Carson sets out three strands of pluralism. These he calls 'empirical pluralism' which stands for the simple fact of the growing diversity of our culture; 'cherished pluralism' signifying that there is a sense in which diversity and variety are rightly approved and celebrated; and 'philosophical pluralism' which flows out of the post-modern mindset 'that any notion that a particular ideological or religious claim in intrinsically superior to another is necessarily wrong'. Thus the claims of Christianity are ruled out a priori and God is gagged.
How is Christianity, which for 2,000 years has been arguing its truth in the market place in terms of the ancient certainties of thesis and antithesis, to make headway in this post-modern, pluralistic climate which has lost interest in history and argument and where any interpretation is as good as any other except that which claims to be actually true? This is the grand, many-faceted question Professor Carson addresses himself to in this substantial volume.
Four battlefronts
The book divides into four sections like four battlefronts.
In the first, the author examines the rise of modern pluralism and especially the revolution in hermeneutics entailed upon the post-modern mindset. Here he argues that the post-modern thinkers have been plunged into confusion by their black and white approach: 'either we know absolutely and certainly, or all knowledge is relative'.
Over against that, the Christian believes that though absolute truth can only be known fully by God, yet because of his revelation we are able to approach truth asymptotically, getting closer and closer. We can know enough truly to be practical.
There is insight in post-modernism's recognition of our own limitations - we need 'to recognise within a Christian framework certain truths in post-modernity without getting hooked by the entire package.' In particular the Christian can use post-modernity to attack the arrogance of reductionist 'science'.
The second and largest section takes up the matter of religious pluralism and debunks the heavyweights like John Hick and Paul Knitter, and those who claim to see themselves as under the evangelical umbrella, but have begun to sell the pass on the exclusive claims of Christ. Professor Carson argues that the Bible's central 'plot line' of redemptive history resists any pluralistic understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ. This section is a feast of introductory exegesis, review of difference authors and exposure of fallacious arguments. (He here briefly ad-dresses the debate over origins and shows himself to lean away from the evolution position and towards a form of 'creationism'. But perhaps those who disagree will explain this away in terms of the author's North American 'interpretative community'!)
Part three then moves on to look at how pluralism has begun to affect the structures of society in such areas as law, education and morals, and explores with great political wisdom how Christians need to think about how to react to what is wrong. With our absolutism we are inevitably at odds with the direction of post-modern thinking in these crucial areas. We are so easily written off and sworn at with the new 'f' word (fundamentalist), that our ideas are rarely given a chance. A more subtle yet firm approach is required from us.
The final part looks in some depth at how pluralism has begun to creep into the evangelical camp. Here the desire to be relevant, which though in one way commendable, has rarely been thought through properly is found to be a culprit. It far too easily plays into the hands of the post-modern idolatrous cult of 'self-fulfilment' for the individual. The doctrine of hell is taken as a test-case of how evangelicals are facing up to the pressures of the likes and dislikes of today's culture. With compassion and deadly exegetical acumen, a wealth of texts comes under the microscope. With a chapter on the questions raised by the need to contextualise the gospel in a world of increasing globalisation, Professor Carson gives sound advice on how to evangelise in a post-modern world.
Magisterial
The book is directed first of all at American church and society, and the potential British reader needs to make allowances for the fact that he or she will not be conversant in detail with some of the situations which are addressed.
It is, nevertheless, a magisterial work. It may be going too far to compare it with Calvin's Institutes, because it is based so much in the current state of academic ideas, and yet in many ways Carson has begun to do for us what Calvin did for his day, to provide a key for releasing the gospel into a world that has changed.
It is a tome with which every evangelical leaders ought to grapple. It covers so much ground that perhaps the four sections need to be republished separately with appropriate introductions, in order to make this invaluable material more accessible to the average Christian reader.
However, what worries me is the possibility of enthusiastic pastors preaching hundreds of sermons on post-modernism and pluralism in the wake of this book, thinking this is all they have to do to fight today's battles. But do not be deceived. There are other more ancient foes, such as plain old materialism, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life which are also devouring souls. Our struggle is not simply intellectual, but spiritual.
JEB
Dr John Benton
