In the last post (March 25) I made reference to this 1999
work by my friend Patrick Henry.
Previously I did a series of posts on Breaking the Spell by Daniel Dennett (Sept. 2013 – June 2014), by
turns admiring, questioning, and protesting his work. My biggest beef with Dennett is his lack of
appreciation for the power of imagination, symbolic truth, and what Coleridge
called “poetic faith.”
Although it was published seven years earlier, Henry’s book
is the best answer I’ve read, from a Christian perspective, to Dennett’s often
arrogant atheism.
The word “ironic” refers to some kind of discrepancy in
language, in experience or in thought.
An “ironic” statement may mean the opposite of what it says. (Sarcasm is a type of linguistic irony with
an edge of hostility.) An “ironic”
situation involves a confluence of events that don’t seem to go together, with
sometimes comic, sometimes tragic, effect.
An “ironic” thought, similarly, brings together ideas that one would not
normally expect to coincide.
Openness to, even appreciation for, the unexpected is
central to Henry’s version of Christianity.
Whereas Dennett dismisses anything that does not pass a
verifiable scientific or demonstrably rational test as delusion and insists on
the most literal, fundamentalist understanding of religion, Henry locates his
faith in the unverifiable, indemonstrable, dizzying realm of uncertainty, and
understands religion in figurative, symbolic, imaginative terms.
The sub-title of his book offers a clue as to what the
reader is in for. It is not a “treatise”
or “study,” but a field guide, like Petersen’s field guide to wild birds. The phrase “finding the marks of God’s grace
in the world” even has a poetic rhythm to it.
This will not be a “defense” of or “argument” for religion. Instead, we are invited on an experiential
field trip into the wilderness of faith, a wilderness with as many hazards as
beautiful birds and scenery, where there is as much danger of getting lost as
promise of being saved.
Furthermore, while this field trip has a beginning, middle,
and an end, don’t expect them to occur in that order. Thus, while there is progression in the
overall structure from the felt sense of uncertainty to the equally felt sense
of Christian faith, this field guide wanders by a kind of association from the
uncertainty of “little brown jobs” (birds that cannot be identified), through
cosmic time and space, unexpected calls to attention, Keats’ concept of
“negative capability,” human connections and interdependence, post-modernist
decentering, the non-linearity of grace and faith, to trust in the
universe.
The “ironic Christian” is an uncertain, independent,
imaginative, and ecumenical thinker, as well as believer.
Patrick Henry is a religious scholar who taught at
Swarthmore College for 17 years. Most
recently he served as executive director of the Institute for Ecumenical and
Cultural Research at St. John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville, MN. A thoroughgoing academic, he is able to cite
theological, scientific, philosophical, psychological, and sociological sources
with proficiency; however, his style is personal, down-to-earth, and
emotionally appealing, lending itself not only to esoteric Biblical and
literary references but also to popular culture, including such children’s
literature as Alice in Wonderland and
Dr. Seuss.
In an age in which Christianity has come to be dominated by
the literal, fundamentalist, narrow, evangelical, conservative brand, Henry
seeks to break Christianity open in order to broaden its reach and enlarge its
appeal—to save faith by testing it. In
the process, he opens Christianity wide enough to let non-Christians in.
“Once upon a time,” he writes, “the term ‘Christian’ meant
wider horizons, a larger heart, minds set free, room to move around. But these days ‘Christian’ sounds pinched,
squeezed, narrow. Many people who
identify themselves, as Christians seem to have leapfrogged over life,
short-circuited the adventure. When 'Christian' appears in a headline, the story will probably be about lines
drawn, not about boundaries expanded.” (p. 8)
The final message of the book is the same for both
conservative Christians and atheists alike:
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamed of in your philosophy.” (Hamlet,
Act I, scene 5, ll. 167-8)
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