God After the Church Lost Control: Sociological Analysis and Critical-Constructive Theology PDF
Preview God After the Church Lost Control: Sociological Analysis and Critical-Constructive Theology
God After the Church Lost Control This book combines insights from sociology of religion and theology to consider thefundamentalchangesthathavetakenplaceinhowpeoplethinkaboutGodin contemporary Western society. Itcan besaid that God has become irrelevant for manypeople,oftenasaresultofwell-groundedethicalcritiqueofchurches.Here the authors argue for the necessity of rethinking God-talk in a pluralist and changing context and for thinking critically about hegemonic ways of speaking aboutGodfroma moral andexperientialperspective,not onlyfromthepointof view of abstract theology. Drawing on empirical material from a Norwegian setting, the book advocates a critical-constructive theology with a notion of God thattakes humanexperienceand socialchange seriously. Itdepictsa God who is an enabler of moral maturity rather than an authoritarian moral instructor, a God who is on the side of the marginalized and poor, and a challenge to unjust hierarchies. Jan-OlavHenriksenisProfessorofSystematicTheologyandPhilosophyofReligion attheNorwegianSchoolofTheology,ReligionandSociety(MF)inOslo,Norway. Pål Repstad is Professor Emeritus in the Sociology of Religion at the University of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway. Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies The Routledge NewCriticalThinking inReligion, Theology and BiblicalStudies series brings high quality research monograph publishing back into focus for authors, international libraries, and student, academic and research readers. This open-endedmonographseriespresentscutting-edgeresearchfrombothestablished andnewauthorsinthefield.Withspecialistfocusyetclearcontextualpresentation of contemporary research, books in the series take research into important new directionsandopenthefieldtonewcriticaldebatewithinthediscipline,inareasof relatedstudy,andinkeyareasforcontemporarysociety. Religion in Reason Metaphysics, Ethics, and Politics in Hent de Vries Edited by Tarek Dika and Martin Shuster Augustine and Contemporary Social Issues Edited by Paul L. Allen God After the Church Lost Control Sociological Analysis and Critical-Constructive Theology Jan-Olav Henriksen and Pål Repstad Religion and Intersex Perspectives from Science, Law, Culture, and Theology Stephanie A. Budwey Exploring Theological Paradoxes Cyril Orji African Churches Ministering ‘to and with’ Persons with Disabilities Perspectives from Zimbabwe Nomatter Sande For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge. com/religion/series/RCRITREL God After the Church Lost Control Sociological Analysis and Critical- Constructive Theology Jan-Olav Henriksen and Pål Repstad Firstpublished2023 byRoutledge 4ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN andbyRoutledge 605ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10158 RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness ©2023Jan-OlavHenriksenandPålRepstad TherightofJan-OlavHenriksenandPålRepstadtobeidentifiedasauthorof thisworkhasbeenassertedinaccordancewithsections77and78ofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedor utilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,now knownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orinany informationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfrom thepublishers. Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksor registeredtrademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanation withoutintenttoinfringe. BritishLibraryCataloguing-in-PublicationData AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Acatalogrecordhasbeenrequestedforthisbook ISBN:978-1-032-25870-6(hbk) ISBN:978-1-032-30674-2(pbk) ISBN:978-1-003-30620-7(ebk) DOI:10.4324/9781003306207 TypesetinSabon byTaylor&FrancisBooks Contents Introduction: Why this book? 1 1 On God and change 3 2 Religious trends in Northern Europe – an overview 8 3 Does society shape God? 20 4 The changing Christian God 37 5 Thecrisisoftheology–andwhyitmattersforspeakingaboutGod 58 6 The morally intolerable God – and the alternative 73 7 The politically dangerous God – a God of love 81 8 God as she? Why can’t she be? 100 9 Pluralism challenges notions of God and religious truth 118 10 When God becomes irrelevant to society’s challenges 131 11 God as vulnerable love? 140 Bibliography 151 Subject index 158 Name index 160 Introduction Why this book? ThisbookisaboutsomeofthereasonswhyimagesofGodchangeandhowthey doit.However,itisalsoabouthowtheconditionsforthinkingaboutandbeliev- ing in God change, and how we need to critically ask how images of God are construed and what they contribute to society. Moreover, we also want to make criticalsuggestionsagainstthebackdropofthemorecriticalanalysesweoffer. TofocusonimagesandconceptionsofGodisnotanobvioustask.Formany in the Western world, religion, and its concomitant notions of God, represent remnants of the past. This fact notwithstanding, images of God still impact how people see themselves, the world, and religion – no matter if they believe or not. This is a fact even if we do not decide on whether there is a reality called “God” behind their beliefs, or lack of it. It is the images or notions of God that shape our perceptions, and decisions about God’s existence or non- existence cannot alter that fact. We focus on notions of the Christian God, but without ignoring issues rela- ted to religious pluralism. Our empirical material stems mainly from Northern Europe, and it is possible that some of our problem formulations are primarily relevant to the role of Christianity in the Western world. On the other hand, the tension between Conservative Christianity and forms of Christianity more open to change is also a trait in many non-Western parts of the world, as shown in our discussions about liberation theology. Hence, elements in the following may also be of interest to readers who live elsewhere than in the Western sphere. As is outlined in the following chapters, several elements contribute to the change in how people think of and believe in God and how they practise their faith.One ofthe conditions forsuch change isthe increasingreligious plurality. The is no longer one exclusive, dominant, hegemonic image of God in Western societies, but several, which live side by side, sometimes competing, sometimes not. Hence, the Western world is marked increasingly by a plurality of see- mingly changing, contingent, and sometimes unreconcilable ideas about God. Moreover, it seems as if people’s ideas of God change all the time. To think about such topics can be done with a basis in different scholarly dis- ciplines. The authors represent several of these: Pål Repstad is a sociologist of religion with a keen interest in theology. Jan-Olav Henriksen is a philosopher of DOI: 10.4324/9781003306207-1 2 Introduction religionandtheologianwithakeeninterestinthesocietalandculturalconditions ofreligion.Thepresentbookresultsfromourconversationsandcooperationover two decades, although it does not cover all we have been pondering about the topic. Although we have of course had some division of labor when writing this book,wehavecommenteduponandrewritteneachother’sdraftseagerly,andwe bothstandbehindthebookasawhole. Itshouldbeaddedthatwehavenointentionofmakingafusionofsociologyand theology.Forus,sociologyisstilladisciplinefollowingtherulesofmethodological atheism,treatingreligionasasocialphenomenon.1Inthisbook,wedonotunder- stand “God” as an independent variable, explaining social practices and social change. It is a variable that depends on and is shaped by the societal context in variousways,aswehopetoshow.However,wealsofollowBerger’sclassictextin underlining that a sociological approach is methodological, it is not substantially atheistic.Sociologyisapartialperspectivethatmaybesupplementedbyotherper- spectives, such as ethical, aesthetical, political – and even theological approaches. Sociologycansaysomethingaboutallkindsofreligion,butitdoesnotsayevery- thing about religion. Based on our many dialogues over the years we believe that conversations among different disciplines can be enriching for both theology and sociology. Sociology can give theological reflections and interpretations of the world,empiricallybased reminders, andeven corrections, whiletheology, with its sensibility to normativity and the need for human orientation, can bring out into the open the implicit normativity which often colours seemingly innocent socio- logical descriptions. Moreover, the intersection of sociology and theology that we aim atdevelopinginthefollowingbuilds ontheassumptionthatimagesandcon- ceptionsofGodcanbestudied,analysed,discussed,criticized,anddevelopedbased on insights that exist and emerge within both disciplines. Contemporary theology thatisnotinformedbyempiricalandscientificfactswillsoonfinditselfirrelevant andwillhavelittletosayaboutwhatmattersmostinpeoples’lives.Thus,thatkind oftheologymaycontributetoincreasedsecularization.Furthermore,sociologythat isopentotheinterplaybetweenimagesofGodthatbelieversholdandtheirsocial conditions may have nuanced things to say about religion in society. The mutual exchangebetweenthedisciplineswillbenefitboth. We mentioned that this book is a result of many conversations between the twoofusovertheyears.Wehaveofcoursealsotalkedwithotherpeopleabout these matters. We would especially like to thank Linda Woodhead, sociologist and theologian, for conversations over the years that have been important to both of us, regarding both sociological analyses and theological challenges. Note 1 PeterL.Berger,TheSacredCanopy (GardenCity,NJ:Doubleday, 1967). 1 On God and change The dynamics behind believing in God today It has probably always been the case that people believe in God in different ways. However, tradition is not the only element that determines their beliefs. Presently, the changes in how people in the Western world understand and practise their beliefs in God are not only the result of the clergy or religious teachers (or theology professors) telling them to change their views and think otherwise. The societal context conditions how people understand and articu- late their beliefs and the implications of these beliefs. Accordingly, how per- ceptionsofGodchangeare,atleasttosomeextent,outsidethecontrolofthose whoholdpositionsofreligiousauthority.Thepresentbooklooksintohowthis is the case, and into ways in which religious beliefs in God are outside the control of established religious authorities. In a contemporary setting, the relationship between God and society is not without problems. The following list of topics suggests some challenges that believers will have to direct their attention to, given that they are interested in maintaining a mode of belief in God that aligns with what is required in a pluralistic Western society. Most of these features are discussed in more depth in the following chapters. These challenges make visible the entanglement of ideas of God with the contemporary complicated cultural and social situation. Among the profoundly problematic ideas in theology and religion are the following: a ThatGodisonlyGodforsomeselectgroupofpeople,nation,race,class,etc. b That insight into what is right and good is stewarded by specific groups who have a textual source that can determine the decisions in these mat- ters, and concomitantly, that holy scriptures can be seen as authoritative because they are “the word of God.” c That some ways of ordering society are right simply because God ordains them. d That one gender is more privileged than another because of God’s ordi- nation, and that inequality between women and men can be justified theologically. DOI: 10.4324/9781003306207-2
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