20AR25-16

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AR 25:16 - Christian realism vs. futile scientism

In this issue:

APOLOGETICS - "a comprehensive presentation of Christian apologetic literature from the second to the fifth century"

HOMOSEXUALITY - "a clear primer on academic queer theory and the handful of theologians who have closely engaged with it"

PHILOSOPHY - Australian academic objects to 'the path from metaphysics to science as a one‐way road'

Apologia Report 25:16 (1,473)

April 23, 2020

APOLOGETICS

Defending and Defining the Faith: An Introduction to Early Christian Apologetic Literature, by Daniel Williams (Professor of Patristics and Historical Theology in the Departments of Religion and Classics, Baylor University) [1] -- among the endorsements included by the publisher:

"In this sweeping exploration of early Christian apologetics - indeed magisterial in its breadth - D.H. Williams expands our sense of Christianity's engagement with the larger non-Christian culture well beyond the traditional study of apologetics, which focuses on the pre-Constantinian era. In this way also he challenges contemporary theologians to rethink the place of apologetics beyond the Barthian critique of Schleiermacher and von Harnack's fears of cultural syncretism." - J. Warren Smith, Professor of Historical Theology, Duke Divinity School

"In its range and clarity Defending and Defining the Faith fills a serious gap as it guides its readers through the debates and through the writings themselves, and makes its own contribution to locating them within wider discussion of the formation of a Christian identity." - Judith Lieu, Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge

"This volume does not confine itself to texts of a particular type and period. It gives a full account of neglected but important works that followed the 'triumph' of Christianity, exploring the historical situations that at times might prompt the choice of historiography or political agitation as means of catching the reluctant pagan ear. Each chapter also provides an insightful and comprehensive guide to current debates in scholarship." - Mark Edwards, Professor of Early Christian Studies, University of Oxford

Oxford University Press adds that the book is "a comprehensive presentation of Christian apologetic literature from the second to the fifth century, considering each writer within the intellectual context of the day. Williams argues that most apologies were not directed at a pagan readership. In most cases, he says, ancient apologetics had a double object: to instruct the Christian and to persuade weak Christians or non-Christians who were sympathetic to Christian claims. Traditionally, scholars of apologetics have focused on the context of persecution in the pre-Constantinian period."

A related title recently appeared on our radar: In Defence of Christianity: Early Christian Apologists, Jakob Engberg, Anders-Christian Jacobsen and Jörg Ulrich, eds. [2] -- a review by Mark Edwards (Catholic Historical Review, 105:2 - 2019, pp347-8) begins: "There are many ways of handling early Christian apologetic, and it is a merit of the present volume that the contributors have followed no one formula, but have addressed the distinctive questions that each apologist has raised for the last two centuries of scholarship." Just one segment stood out within the remaining rather technical content: "Marie Verdoner inspects Eusebius' deployment of the term 'apology' and the works to which he gives that appellation. The comprehensive introduction by Engberg, Jacobsen, and Ulrich reminds us that apologetic is a Eusebian construct...."

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HOMOSEXUALITY

Queer Theology: Beyond Apologetics, by Linn Marie Tonstad [3] -- reviewer Philip Christman (English, University of Michigan) reports that "Tonstad neatly summarizes centuries of philosophical development to show how gender and sexuality have come to be regarded as constitutive parts of the self.... She points to others whose understanding of queerness - some people's lack of fit with common scripts for gender and sex - is based on a rejection of this frame­work. These thinkers portray all versions of gender and sex as oppressive and fictitious, no matter what they are. Tonstad offers a clear primer on academic queer theory and the handful of theologians who have closely engaged with it. ...

"[S]he suggests that queer theologians should not make any normative claims. ...

"Near the end of the book, as an example of the more radical possibilities that queer theology opens up when it isn't simply making a case for itself, she refers to the 'ecclesiology of abortion' that she developed in an earlier work, God and Difference [4]. She argues that the church is always the object of Christ's judgment (true) and therefore should stop worrying about faithfulness (which she conflates with patriarchy, likening both to a kind of inheritance). Instead, it should distribute Christ's body willy-nilly, as though waiving exclusive control over it. She calls this idea an ecclesiology of abortion because it is intended to disrupt (and even obstruct) the goal of reproducing a church faithful to Christ across generations. ...

"One chapter is dedicated to summarizing the work of Marcella Althaus-Reid, a central figure in queer theology who looms large in this book. This is where Tonstad shows us what a theology deeply informed by late 20th-century literary theory looks like. It looks like a mess. ...

"Althaus-Reid's ideas do not emerge from Tonstad's summary possessing the explosive, unsettling power that Tonstad attributes to them. She quotes a number of not particularly revealing apothegms ('Is theology the art of putting your hands under the skirts of God?') and assertions (theology should undo 'a heterosexual construction of reality,' as though there were one single such construction, as though heterosexuality was not also multiple and self-contradictory). She poses what she regards as provocative questions that emerge from Althaus-Reid's books. For example: What if we wrote theology while not wearing any undies? This question inspired me to wonder whether Augustine or Paul wore underwear in our modern sense of the term - a question that's simply not very interesting. ...

"The trope of marriage as inherently dull is itself dull. Getting married is an insane step into the unknown; most of the depressing behaviors we associate with it - passionless adulteries, avoidant silences, nitpicking, becoming workaholics or foodies or swingers or too invested in your dog - are taken up precisely in order to escape from the knowledge that one has done a beautiful, irrational thing." Christian Century, Sep 11 '19, n.p. <www.bit.ly/2VawrOT>

(Speaks for itself, don’t ‘cha think? -- RP)

Visit <www.bit.ly/3cKxw7n> for more on queer theology in our past issues.

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PHILOSOPHY

The Realist Guide to Religion and Science, by Paul Robinson, Professor of Thomistic Philosophy and Theology, Holy Cross Seminary (Goulburn, Australia) [5] -- applies "Christian realism, as a commonsense view [which] trusts in the ability of mind to understand extra‐mental reality that is the universe as a divine creation and coherent totality of interacting phenomena." The introduction explains that "this book attempts to prove that there is only one reality mentality that is sane, safe, and successful for the human mind. ...

"The presumed incompatibility between science and faith is the clearest instance of an erroneous approach to knowledge. [This] misunderstanding about the realms of science and faith is the main reason of their clashes in the history of Western thought. ... Within this broad vision, the path from metaphysics to science is a sort of one‐way road. Therefore, in the case of Christian realism, metaphysics is supported by a natural theology grounded on divine creation, according to which the presence of a Primary Cause is seen as the only assumption to justify the essential notion of being and the existence of universal scientific laws due to secondary causation."

Reviewer Alessandro Giostra summarizes Robinson's historical analysis up to the "Scientific Revolution" of the 14th-15th centuries, which is said to have "paved the way to scientism, according to which science is the most authoritative sector of knowledge, and only scientific propositions can render truth about material reality. Upholders of scientism do not understand that such an extreme reductionism goes much beyond the dominion of science itself.... A large part of the contemporary scientific popularization includes the opinions of naturalists, which jump to conclusions lacking empirical evidence and presented as indisputable truths. Darwinists' trust in mechanistic explanation of the evolutionary process and, broadly speaking, of biological phenomena is probably the most representative example of an incorrect and unscientific methodology."

Robinson finds that "[t]he naturalists' full confidence in the breaking down of life into sole chemical reactions often degenerates in science fiction." Giostra concludes by recommending the book to those who ignore that "only common sense justifies the existence of a universe, namely, an all‐encompassing structure presupposed by scientists, whose global vision provides the scientific discourse with its own rationality." Reviews in Religion & Theology, 26:1 - 2019, n.p.

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - Defending and Defining the Faith: An Introduction to Early Christian Apologetic Literature, by Daniel Williams (Oxford Univ Prs, May 2020, hardcover, 482 pages) <www.amzn.to/3e2prwb>

2 - In Defence of Christianity: Early Christian Apologists, Jakob Engberg, Anders-Christian Jacobsen and Jörg Ulrich, eds. (Peter Lang GmbH, 2014, hardcover, 263 pages) <www.amzn.to/3bSgfZo>

3 - Queer Theology: Beyond Apologetics, by Linn Marie Tonstad (Cascade, 2018, paperback, 168 pages) <www.amzn.to/2Xkdj3E>

4 - God and Difference, by Linn Marie Tonstad (Routledge, 2017, paperback, 302 pages) <www.amzn.to/2VaKAvt>

5 - The Realist Guide to Religion and Science, by Paul Robinson (Gracewing, 2018, paperback, 556 pages) <www.amzn.to/2UOCg5I>

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