from time to time i find myself jumping into a very questioning and deconstructive sort of mode when it comes to the church—and each and every time (as witnessed through this blog) it has become nothing more than bitter, angry rants against the way church is done in this “cookie-cutter” sort of mold. well, i’m coming back around to one of those questioning and deconstructive sorts of modes, but this time i’d rather be productive instead of blowing off steam. so, i’m starting a series of posts directed at questioning…
it occurred to me a couple of weeks ago that there are many practices or lack of practices that we do (or don’t do) in the church that continue on without any question, without any reflection, and without any critical evaluation. it seems that often times in the church we don’t really think through the things that we do we just continue in the same old patterns and the same old ways without any question—and if there ever is any question we smash the question out because there are just some things you shouldn’t question!
well, i’m not so sure that’s the best thing—in fact, i think it’s a great thing to ask “why” every so often in order to see the other side of the coin and truly understand why it is we do what we do in order to have a better appreciation of why we do what we do. if you’ve been hanging around here for the past couple of weeks, you may recall a post that sort of started this round of questions off for me. it was called: why we sing… and already has a great discussion going on (20 comments—it’s not to late to jump in.)
i want to spend the next couple of weeks deconstructing, yet reconstructing at the same time different theologies surrounding our praxy as a church. we’ve started in the realm of theology of worship (why we sing…), and we’ll probably revisit that idea again in the coming days with some of the newfound thoughts and streams of thought running through that post.
so, that’s what’s up… i want to go through this deconstructive phase in a productive not destructive way and i hope you’ll correct me and walk through this with me holding me accountable to what i say and how i say it so as to not walk down the destructive path yet again.
Related posts:
- can moderns and postmoderns co-exist in the church?
- question to ponder…
- church staffing… open thread.
- Separation between Church and State…
- an epiphany in church? who would’ve thunk it?!
Good thoughts. Good idea. I look forward to the discussion. Questions are sometimes resisted in our religious communities, and I’m not exactly sure why that is except that maybe we are afraid of losing our tradition, or maybe we are afraid of answerless questions, or maybe we are afraid of accidently becoming a heretic.
my vote is for “oops i’m a heretic!”
but is that really a bad thing—taking questions to the extreme. what was it windham used to always say, “study broadly but always come back home.” (gentry could probably get the quote right if i butchered it.) i think we often times fall into the heretic mode within our minds and don’t have the community to protect us because we’re unwilling to let it out and take the abuse.
ah, I was ready for a new question! c’mon, hurry up. I want to be the first one to be right about all of you being wrong.
Sounds like a good idea. Lonergan would say questioning is the basic heuristic that directs and sustains the whole process of coming to know (in this case God, I assume).
Are you taking a method to your questioning, or will it be random? I can affirm what rags suggested: “we are afraid of losing our tradition”. I have quite a few friends who have been candid enough to tell me this is why they fear questioning, at least in their Christian communities.
method? of course there’s a method! there’s always a method to my madness!