Tim Keller on Biblical Critical Theory
From The Gospel Coalition:
Like many others, I’ve read various forms of critical theory for decades. However, it’s only in the last couple of years that the term (under the heading “Critical Race Theory”) has burst into popular consciousness. What should Christians’ attitudes toward it be?
On the one hand, many denounce it as evil and toxic and say it should be shunned like a virus. On the other hand, some say, “Let’s learn from it but not swallow it whole.”
In Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture, Chris Watkin “diagonalizes” these alternatives—taking an approach that doesn’t ignore the concerns of either but that’s more radical than both.
What Is Critical Theory?
Critical theory aims to make visible the deep structures of a culture in order to expose and change them. Watkin, as a scholar of modern European thought and languages, is thoroughly acquainted with the various forms of critical theory that have arisen over the past century. Most of them are based directly or indirectly on forms of Marxist analysis. Since the middle of the 20th century and especially since the 1990s, a host of “high theories” in this tradition—literary theory, feminist theory, critical race theory, queer theory—have sought to unmask and undermine the oppressive structures of Western society.
But the term critical theory has an older and more basic meaning. It means not just accepting what a culture says about itself but also seeing what’s really going on beneath the surface.
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
