| Cultural aspirations, myopia
and theology
The Word in the beginning with God is the dynamic source of life by which creation is called forth and sustained. Without the Word as our source of existence, creation would sink back into nothingness from where it was called. The Word is the source of law as preserving grace in human community, without which, societies would collapse into a chaos of disorder through unbridled pursuit of partisan agendas for some conjectured ideal of humanity. The Word in creation is always present in the world as a perennial and implicit redress of social and cultural dysfunction. In every age and culture, the Word gives continual impetus toward relative equilibrium through human responsibility within societies, even amid momentous upheaval and the ensuing tired but wistful desire for restoration. The activities of law, protection, economics, education, wisdom, aesthetics and community are perennial, even though invariably compromised as expressions of renewal in desire for human dignity, providing conditions for livelihood and the nurture of each new generation. The Word of meaning and truth in the beginning with God is the source of all human intelligence. This same Word became flesh, calling into existence a unique community of testimony in the midst of diverse cultures. In Christian perspective, God as triune is present in affirming by culture, the rich colours of human life while also always calling into question every myopic or distorted cultural expression of truth and righteousness in quest of integral humanity. Within the limits of time and region, humans attempt to nail down perspective, even as they are exposed to the flux of time and the changing shape of relationships between people. Christian theology gives testimony to Christ the Word, who by grace and truth questions every attempt to secure as definitive, a finite perspective, while also being the implicit source of veracity and righteousness in human life. Yet Jesus Christ is only known as the explicit source of human dignity within faith as a demonstrative attitude of humility not hubris before the source and light of life. v Much is made of “truth” being a problem because any expression of truth in a particular time and place is relative to other assertions elsewhere. This is to state an obvious and perennial human dilemma! Yet the quest for accuracy contradicts any suggestion that, implicitly at least, we are satisfied with the relativity of truth. We yearn for a sustained word or logos of existence. We aspire to accuracy. In an age that celebrates relativity, we are curiously driven by the quest for accuracy and precision. Why this pursuit of accuracy by precise measures, if everything is supposedly relative? Consider the irony of a society making a virtue of relative values while pursuing, refining and contesting numerous calibrated expressions of accuracy by time, speed, length, weight or volume so as to maximise the efficiency of human effort in quest of our true possibilities! The pursuit of precision accords with a desire for the true; a defining logos or word of accuracy concerning life continues to be sought, even if people also dismiss this as passé in our time. In Christian theology, the Word with God in the beginning—the word of accuracy—became flesh in time, to be known and responded to in the Spirit who leads into all truth. Through incarnation, the creaturely contingencies of time, place and cultural particularity are given legitimacy, while the triune source and truth of Jesus’ life surpasses all cultural contingency—for the sake of humanity. Every culture sustains a yearning or desire for something more—for integral human life that gives clear expression to goodness and veracity. Human cultures cannot sustain these in an accurate or complete sense. Christian theology is exposure to another word otherwise than any gleaned from phenomena and the various configurations given to it by different cultures. These configurations give variegated expression to beauty, goodness and intelligence within phenomena. Yet these same configurations are also confused as to their veracity, being endlessly reconfigured and disputed in quest of their ultimate focus of meaning. The questions of human aspiration and restlessness arising from one culture to another are similar as questions of life but receive quite dissimilar responses. Theology helps define and shape the specific questions to which Christian testimony can respond in any given time and place, for the enduring issues of all cultures—origin and destiny, suffering and purpose, security and generosity, life and death—remain constant issues for theological engagement. v Human aspirations expressed through diverse cultures cannot be reduced to historical, sociological or psychological phenomena and explanations. The perennial desire for freedom, dignity, beauty, compassion, ethical values and hope is common to all cultures. Christian testimony to the word of God exceeds every possible correlation that might be forged with specific disciplines, artistic or scientific, of human culture. This testimony will say more to any particular culture than can be accounted for within that culture and its expression. The word of God will also speak against culture as much as it may speak within the language, concepts and specific disciplines of any particular culture. This is a constant tension for Christian testimony, which seeks to communicate seamlessly within specific times and places, while not becoming captive to the language, images, concepts and conventions of any time or place. Christians gives testimony to another word other than any word of culture. No cultural context is able to account for the possibilities of a word that surpasses any culture and also the particular articulation of those who give testimony to it. This word escapes reduction to cultural categories and norms. These categories and norms likewise, never account for everything occurring in a given culture at any one time and are invariably conflicted in attempting to do so. Christian testimony engages with cultures within their common human concerns, recognising that every culture is ultimately before two horizons—death and the grace of God. Christian theology articulates the merits of cultural aspiration and also its cultural myopia, hubris or dysfunction within which humans are corralled by anxiety in living toward a horizon of death. A culture is sustained by people and each person is finally before this looming horizon. No cultural discourse can adequately address this crisis. The inability of any culture to speak to the depth of human life in the face of mortality, so as to offer another present possibility, exposes the need for resources surpassing our capacities. By the word of God, the grace of God speaks to and affirms human life beyond its finite capacity to fulfil the subtle, variegated yearnings of human life. Christian theology articulates a word of revelation that discloses our primary resources in the gospel’s grace and truth: grace exceeds any cultural initiative or creativity; truth contests expressions of culture that diminish human dignity. Grace and truth give focus to a paradox—human yearning expressed by culture for a reality that exceeds any cultural purview or achievement. This yearning is met by God’s gracious movement toward humanity in life and love. Theological testimony to another word does not diminish the status of human life. Within Christian testimony, it is the only site of its true dignity and meaning. |
